The Boston Celtics beat the Golden State Warriors 116-100 in Game 3 of the NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston on Wednesday to again lead the series 2-1.

One could tell how desperately the Celtics wanted this win by their aggressiveness and energy in the game. The team led in offensive rebounds (15-6), second-chance points (22-11), free throw attempts (24-15) and points in the paint (52-26). They gave a solid performance on both offense and defense. 

Jaylen Brown continued to explode early by scoring 17 points, five rebounds and three assists in the first quarter. He changed the opponent's defensive pattern with his efficient isolation offense, making the Warriors invest more attention in him and, as a result, fail to cover other Celtics.

Al Horford and Marcus Smart, whose offensive underperformance held the Celtics back in the lost Game 2, had seven and four points respectively in the first quarter. Horford attacked in much deeper positions and shot in a more determined way. Smart made steady contributions in each of the four quarters, especially by making two triples in the key fourth quarter.

Jayson Tatum delivered court-high nine assists for the Celtics but also missed 14 of his 23 field goals (FGs). Neither did he score in double digits in any quarter. However, this was not the night for him to exchange individual attack for playmaking. In fact, Tatum seemed to have found his way to break the Warriors' defense, at least under the hoop.

Without enough explosiveness, Tatum often had to slow down in the middle of penetration against the defense of the Warriors and pulled to shoot, which often ended with a brick. On Wednesday night, he slashed more in transition instead of half-court offense so he could find mismatch more easily. When driving to the rim, Tatum would exploit his advantage in wingspan of 2.11 meters to make layups. This move usually doesn't work in front of full-sized big men, but the Warriors don't have that. On the contrary, they had to remain small longer than usual for offensive sake.

Despite the 16-point loss in the end, the Warriors had the chance to come back in the fourth quarter after beating a deficit that was as big as 18 points. Wednesday's game didn't start well for the team as they shot 2-for-10 from downtown in the first quarter. Moreover, Stephen Curry had to deal with foul trouble in the first three quarters after he was called two personal fouls in the first quarter.

The Warriors' first rally came along with explosion of Klay Thompson shot 2-for-4 behind the arc to score 10 points in the second quarter. He carried on the good touch in the third quarter during which Curry joined him with four triples. The Warriors led (83-82) for the second time in Game 3 after Curry made a 3-pointer at 3:25 of the third quarter.

Unfortunately for the Warriors, both Curry and Thompson cooled down in the fourth quarter, combining to shoot 1-for-7 from the field. The team's offense fell apart without them as the spine and the Warriors only got 11 points in this quarter. Curry even committed three straight turnovers in 82 seconds. He then seemed to have suffered injury while competing for a rebound. Horford landed on his left leg.

Draymond Green was called his sixth personal foul in during that play after pushing Smart. Game 3 again witnessed how Green played like an offensive liability for the Warriors after he shot 1-for-4 to get only two points, four rebounds and three assists. The Celtics kept leaving him open outside to concentrate on containing Curry and Thompson.

Wednesday's win fit most people's expectations of how the Celtics should play during the Finals. With bigger size and better athleticism, they built advantage with isolation performance and then exploited that to get more players involved in offense. Defensively, the presence of Robert Williams III enabled team to both protect the rim well and switch everything. He had eight points, 10 rebounds, three steals and four blocks in almost 26 minutes as well as team-high +21 of plus-minus.

The Warriors have not pulled themselves out of the unfavorable situation after the first three games of the series. They were too slow to enter the form; Thompson shot much better on Wednesday than the previous two games but he lacked consistency; Curry was too careless with the ball during the last period he should be doing so; and Green's attempts to show aggressiveness backfired on the road.

Game 4 of the Finals will still take place at TD Garden on Friday.