2022 NBA Finals - Game 4 | Golden State Warriors vs. Boston Celtics (TIED 2-2)

[2weekswithpay]

Saw people mentioning this play so I wanted to show the entire possession. Tatum didn't play well but this particular possession is an example of bad spacing more so than anything about Tatum. The Celtics get the switch and Tatum gets downhill but White is sitting in the paint. An easy help rotation by Poole completely shut down the play.

[TrueFan420]

I don't understand the Celtic's strategy here, letting Curry run wild is not working for them, they should be easily winning this series and it's 2-2 with GS regaining home court advantage.

GS only has one primary ball handler, Steph Curry. If you take the ball out of his hands the Warriors are dead in the water, who is going to run the offence? Seems like a no-brainer that if the opposing team has exactly one decent PG/initiator/creator on their entire team you would just trap the hell out of that guy and force other players to make plays.

I don’t think you understand our team or offense if you think we only have on primary ball handler.

That's what I've seen watching them the entire playoffs, they fall apart when Curry sits because they have no one else who can create their own shot or create for others. Steph is absolutely carrying the Warriors on his back, why not throw some half court traps at him to take the ball out of his hands once in awhile? Make someone else be a creator.

Primary ball handler and someone who creates a shot for themselves are two different things. You’re also forgetting about Poole and Dray who are absolutely ball handlers. Poole can create shots for himself or others. Dray can for others but needs the right blend of players around him.

[MindState]

Rob Williams could barely move on that last play. Is he okay? If hes gonna guard like that the Warriors have got to be attacking him every time down the court.

I heard on Lowe's post game podcast that he saw Robert Williams ask out of the game in the 4th quarter after tweaking the injured knee again. If Williams can't play anymore that is going to be a huge blow to the Celtics. Dude is a huge beast and my pick for DPOY.

Timelord is by far the Celtics most important player. I dont even think its close.

[jokeboy86]

People think of Wiggins as some scrub and I have no idea why. Golden State gets swept without him and all of his intangibles he brings.

Wiggins has never been a scrub in his NBA career. He's just overpaid and a disappointment for #1 overall draft pick. Even when he was at his best this year does anybody think Wiggins is capable of being the best or 2nd best player on a contender or let alone a non-play-in playoff team. Again if you're a #1 overall pick and you have no shot of being top 5 player at your position, you're a disappointment in my opinion.

[Infinite Llamas]

Rob Williams could barely move on that last play. Is he okay? If hes gonna guard like that the Warriors have got to be attacking him every time down the court.

I heard on Lowe's post game podcast that he saw Robert Williams ask out of the game in the 4th quarter after tweaking the injured knee again. If Williams can't play anymore that is going to be a huge blow to the Celtics. Dude is a huge beast and my pick for DPOY.

Timelord is by far the Celtics most important player. I dont even think its close.

The Celtics go as far as Robs knee will hold up. The amount of extra possessions he generates and possessions he nullifies on the other end is absolutely vital for this teams success. When he is healthy, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the biggest impact player on the team. Theis can only offer a tenth of what Rob can do and even that is being generous. There is no one to replace Rob in this team and it’s a shame health issues might rob Rob of ending up in the pantheon of great defensive players in NBA history.

[xdrta+]

People think of Wiggins as some scrub and I have no idea why. Golden State gets swept without him and all of his intangibles he brings.

Wiggins has never been a scrub in his NBA career. He's just overpaid and a disappointment for #1 overall draft pick. Even when he was at his best this year does anybody think Wiggins is capable of being the best or 2nd best player on a contender or let alone a non-play-in playoff team. Again if you're a #1 overall pick and you have no shot of being top 5 player at your position, you're a disappointment in my opinion.

At present, Wiggins is the 2nd best player on a contender, so yes someone does think he is capable of that. I do.

[Bobbymcgee]

I think whichever team wins the next game wins the title. Too much pressure on the team that loses to have to win two in a row.

