PREVIEWING THE NBA FINALS

NBA / Basketball

Written by Eddie Huband

And then there were two…

Yes, after a wild postseason that seemed as wide open as ever, in the end, the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors are the last two teams standing, setting up a very intriguing finals matchup.

Source (Background Photo): Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Let’s begin with Golden State, who had arguably the easiest path to the finals of any team in recent memory. The Warriors dispatched the depleted Denver Nuggets, a Memphis team that’s a year or two away from serious contention, and Dallas, who despite the brilliance of Luka Doncic, one could consider their conference finals run a bit of a fluke.

Not exactly a murderous row of playoff opponents.

Still, Golden States’ offence is playing at an extremely high level right now, and they have the championship pedigree to work their way through game-to-game lulls.

Steph Curry has been his usual self, averaging 26 points per game this postseason on 38 percent from three. Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole have been generally productive, and Klay Thompson finished the last series with his best performance so far with 32 points, indicating he could be rounding into form.

Defensively, Draymond Green continues to be one of the best anchors in the game. His high-level play combined with Wiggins’ defensive prowess on the wings has kept the Warriors defence on a high enough level to compete with the best of the best.

Kevon Looney has been outstanding this postseason as well, (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write) and they’re going to need him to continue to control the glass and be a presence inside on defence against a Celtics frontcourt with a lot of size.

On the surface, it seems like it’s all there in place for the Warriors, but underneath, some questions remain.

Going back to the fact that they’ve had an easy path to the Finals, that could be looked at as an advantage because they’re much more rested than the battle-weary Celtics, but it could also be looked at as a negative.

Golden State is yet to face a real test this postseason, and it remains to be seen if Thompson can hold up in a really physically intense series. The Warriors can also be turnover prone, which is not what you want against this Boston team.

Furthermore, from a defensive standpoint, Boston has a slew of physical players on the perimeter that they can throw out there against Curry, starting with defensive player of the year Marcus Smart.

Depth doesn’t mean as much the deeper you go in the playoffs, but you still need a spark from your bench from time to time, and the Warriors don’t have a ton of guys they can go to in those situations unless they plan on throwing rookie Jonathan Kuminga out there (which isn’t likely).

This Warriors team is very good, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the 2017 iteration by any means. In other words, they can be beaten.

Moving on to the other side of the coin, the Boston Celtics are the antithesis of Golden State in terms of their path here. They’ve already beaten Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the defending champs, and the always-proud Miami Heat. They’ve also had two Game 7s under their belt already.

This team has been through the wars this postseason, and often times if can bode well in the Finals having already faced incredibly high stakes.

Boston, as they have been since Christmas, is by far the best defensive team in the league. The physicality and intelligence they play with wore down Milwaukee and Miami in the last two rounds. They have had some poor performances, but this team knows that when times get tough, it’s the defence that can get them out of trouble, and they have the ability to be truly great on that end of the floor.

Jason Tatum has shown that he’s good enough to go toe to toe with anyone in the league on offence, and his playoff scoring numbers are better than Curry’s (27 ppg, 37.5 percent from 3). He’s also learned how to be a true offensive focal point, consistently taking double teams and calmly making the right reads to get open teammates good looks.

As for the biggest questions for the C’s, there are two glaring ones; will they be able to hold up physically? And can they get out of their own way at the end of games?

Smart missed two games in the conference finals, Robert Willams missed three, and Al Horford’s legs look completely gone at this point.

Boston’s played two grueling series in a row with only three rest days before the Finals begin, and the wear and tear could leave them with nothing left in this series. They also love to make things more difficult as they need to be, to quote Jaylon Brown after Game 7 against the Heat. In that Game 7, they almost blew a 13-point lead with under three minutes to go.

They also did blow Game 3 in that series at home when they had a chance to take control. Against an offensive juggernaut like the Warriors, they have to be more disciplined down the stretch of games and get good shots to avoid collapses.

PREDICTION: This series is a toss-up, I hate going against Steph, but this Boston defence is legitimately special. Also, there’s just something about this roster I irrationally believe in.

Boston in 6