NBA Finals – 2022 Celtics vs Warriors
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to our final series matchup breakdown, Celtics vs Warriors for the 2022 NBA Championship. I’m going to let you know right here that my opinion is the minority opinion these days. I believe the Celtics will beat the Warriors, likely in 7 games.
Now I know what you’re thinking, the Warriors have all the firepower and experience. The starting 5 for the Warriors have something like 140 Finals game appearances between them while the starting 5 for the Celtics have none. Steph Curry is a phenom while Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have something to prove. Andrew Wiggins is playing the best ball of his career and the Warriors’ supporting cast is capable and contributes meaningful minutes. They are coached by a veteran, proven, winningest coach in history and the organization is world class.
I know. I know all that already and I concede all those points but I still believe the Celtics are going to win and here’s why. Because right now, they are the better team. When I look at the list of Warriors strengths, I believe most people are thinking about them 4-5 years ago, before all the injuries and all the years. Sure all of those items are still in place but none of them today are what they were 4-5 years ago. Sure Steph is still phenomenal, but he is not the phenom he was once. It is also fair to say that over the years, teams have found the key to locking Steph off his game in the Finals. So Don’t expect him to be at his best in any case. Klay and Draymond might want to prove something this year but frankly, they aren’t the same players that last won a championship 5 years ago. Between the injuries and the years, their best days are behind both of them.
As for the Celtics themselves, it was a tale of 2 halves of the season and they finished the second half with the best record in basketball. They learned how to win games that regularly seemed lost. By the end of the regular season, they had become the best defensive team in the league and Marcus Smart was voted Defensive Player of the year. Defense wins Championships. At the start of the playoffs, they were the best team in the NBA.
Next, they took the most difficult route to the Finals. Starting with a sweep of a Brooklyn Nets team that could well have advanced to the Finals themselves, the Celtics then dispatched the defending Champion Bucks before besting the Heat in the Conference Finals.
Any of these opponents might have been good enough to beat the Warriors this season. The 2021-2022 NBA season did not feature the tough Western Conference leaders we normally expect and with the mercurial Suns bowing out to Dallas in the second round, the Warriors had an easy path to the Finals. Easy enough it seems to have fooled the pundits into thinking they were still the same old Championship Warriors. But they are not.
Instead, this year it will the turn of Tatum and Brown and Smart with a major side order of Horford.