NBA Finals- Boston Celtics VS. Golden State Warriors
The NBA finals are set to start this Thursday night and I cannot be more excited. The series will start in Golden State where the Western Conference champs will have home court advantage, which is a big advantage to have in a deciding series.Â
During this series we will see good perimeter defense from both the Warriors and Celtics, and we will see lights out shooting from each team. But, the underrated part about both teams is that they both can play physical even though they aren’t known to play like that. The Celtics can feed the ball to Al Horford, Grant Williams, and Robert Williams while the Warriors can feed Kevon Looney and Draymond in the post like we seen against the Mavs, which is why I believe the series can be somewhat physical, but most of the series will reside from beyond the three point line. The Warriors have the best shooting tandem of all time in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, while having guys like Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins who can make shots. While the Celtics have great perimeter defense, Steph always finds a way to get open and create a shot. For any team that plays against the Warriors and Steph you need to double team him like the Cavs did in their finals matchups against the Warriors, you need to let more inconsistent shooters shoot. If that means letting Klay and Wiggins shoot all night so be it, you can not let Steph take over the game. And for the Warriors on defense they need to pressure Jayson Tatum, you want him to give the ball up early in the shot clock and let someone else make a play. You want to take the other team’s playmaker away and that is Tatum. If I was Steve Kerr I would be telling the Warriors to pay all their attention to Tatum and let Jaylen Brown win them the game. Next, some of the players from the Warriors that I think will be X-factors in this series are Jordan Poole and Kevon Looney. Poole is going to be crucial for the Warriors bench scoring but also taking the heat off of Steph and Klay. Also, I think we will see the Warriors play small ball in some instances and have Poole, Klay, Steph, Wiggins, and Draymond on the floor so that they can space the floor and create miss matches on screens. With Looney, he is going to be the equaliser for Al Horford. While Al isn’t considered a great player, he is physical and plays the game right. Looney brings some of the same game, so he will sort of offset the physicality Horford brings, and I’m sure they will look to feed him like they did in the Mavs series. Next, for the Celtics some X-factors for this series would be Marcus Smart and Grant Williams. Smart is going to be so crucial in this series, as the Celtics best defender, he will be in charge of guarding Steph. They will honestly need him to play the best defense of his life in this series, and hopefully hold Steph to limited shots from three. Lastly, Grant Williams is I believe will be crucial in this series because of the Warriors small ball game. I think if he can play a Draymond rule for the Celtics and be able to play the five against Draymond it will favor the Celtics and create problems for the Warriors small ball tactic. Overall, I think this series will end in 6 or 7 games and all or most games will be close, this will be a battle and I’m so excited to watch.Â
Prediction- Warriors in 6 games. Although I’m cheering for the Celtics I believe the Warriors will win. I think the Celtics have a complete team, but I believe the Warriors will win due to their finals experience and I can’t bet against the Warriors anymore.. Unless they’re up 3-1 in a series…Â
By: Stephanos Mavroides