Celtics can’t hold late lead as Stephen Curry rallies Warriors to road win

If Jayson Tatum, like many Celtics fans, had Olympic revenge on his mind entering his showdown with Steve Kerr, he left TD Garden disappointed.

The Boston star recovered from his slowest start of the season to finish with 32 points on 10-of-19 shooting (5-for-9 from 3-point range), but he made just three field goals in the fourth quarter as the Celtics squandered a late lead and lost 118-112 to Kerr’s Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.

Team USA headliner Stephen Curry powered Golden State with 27 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, four steals and a block to hand Boston its first home loss of the season. The Celtics held a seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter but were outscored 30-17 over the final six minutes.

The defeat snapped a streak of 14 straight Celtics victories without Jaylen Brown, who missed his third straight game with a hip flexor strain. Boston dropped to 7-2 on the season and will host the Brooklyn Nets this Friday.

Tatum’s benchings in Paris were top of mind for Celtics fans, who booed Kerr — head coach of both the Warriors and the national team — with authority during pregame warmups. But with Golden State devoting extra defensive resources to stopping Tatum, one of Boston’s other Olympians carried the early scoring load.

Derrick White (26 points) hit each of his first three 3-pointers and drew a foul on another, exploiting the Warriors’ frequent double teams directed toward Tatum. His hot shooting helped the Celtics vault out to a 14-3 lead.

But from that point on, Boston struggled to solve an aggressive Golden State defense that came in ranked second in the NBA in defensive rating and fourth in steals and blocks per game. A six-minute scoreless drought ensued, and the Celtics’ double-digit lead quickly evaporated.

Tatum, the NBA’s top first-quarter scorer entering Wednesday, did not have a point in the first 11 minutes before closing out the first with a quick 5-0 run.

The Warriors then proceeded to double up Boston in the second quarter, outscoring the Celtics 32-16 and closing out the first half with a 9-0 run capped by an off-balance, second-chance bank shot by Moses Moody that beat the buzzer.

After averaging 37.5 points in the first quarter over their first eight games, the Celtics took nearly 22 minutes to reach that mark. The Warriors led 51-40 at halftime despite getting just six points from Curry, one of the only All-Star-caliber players left on their retooled roster.

The two-time NBA MVP was impactful as a facilitator (six first-half assists) and defender (three steals), however, and he opened the second half with two quick buckets as Golden State stretched its lead to 14.

“They’re physical, so they force you to fight through space, and they have active hands,” Mazzulla said. “In the first half, they got a ton of deflections. They were able to get some stuff there. But I thought we did a better job of handling the physicality in the second half.”

Boston finally began to make some offensive headway in the third quarter through improved 3-point shooting and active work on the offensive glass. The Celtics hit 10 threes in the frame, including four by Tatum, who scored 17 points in the third. Boston closed the quarter with 3-point makes by Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser (sandwiched around one by Jonathan Kuminga) and trailed by just one, 82-81, entering the fourth.

The Celtics also held a 9-2 edge in offensive rebounding during their 41-point third-quarter eruption, with four of their triples following offensive boards.

Another three by White two minutes into the fourth quarter put Boston ahead for the first time since the 8:00 mark of the second. Center Neemias Queta followed with a pair of rim-rocking dunks — including a thunderous putback off a missed Hauser three — and then swatted away a Curry layup. The Portuguese 7-footer received a rousing ovation as he headed to the bench.

Queta made his presence felt down low for Boston, notching 14 points, eight rebounds (five offensive) and two blocks in his second career start. He was a team-best plus-13 in the loss, the only Celtics starter to finish with a positive plus/minus.

Over the last five games, Boston has outscored its opponents by 64 points with Queta on the floor.

“Neemie did a great job just getting us offensive rebounds, getting us extra possessions to get out in transition,” Mazzulla said.

But the Celtics couldn’t hold that lead. Curry scored 10 points in a three-minute span, Kevon Looney converted a pair of putbacks off Warriors misses and Buddy Hield hit a corner three to put Golden State up seven with 46.3 seconds remaining.

Al Horford responded with a three to cut it to 111-107, but a string of late free throws allowed Golden State to pull away.