The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat in Game 7 on Sunday night to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. They will be tipping off against the Golden State Warriors, game 1 begins Thursday June 2nd.
I have to be honest, I underestimated this team at the beginning of the season. Despite their solid core, I thought that they still needed a solution at PG, which to be fair, they do. The Celtics ball-handling is atrocious but more on that later. Also with Brad Stevens transitioning out, I didn’t have much optimism for a first year head coach to take this team this far, so hats off to Ime Udoka for coming in and really not missing a beat. Of course, there was a transitionary period and it took some time for everything, and everyone, to settle into place, but the Celtics were running like a well-oiled machine in the second half of the year, allowing their defense to be the main driver of their success.
I feel like you always sort of knew the core of this Boston team (Smart, Tatum, Brown) would be successful if they could stick together – I’ll be writing another piece about team construction that will be worth the read – and this could be the first of many Finals appearances for this young crew. Led by Jayson Tatum, the inaugural Larry Bird Western Conference MVP winner, the Celtics look to finish what they started and claim their first Larry O’Brien trophy since 2008.
If the Boston Celtics are going to prevail, they are going to need to take advantage of the Warriors carelessness with the ball. The Warriors are averaging just over 14 turnovers per game this post season according to Statmuse. The problem is, the Celtics are also coughing up 14 turnovers per game. The Warriors are going to (or they should) look to expose Boston’s weak ball-handling ability. It’s been painful to watch the Celtics bring the ball up most nights, Jaylen Brown looks like a much better player when he can be effective off the ball, but with the ball, defenders have made him look like he belongs on a high school’s B team.
Based upon the lack of experience on the side of Boston, as well as the ball handling issues, I am predicting that the Warriors win the series in 6 games. They have an abundant amount of experience, all the confidence in the world, and they have the best player in the matchup, Stephen Curry. I do think the Celtics will make it a fun series, and the games won’t come easy for the Warriors, but ultimately they will end up on top. I really hope that the series is full of closer games than we have been seeing as of late with the pendulum of blow-outs. If the Celtics are able to prevail, I think we will be witnessing the dawning of a new era, a new shoe-in for a few years to come in the Eastern Conference, the budding of another potential dynasty in this Boston Celtics squad. I think this team would have a solid 3-5 year window to make multiple championship runs with the core of Tatum (24) Brown (26) and Smart (28).
Let me know your thoughts, who is going to win it all this year? Do the Celtics have the foundational pieces of a dynastic roster? You can find me on twitter @GreNBA_ Enjoy your week, here’s to the Finals tipping off Thursday night.
Jacob Grenemeier
May 31st, 2022
Photo credit: https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2022/05/8117a-16539248017308-1920.jpg
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