[LukaTheGOAT]

Net ratings after 4 games:
Looney +17.0
Rob +8.2
Wiggins +5.2
Curry +4.5
OPJ +4.5
Brown +4.3
GP2 +3.2
Green +1.1
Klay -1.5
Tatum -3.0
Smart -4.5
Horford -5.7
White -9.2
Poole -10.8
Grant -14.1

[10DayContract]

Net ratings after 4 games:
Looney +17.0
Rob +8.2
Wiggins +5.2
Curry +4.5
OPJ +4.5
Brown +4.3
GP2 +3.2
Green +1.1
Klay -1.5
Tatum -3.0
Smart -4.5
Horford -5.7
White -9.2
Poole -10.8
Grant -14.1

How is this series tied with numbers like that?

[xdrta+]

Net ratings after 4 games:
Looney +17.0
Rob +8.2
Wiggins +5.2
Curry +4.5
OPJ +4.5
Brown +4.3
GP2 +3.2
Green +1.1
Klay -1.5
Tatum -3.0
Smart -4.5
Horford -5.7
White -9.2
Poole -10.8
Grant -14.1

How is this series tied with numbers like that?

Net ratings after 4 games:
Looney +17.0
Rob +8.2
Wiggins +5.2
Curry +4.5
OPJ +4.5
Brown +4.3
GP2 +3.2
Green +1.1
Klay -1.5
Tatum -3.0
Smart -4.5
Horford -5.7
White -9.2
Poole -10.8
Grant -14.1

How is this series tied with numbers like that?

Maybe those numbers aren't that meaningful?

[robbie84]

I'm reading about how this or that player are crucial to the Celtics winning the series.
But as bizarre as it sounds, the semi-drop coverage is the Celtics strategy to 'contain' the Warriors offense.
Because the idea is to let Curry take as many shots as he wants- try to contest them, make them somewhat difficult-and even if he shoots 40% to 50% from three they are still in the game because no one else is firing on GSW and no one else really gets it going offensively.

What's killing the Celtics is turnovers and points off turnovers and rebound/2nd shot opps for them. Curry getting 10 rebounds should never happen.
In game 2 they scored 33 points off 19 turnovers.
In game 4 the C's had 16 turnovers that led to 19 points.
The Celtics are beating themselves with things they can control like bad passes, skip passes, not communicating on offense and reducing spacing.

The Celtics record in the playoffs with 15 or less turnovers is 13 wins 2 losses. Their record with 16 or more turnovers is 1 win and 6 losses.

Curry can score 40 ppg on 50% shooting, but If the Celtics look after the ball, they probably still win a championship- doesn't really matter who has a bad night.

[CS707]

Both teams had 16 turnovers game 4 and the Celtics came out plus 2 on points off turnovers. Both teams are prone to turning the ball over. Taking care of the ball really isn’t an advantage/disadvantage for either team.

[cam24thomas]

This is one of the most unpredictable series of all-time, because Boston have a couple of guys capable of scoring 40+, and GS have Curry (I'm assuming Klay isn't able to do it anymore).
Nobody knows which player will do it, on any given night....

[darkse1d]

Hate to say it but Celtics choked just like bucks did in their series against the Celtics up 2-1 at home.

While I don’t doubt that Celtics can win on the road against the warriors, I think they blew their chance. Warriors just got too much championship DNA and unless the Celtics can figure out how to stop Steph , the series is over in 6.

[HiRez]

GSW just won - barely won and Bostons offense wasn’t there… man Boston has to feel good about this series

The thing is, the Warriors didn’t play their A game either, not even close. Hell, that wasn’t even Steph’s best possible game.

[celticfan42487]

Saw people mentioning this play so I wanted to show the entire possession. Tatum didn't play well but this particular possession is an example of bad spacing more so than anything about Tatum. The Celtics get the switch and Tatum gets downhill but White is sitting in the paint. An easy help rotation by Poole completely shut down the play.

It is strange offense, but it did result in a open stop and pop mid range shot for Tatum that he has to make.

Funny enough Tatum "regressed" in his second year because he took a bunch of mid range shots, maybe stop and pops even at the league worst efficiency.

He has since risen by getting a little stronger but also finishing near the rim, or with a foul and not shooting those long range 2s.

But you always thought for someone so good from 3 and at the FT line that he could still make the mid range shot if needed. It seems like he can't.

