Golden State Warriors – Boston Celtics: a tantalizing and indecisive poster for the 75th anniversary of the NBA
Published on 02.06.2022
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Basketball » For its 75th anniversary, the NBA offers itself a final steeped in history: on the one hand, the Golden State Warriors, who want to extend the Stephen Curry / Klay Thompson dynasty started in 2015. On the other, the Boston Celtics, in search of an 18th crowning record under a new era Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown.
These two emblematic franchises, which will face off today in San Francisco for the first game of a best-of-7 series, are among the pioneers of the American League, founded like them in 1946. They have accumulated no less than 23 league titles. And as strange as it may seem, they only faced each other once in the final.
In 1964, at the height of their hegemony, marked by winning nine championships in a row, the C’s had dominated the San Francisco Warriors, against the backdrop of the rivalry of the giants Russell and Chamberlain. This time, the talented Tatum and Brown are given the opportunity to write their own story, after the glorious Cousy, Havlicek, Bird or Pierce, who led the team to the club to their last title in 2008.
Twice 7 matches
If they succeed, they will allow Boston to distance themselves from the Lakers, hated rivals who joined them at the top of the list in 2020. After getting rid of defending champion Milwaukee in seven games, Boston is still qualified in seven games against Miami, the culmination of six months carried out at breakneck speed. Halfway through the season, Boston, in negative (20 wins and 21 losses), languished in 11th place… Then, under the leadership of its rookie coach Ime Udoka, an alchemy was created and the team was able to move up to 2nd place.
If the “Jay-Jay” (Tatum and Brown) are powerful engines in attack, the rearguard is not left out, with Marcus Smart, voted best defender in the NBA, and Robert Williams. Without forgetting the physical impact of Al Horford or the considerable contribution of the 6th man Derrick White.
As a downside, the lack of experience could weigh heavily against the Warriors, who will play their sixth final in eight years. An opponent, determined to take revenge on fate, who abruptly stopped his saga in 2019, when Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson were seriously injured in the final lost against Toronto. It was the fifth time in a row that Golden State reached this stage, with three crowns (2015, 2017, 2018) key to another loss against Cleveland in 2016.
The crossing of the desert will have lasted two seasons. The time that Stephen Curry fractures a hand, that the team hits rock bottom (the worst record in the NBA in 2019-2020), that Thompson ruptures another Achilles tendon after his cruciate ligaments, that coach Steve Kerr s weapon of patience, after Durant’s departure to Brooklyn, to rebuild with young people (Wiggins, Poole, etc.), now mature.
The return to full light revolves around the original “big 3”: the “Splash Brothers” Curry/Thompson, and Draymond Green, the team’s warrior. Their “DNA of champions”, as Kerr likes to recall, spoke in the play-off, to rule out Denver, Memphis and Dallas. “That DNA, you can’t really teach it,” Curry says. “Our structure and our way of playing is what makes us unique and different.” ATS/LIB
