‹‹‹‹ 2022 NBA Finals ›‹ Celtics vs Warriors ›‹ The ILH Bowl ››››

Dubs in six feels like the safest bet

celtics in 7, again

this

lose every home game, win every road game lol

lets do this lol sigh

Celts in 7 feels good home court not withstanding, so while it terrifies me to imagine the Dubs losing game 7 at home, gotta do it.

dubs are such a trick or treat team they give minutes to a lot of unreliable guys and even their stars are all high variance players

celtics match up with them well they have the guys to defend their guys not like youre going to stop steph and klay but theres no matchup where youre like oh theyre fucked, i think a lot of it will come down to if the dubs can deal with the celtics physicality and size and relatedly who can dictate style of play the warriors should want to make it into a smallball series where the celtics will want to play their usual big lineups, if rob can find some health that could swing things

That all sounds pretty otm

hell yeah

Six of the Warriors' seven leading postseason scorers (Steph, Klay, Poole, Draymond, Looney, Kuminga) were drafted by Golden State.

Six of the Celtics' seven leading postseason scorers (Tatum, Brown, Smart, Grant Williams, Rob Williams, Payton Pritchard) were drafted by Boston https://t.co/luVltdBH1A

— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) May 30, 2022

that fn rules

series should be hella fun. i'm taking C's in 7.

I have no idea how this will go. Agreed this will be a hella fun series.

i don’t see many match up advantages for the warriors in this series. i’m struggling to figure out how they get the guys they want on the floor (primarily in their backcourt) out there while being able to consistently guard tatum and brown. it feels like the both of them still have a roller coaster element to their play that isn’t necessarily dictated by the opponent but over the course of a series i think it’s a lot to ask of the warriors defenders. they’re gonna have to figure out ways to scheme team defense to stop those guys bcuz on a 1 on 1 level it’s hard to see it on paper.

the other thing that really worries me for the warriors is turnovers, if they have these games where they’re throwing the ball all over the place the celtics will just kill them in transition. the warriors need to be able to turn over the celtics and get out in transition where their shooters can get wide open threes but it can’t come with them also turning over the ball themselves. don’t know if this is possible

i do think the warriors can win on the strength of steph-draymond accumulated chemistry, basically, but ultimately do feel like steph is going to need to have an amazing series. i think kyrie showed in the one game that a small PG can find ways to break down boston a bit when they have a sort of bigger small line up out there but the celtics still have a lot of bodies to throw at him. put the team on your back in the finals is kinda the last missing piece of steph’s career and it’s hard for me to see how they win this one without him getting to that place

dubs in 6 obv.

otm re turnovers. that will make or break them

can the celtics score enough points to win 4/7 without homecourt? i dont think so

celtics can score, dunno if the warriors will be able to contain tatum/brown as well as bucks/heat did

yeah will be interesting to see what they do vs very good but less physical d, those last two series were rumbles

celtics were the best offensive team in the league over the final ~2 months of the reg season fwiw

How bout half court ?

they were really good ball movement was beautiful which has pretty much disappeared vs the good playoff defense unfortunately theyve def been replying more on running, so to some extent that regular season offense got exposed as not quite solid enough but they can still score it gets tough for everyone in the halfcourt in the playoffs

i think the series will kinda have to not make much sense for the warriors to win kinda like the ECF if the heat had won. it’s gonna require some lapses from the celtics and some major individual performances from the warriors. i think the aggregate scoring and stats will prob favor the celtics but can the warriors have a few of those tidal wave quarters like the heat did to swing a few games (absolutely possible), get a 40 point game or two from someone to carry them (possible), just kinda championship experience their way to another win in a game the celtics more or less controlled? i’m having a hard time envisioning a series where at the end we’re just like, yep the warriors whipped the celtics and if they didn’t win the series it would’ve been a miscarriage of justice. but i can definitely see that being the case in reverse

i think a lot will depend on if the dubs supporting cast can hold up under the celtics pressure, memphis is the closest theyve seen to it but the griz were just too green

you know the dubs top three are gonna show up and if they dont its over anyway but all they guys after that could go either way

it is weird how many people ive seen acting like the warriors are strong favorites do they think it is still the same team as 2015 just becasue the main 3 guys are still there

something like that

celtics a lil underrated too, tho tbh theyve prob played down to that so far

yeah. these celtics are the cardiac kids. they almost threw away game 7. i hate to say it but i’m not sure they can keep it on lock no matter how well they play otherwise. their d is good enough to keep them close but are they going to forget how to play basketball or not, ihibidtae

this warriors iteration has similar stretches where it looks like they forgot basketball

basketball is hard tbf

this warriors iteration has similar stretches where it looks like they forgot basketball

― ciderpress, Monday, May 30, 2022 11:12 AM (twenty-three seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

they've always been a highwire act tbf.

steph and klay's shooting #s have both dropped to where they don't quite bury you in points anymore they're just normal good 3pt shooters instead of transcendent

seems like poole would have to play transcendently and looney be a huge force for the dubs to take this series. could happen

Turnovers will indeed be key. Dubs did great keeping them in check against Dallas. Tatum also leads all players in the postseason with turnovers.

