All eyes were on Steph Curry during his brilliant and historic Game 4 performance on Friday night, but Andrew Wiggins silently impacted the game in ways that helped the Warriors defeat the Boston Celtics 107-97 at TD Garden and tie the NBA Finals at two games apiece..
Wiggins’ career-high 16 rebounds were applauded by his teammates in the locker room after the win, but they couldn’t help themselves from poking fun at the first-time All-Star in the process.
As the guys were getting freshened up after the game, Warriors Senior Vice President of Communications Raymond Ridder came over to Wiggins to inform him of the best rebounding game of his career.
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Curry and Draymond Green overheard and immediately thought the same thing.
“I was getting dressed, Steph was getting dressed, I think Wiggs was getting ready to shower,” Green recalled on his podcast “The Draymond Green Show”. “And Raymond walks over and he’s like, ‘Yeah man, it’s your most rebounds in any game, your highest before that was 11.’ Obviously, Steph isn’t going to say it so I’m always left to say it, but he immediately thought the same thing I thought.
“Steph looked up, and I said ‘Wow, Wiggs, that’s incredible, 16 rebounds, but we must tell you how pathetic that is that your previous high was only 11 rebounds’ and Wiggs said ‘I know, man.' 'But forget that, you got it done tonight brother! When we needed it the most and it was absolutely amazing.’”
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Wiggins also reminded the world why he’s nicknamed “Two-way Wiggs” after holding Celtics star Jayson Tatum to 23 points on 23 shots.
And Wiggins has been Tatum’s worst nightmare all series long. He has been the primary defender on Tatum in the Finals and according to the NBA’s matchup data, has been matched up with Tatum for about 32 minutes, limiting him to 34 points on 13-of-39 shooting from the field.
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It’s his first Finals appearance, and Wiggs is showing he belongs under the bright lights.
And while Green and Curry were just having fun with Wiggins in the locker room, they realize how important he’s been, especially during this playoff run -- and how much they’ll need him to continue to be aggressive as they are just two wins away from another title.