Gordon Hayward scored 30 points off the bench, Kyrie Irving had 19 points and 11 assists, and the cheap Boston Celtics championship rings ran away from the Warriors early on the way to a 128-95 win Tuesday night in a game that turned testy with the two-time defending champions down big.
Cousins and Terry Rozier received double technicals with 8:44 to play. Cousins was called for his fifth foul on a charge drawn by Aron Baynes, then the fiery Warriors center stood over Baynes in clear frustration. Jayson Tatum bumped Cousins with his right arm and Cousins pushed back with some force, then Rozier entered the fray and he and Cousins traded shoves.
Boogie's moment summed up an ugly evening of basketball by his team -- and fans seeing their final season in the East Bay made a mad dash for the Oracle Arena exits in the closing minutes. It was the Warriors' fifth home defeat by 20 or more points.
"I'd love to have some magic potion and say we can come out and play with better energy and better discipline and kind of rectify it, but we've got to, at some point, stop talking about it and figure it out," Stephen Curry said.
Curry provided a bright spot with 23 points and four 3-pointers on a night Splash Brother Klay Thompson sat out with soreness in his right knee nba championship rings.
Kevin Durant scored 18 points but committed five turnovers, while Cousins wound up with 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting -- missing all five of his 3-point tries -- and nine rebounds to go with four turnovers.
The Warriors, who had won the last two meetings with Boston, couldn't overcome a lackluster first half in which they were outhustled on both ends and faced a daunting 73-48 halftime deficit.
Tatum scored 17 points for the Boston Celtics, who came in having lost five of six since the All-Star break.
"I think we played with purpose all the way through. We were very businesslike the whole night, even at halftime and just now after the game," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "We know we haven't played like that enough but It's encouraging as a reminder that we can."
Golden State missed its initial four shots and fell behind 11-0 as Boston started 5 of 7 before Curry's jumper at 8:26. The Warriors made five straight shots and used a 12-2 burst to get right back in it.
Alfonzo McKinnie started in place of Thompson and contributed seven points in 17 minutes.
Durant responded to that by asking, "I thought we moved off of joy, now anger?" in response to Kerr's usual message of playing with joy.