GP2 will be an X factor

if iggy can play, boston will have fewer perimeter dudes to target 1-on-1 but yeah like you say Jordan those perimeter guys are the guys who score for you so

JJJ hit tons of 3s vs the Dubs … wonder if the Celts try letting Horford bomb away and also pull Looney/Dray away from the hoop.

JJJ and morant left open to shoot threes was the plan. not sure they want horford shooting those same shots

yeah hes happy to hoist if they let him

theres gonna be so much switching in this series hah

seems to be where the playoffs always ends up

dubs need to figure out a way to play rob off the court cos he was causing havoc around the rim last time they played. negated a lot of poole drives, similar to how jjj did. guarding poole with length seems to work well. both teams have good small ball lineups so it will be cool to see who gets the edge there.

OTM, Rob can give them hell. They haven't faced a player like him this playoffs.
Kuminga has had decent success guarding Tatum this season (small sample size obv) but he's also foul-prone and sloppy with the ball, which they can't afford to be against Boston. It'll be interesting to see if Moody can continue to earn effective minutes.
Dubs in 7 with each team taking a road game.

moody and kuminga wont play much (or at all) unless gp2, iggy or otto miss time (or if they look bad on their return)

switching is OP

I have a hard time seeing GPII get his stroke back quickly or Iggy providing much value at this point, unless he shows more willingness and ability to shoot. Who knows, though, maybe Iggy's been saving it all up the last three seasons for this moment.

Andre Iguodala, Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. worked out but did not participate in Warriors scrimmage today, per coach Steve Kerr. Availability for G1 Thursday still TBD.

— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) May 30, 2022

I'm going with dubs in 5. Probably wrong but they are pretty-much full-strength now and they want it so so bad. They have way more finals experience (including their coach, who has been to the finals a few times, vs a rookie), and while the Cs are good at defense, I don't think they've had a lot of experience having to guard 4 elite shooters at once. There will probably be one day where their shooting disappears and they can't make it up in the paint, but I can't see that happening 4 times.

did the dubs pick up another shooter lol

another two shooters

It's crazy how perfect a fit he is for the dubs. My buddy suggested that now is the perfect time to trade him, while he's at peak value, but for the specific role he plays he's more valuable to the warriors than he would be for any other team.

Yah he’s not going anywhere

Never realized how relentless he is on the offensive glass. Really great rebounder for his position

i hope statmuse cuts it out with those twee ass portraits someday soon

― Clay, Friday, June 17, 2022 12:21 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i despise them

they look nothing like the players!

i think the drawings are fun

the drawings are fun in a coloring book kind of way

anyway. let’s talk about basketball

the good thing about these playoffs for celtics fans is that they got to see two of the greatest playoff performances of our lifetimes on their home court. they just happened to be by players not on the celtics

dubs in 6 obv.

otm re turnovers. that will make or break them

― Spottie, Monday, May 30, 2022 10:16 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

can the celtics score enough points to win 4/7 without homecourt? i dont think so

― Spottie, Monday, May 30, 2022 10:20 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

tatum looked so gassed and out of ideas by the end of the series. really weird to watch his confidence disappear, his drives were fruitless.

i honestly think he was just injured and exhausted some ppl itt saying hes got too much kobe have no idea what theyre talking about

congrats to the dubs tho they were in a pretty rough spot with all the injuries and discontinuity at the beginning of the offs and somehow put it together

he needs *more* kobe (injections)

congrats to the dubs tho they were in a pretty rough spot with all the injuries and discontinuity at the beginning of the offs and somehow put it together

― lag∞n, Friday, June 17, 2022 11:00 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

wild stuff that they didnt have their core til the playoffs started and didnt have their full roster until the finals

looking back on this I am just like “steph’s the best”

i already considered him one of the absolute best ever but this is for sure a feather in his cap

there’s tons of stuff you could say about the series but my initial read was that steph needed to put up a GOAT level performance to steal a game and he did it and it flipped the entire series and he was also better than he was in the playoffs or the regular season or any previous finals. i think that won out at the end of the day, he just did it all

his 1 on 1 defensive numbers from last night that they put up on espn after the game were crazy. he was basically marcus smart on defense plus steph on offense

Steph is the most magical player in hoops today.

his 1 on 1 defensive numbers from last night that they put up on espn after the game were crazy. he was basically marcus smart on defense plus steph on offense

Is that good? That seems like that would be good.

his defense is so solid and pundits still put him down on that side. he was hunted all playoffs and held up against the leagues elite. game 4 will be his remembered legacy game for sure. he's done this before but it was discredited for injury/kd reasons so its cool people can shut up about it now.

