2022 NBA Finals | (3) GSW VS. (2) BOS (TIED 1-1)

[CobraCommander]

Celtics don’t know how to put two good games together, **** has gotta be frustrating as a fan.

GSW can’t put 4 quarters together and have given us massive blowouts....this is still anyone’s series

[FNQ]

Big respect to Timelord... said it in our board thread but that guy is amazing. He's playing basically on 1 wheel and was still being impactful for the most part

I find myself really liking a lot of Boston's players. Grant, Smart, and Horford especially, but there's not one who I really dislike or think is a weak link. I guess Theis, maybe? But he's the bottom of the rotation players. Just a really well constructed team.. and there's a ton of unused potential still as well. They're all great on-ball defenders, but if they can get on the same page with the off-ball stuff, they could be an all-time defensive team. Too often you have 2-3 players crashing on the same drive.. if they can stop doing that, they will be a nightmare for the next 4-5 years, even if Horford hangs them up

[DroseReturnChi]

as long as horford is not doing weird stuff this series is easy gs win. boston teams not that good.

[ITYSL]

Honestly I'm expecting them to split the next two games as well - Boston has been very far from invincible at home these playoffs.

I said Celtics in 7 and don't really have reason to think otherwise.

[tarantism]

Honestly I'm expecting them to split the next two games as well - Boston has been very far from invincible at home these playoffs.

I said Celtics in 7 and don't really have reason to think otherwise.

Hard to see this series going less than six, Boston almost definitely has at least one more crazy shooting night in them.

[ILOVEIT]

Warriors have won been the better team in 7 of the first 8 quarters in this series.

[ITYSL]

Warriors have won been the better team in 7 of the first 8 quarters in this series.

Haha, please let's not have that discussion again. It's not even true anyway

[FreeThrowLine]

From the start of the game it was obvious Curry was a lot more focused and serious, much less of the silly dancing after made baskets, if only they could get Green to stop flexing every time he makes a layup
If you're shooting 29% on threes and 65% at the line you don't need to be flexing, if I'm the Warriors I'd be looking to move him next season.

The way the game started with Boston making everything and the Warriors looking lost, it was so huge for them to be leading at the end of the 1st quarter, especially with so many missed layups

From the outset it seemed the refs were going to let both teams be more physical on defense but it didn't seem like the Celtics got the memo as they were a lot more passive than I expected on that end. They also had a lot of uncharacteristic unforced turnovers. Did anyone else notice that both teams were struggling with their handle and the ball didn't seem to be bouncing as high off the dribble? I feel like a decent number of the turnovers off drives had something to do with the ball, it just seemed off to me

Warriors had a weird interpretation of how to run their offense, it seemed they would attack the basket more often when Williams was in and then go back to shooting from the outside when he sat

Klay shot selection is terrible, he has no lift and no awareness of where defenders are, I'd be giving more of his minutes to Poole and Porter Jr, he was easily the worst player on the court in game 2

Looney doing all the little things for the Warriors, he gets none of the attention but he's been outstanding

That Poole 3 at end of 3rd, you just know GS practices those type of plays more than the average team and when you make one to really stick the dagger in, in the finals, you could see the happiness and relief on his face and Curry's as they'd set such a big gap to the start of the 4th it was extremely unlikely to have a meltdown like game 1

Was that the Kings owner sitting just behind/to the side of the Celtics bench? I'm assuming he was there to see his favourite player Stauskas

[Bobbymcgee]

Seemed like Draymond got into the Celtics heads with his antics. He's like a poor man's Rodman. Warriors also seemed to be more focused on defense. It'll be interesting to see how the Celtics respond and how the Warriors play in Boston.

[Emhoward]

Draymond humping Smart in the face
Draymond humping Horford in the face
The refs deciding to not eject Draymond after he kicked Brown in the face
Draymond being an offensive lineman and clearing a path for his Curry to shoot.

That is when the game turned. The **** reffing in the first half forced the Celtics to play extremely soft defense in the second half. To the Warriors credit they took advantage of the fact that the refs were creating space for them on offense, and allowing them to body, reach and grab on defense.

Casual (and naive) fans will look at the score and think the Warriors dominated. Are the Warriors really 30 pts better than the Celtics? No. The Celtics were neutered in this game. The NBA did the W's a solid, I expect them to return the favor when the C's are in a must win. This will go 7.