This same thing plagued him during the MIL series and made that series way harder than it should be against drop coverage because he couldn't expose that style with a stop and pop mid range shot that Jaylen Brown could do with ease.

It looks like that's still the one hole in Tatum's offensive game he needs to fix in order to become a full threat. He did amazing work this year improving his playmaking, turnovers aside he's by far the best playmaker on the team and probably being asked to do more than he should on this front due to Brown and Smart's failures as playmakers.

But the playmaking is now good enough... but yeah he needs to work on stop and pop mid range shots. Maybe doesn't have to become a Durant or Derozen level player at them... but they need to become a goto move for him so he can execute on plays like this. MIL exposed it earlier and this series it's painfully obvious because he gets so many wide open ones against the Warrior's defense that you would expect a shot maker to make 70% of the time but must be making something like 15% of the time.

[robbie84]

Both teams had 16 turnovers game 4 and the Celtics came out plus 2 on points off turnovers. Both teams are prone to turning the ball over. Taking care of the ball really isn’t an advantage/disadvantage for either team.

Of course it's an advantage/disadvantage for different teams. The Celtics need to keep the game as low scoring as possible. The more turnovers, the more points GSW score- especially in the 3rd quarter.

[CS707]

Both teams had 16 turnovers game 4 and the Celtics came out plus 2 on points off turnovers. Both teams are prone to turning the ball over. Taking care of the ball really isn’t an advantage/disadvantage for either team.

Of course it's an advantage/disadvantage for different teams. The Celtics need to keep the game as low scoring as possible. The more turnovers, the more points GSW score- especially in the 3rd quarter.

Both teams are turnover prone. There is no inherent advantage for one vs. the other. The advantage comes down to whoever is better in that department on a given night. The need to keep the opponents score low isn’t exclusive to Boston either.

[Onus]

I'm reading about how this or that player are crucial to the Celtics winning the series.
But as bizarre as it sounds, the semi-drop coverage is the Celtics strategy to 'contain' the Warriors offense.
Because the idea is to let Curry take as many shots as he wants- try to contest them, make them somewhat difficult-and even if he shoots 40% to 50% from three they are still in the game because no one else is firing on GSW and no one else really gets it going offensively.

What's killing the Celtics is turnovers and points off turnovers and rebound/2nd shot opps for them. Curry getting 10 rebounds should never happen.
In game 2 they scored 33 points off 19 turnovers.
In game 4 the C's had 16 turnovers that led to 19 points.
The Celtics are beating themselves with things they can control like bad passes, skip passes, not communicating on offense and reducing spacing.

The Celtics record in the playoffs with 15 or less turnovers is 13 wins 2 losses. Their record with 16 or more turnovers is 1 win and 6 losses.

Curry can score 40 ppg on 50% shooting, but If the Celtics look after the ball, they probably still win a championship- doesn't really matter who has a bad night.

This! The Celtics are the first team to make Steph beat them. Everyone else has tried to make the others beat them. This is what Steph has always been capable of but teams have always chosen to take the ball out of his hands with doubles and blitzes and he still had to perform and carry the team with scoring. This has probably been the easiest for him to score in the finals even though this Celtics team is an amazing defensive team.

[AussieCeltic]

I don't understand the Celtic's strategy here, letting Curry run wild is not working for them, they should be easily winning this series and it's 2-2 with GS regaining home court advantage.

GS only has one primary ball handler, Steph Curry. If you take the ball out of his hands the Warriors are dead in the water, who is going to run the offence? Seems like a no-brainer that if the opposing team has exactly one decent PG/initiator/creator on their entire team you would just trap the hell out of that guy and force other players to make plays.

I don’t think you understand our team or offense if you think we only have on primary ball handler.

That's what I've seen watching them the entire playoffs, they fall apart when Curry sits because they have no one else who can create their own shot or create for others. Steph is absolutely carrying the Warriors on his back, why not throw some half court traps at him to take the ball out of his hands once in awhile? Make someone else be a creator.

I would only trap is Looney was setting the screen. I’d switch if it’s Brown/Tatum/Smart/White switching. For all of Greens faults, he is excellent in his decision making when rolling off the Curry screen. His whole career has been made off that one play.

People also forgetting that curry is the best off ball player in the NBA.