svp is so good at this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Caf3rpNUd1Q

his postgame shows are always good, he's a really good interviewer too

the goat imo

loony "draymond be yelling at us all year too" lmao

The Dubs were chanting "F**k you Draymond" in the locker room after the game 🤣 pic.twitter.com/x1KZHVwYeC

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) June 17, 2022

i guess it drives engagement or whatever, but enough of this crap

https://i.imgur.com/TBGnwJP.jpg

― mookieproof, Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:51 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

xp isnt that simply saying that historically teams with a 10 point lead at 3:43 into the game have won 85% of the time? or is it adjusted by some measure of relative team strength? (the models seemed to all prefer the celtics)

― ciderpress, Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:57 PM (yesterday)

I mean if you have two evenly matched teams and you spot one of them 10 points and take 3 minutes of game time off, it seems to make sense that the one team suddenly becomes a huge favorite

i think so too but people didn't seem to think 85% was realistic for it still

Huh!

Mostly, though, Golden State became the NBA champions with the worst regular-season record in 16 years because they saved their very best roster, rotations, and defensive performances for last.

https://defector.com/the-warriors-answered-every-question/

its pretty wild steph does what he does without getting to the line like at all. just a complete unicorn

Steph on Drives in the Finals:

78 Drives
47 points
22/44 FG (50%)
2 /2 FTs
1 foul drawn
8 assists
2 turnovers

— Alex 👋 #WelcomeBackDeebo (@dbs408) June 17, 2022

that’s completely bananas

i thought when kyrie had that huge game 1 vs boston in round 1 that he showed an effective counter to the celtics overall size at every position was having a guy smaller than all their players who could blow past them and get to the rim and finish. kyrie peaced out of that series after game 1 and it didn't really flare up again because the heat and bucks both have a wing as their best on ball creator w/ PGs who are not going to consistently score off the dribble at the rim. but steph brought a bit of that back especially to close it out last night, boston was prob near dead at that point anyway but steph squased the comeback by daring anyone to stop him off the dribble

dragic shot 18-32 from two (56%) in that series too stay woke

https://defector.com/the-warriors-answered-every-question/

― Antifa Lockhart (Leee), Friday, June 17, 2022 3:31 PM (one hour ago)

So that's where Ray Ratto went! I've always enjoyed his writing.

there were already doubts before the start of the season when the celtics made it clear that they were going to roll with smart at pg. it looks now like having a faster guy on the floor who can also maybe create offense without turning the ball over i.e. a traditional pg might not be a bad idea. will be interesting to see if they make any moves at the guard position over the offseason

yeah i would prefer it if they had a "normal" starting point guard instead of smart but not if it requires making a really disruptive roster move

steph, ayesha & wiggins singing canada’s national anthem lmao pic.twitter.com/HG80a0tvG6

— Chris Montano (@gswchris) June 17, 2022

white and smart are both being paid about the same amount to be vaguely the same type of guy when they could really have used a different type of guy to get some different options on offense in these playoff games

yeah a halliburton type would be perfect but those guys dont grow on trees. or even a good version of pritchard

hmm maybe pritchard can become a good version of pritchard with another year under his belt

🐦[Players with 4+ rings and 2+ MVPs:

Bill Russell
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Magic Johnson
Michael Jordan
LeBron James
Tim Duncan

And now, Steph Curry. pic.twitter.com/fszYzl9nJN🕸
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 17, 2022🕸]🐦

its a nice list but steph is not the same as those guys

hmm maybe pritchard can become a good version of pritchard with another year under his belt

― ciderpress, Saturday, 18 June 2022

or they could package pritchard and whatever draft picks they have left for someone who is already good like tyus jones

Steph makes it look easier than any of those guys did.

Take another look at Kareem.

comparing across eras is a suckers game but basically players have never ever been better than they are now

and even ignoring all that steph still wins pound-for-pound

Take another look at Kareem.

Will do!

check out "lebron james"

lol gotta disagree with you there

This clip got me choked up

in the end the boston offense was just too one-dimensional. clearly the lesser team. drive and kick, try to make an extra pass. there wasn't really a plan B. the warriors eventually figured it out in game 4 and the celtics never won again. not sure i totally agree that they need to go out and get a great playmaking point guard but they need a way to create looks for brown and tatum. drive and kick too often meant brown and tatum were passing it out to a lesser scorer - and then hoping the ball swung back to them.

i've heard a couple of times that ime's general plan this season was - play elite, tight d, and on offense "stay loose" and have fun. in a way it's surprising that it worked as well as it did. but it's clearly not enough to win in the finals.

tatum has got to be rattled. i think he made one FG in the entire second half of game 6. ime's take on it is that he's never faced being the center of a defense's attention to this degree. that may be right, but isn't it also the coach's job to create a plan that shakes him loose more?

https://i.imgur.com/oTknznZ.png

the rest of the league has been relegated