As true as some of this is, what explains Boston's performance on the offensive end, even if their defense was neutered to some extent, they didn't score enough.

[floppymoose]

if only they could get Green to stop flexing every time he makes a layup

Fortunately for you he doesn't make them very often.

[meekrab]

Poole is the king of carrying the ball. The refs won't call it now because he is still a bench player. When he becomes a star, more people will notice

Everybody in the league palms the ball, in two decades we won't even make NBA players dribble.

The problem is that there is no way a player as tall as Poole can dribble that effectively without carrying

So in your mind everyone in the NBA taller than 6'4" should be charged with carrying every time they dribble?

[TheLand13]

as long as horford is not doing weird stuff this series is easy gs win. boston teams not that good.

Buddy, they’re in the god damn finals. You can’t claim they “aren’t that good” anymore. They are at the very least a great team.

Also, stop posting.

[sammo89]

Series still mirroring Miami vs OKC 2012. Golden State in 5

[GunnerWRX]

GS increased their pressure on the ballhandler and it created some sloppiness from the Celtics early on. The Celtics need to swing the ball and not force anything...... they will get good looks if they are patient.

You mean being allowed to physically handcheck

Smart did it too in Game 1, Steph pushed him off and got called for an offensive foul instead.

You can look at it as matching the Celtics’ physicality. But I guess you aren’t capable of doing that.

[Zvaart]

This win, and even the blowout, was expected. Boston relaxed after they stole the first, and the dubs with the back on the wall. This was a must-win for us and a maybe for Boston. This doesn't change the series, and i expect either a close game in G3 or a blowout from the C's. Still anybody's series, imo, with Boston having the upper hand.

[Soca]

Big respect to Timelord... said it in our board thread but that guy is amazing. He's playing basically on 1 wheel and was still being impactful for the most part

I find myself really liking a lot of Boston's players. Grant, Smart, and Horford especially, but there's not one who I really dislike or think is a weak link. I guess Theis, maybe? But he's the bottom of the rotation players. Just a really well constructed team.. and there's a ton of unused potential still as well. They're all great on-ball defenders, but if they can get on the same page with the off-ball stuff, they could be an all-time defensive team. Too often you have 2-3 players crashing on the same drive.. if they can stop doing that, they will be a nightmare for the next 4-5 years, even if Horford hangs them up

Agreed on Williams. When Smart fell into his knee (mcl?)I was pretty stunned he was able to continue playing.

[BoatsNZones]

Is Tatum's -36 an NBA Finals record?

Genuine question.

[Mrakar]

As a neutral fan, i had a feeling that Boston was much better team in first half. Because of stupid mistakes, mostly turnovers, they couldn't get away from Warriors when they should. Of course Warriors used that and blitzed them in 3rd.
Even though im was a Warriors believer from the start of the Season (had them 50-50 with the Suns), the eyetest says me that they can't beat Boston if Boston doesn't beat themselves like they did today.
Don't get me wrong, Warriors have a lot of room for improvment, especially Klay's offense. They had like 5-6 missed layups in first 2 and half quarters but it still doesnt look like enough for me.
Refs were clearly allowing Warriors to play more agressive in first half, which will not happen in Boston. I expect Boston to win game 3 and then we will see if Warriors can get one "champs game" in game 4.

[LewisnotMiller]

It felt like the Warriors figured something out about how to attack the Celtics defense with the high Pick & Rolls they were running. Celts didn’t seem to have an answer for that defensively.

It's not so much that we can't...I've seen us play plenty against high pick and roll, it's a pretty common attack.
It's more that it's not a general GSW tactic, and we seem poorly prepared for it.

We were expecting more motion, and instead GSW made a pretty simple (but major) adjustment, and ran a stack of pick and roll. When Curry is part of that action in particular, you can't have guys like Theis (as an example) dropping. Heck, you can't even have him switching, but watching for the drive. You need to get high on it, at least, and blitz on occasion.
We have also typically done more offball switching when faced with pick and roll heavy teams, but the part of the game I saw (not all of it, perhaps mercifully) we did less of that than I'm used to.

I like how switchy our team is these days, but against GSW, we can't pretend that all defenders are equal.