Young, brash, explosive Celtics conjure memories of ’15 Warriors
SAN FRANCISCO — When the Golden State Warriors look at the tape of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, they’ll see both the present and the past.
They’ll see the Boston Celtics, the 2022 version.
They’ll also see a team that looks a lot like the 2015 Warriors.
Consider the parallels: The 2015 Warriors had a first-time, first-team All-NBA player in Stephen Curry, a first-year coach in Steve Kerr and a trio of young standouts — Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — serving as the franchisecornerstones.
The 2022 Celtics have a first-time, first-team All-NBA player in Jayson Tatum, a first-year coach in Ime Udoka and a trio of young standouts — Tatum, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown — serving as thefranchise cornerstones.
Those Warriors won their NBA Finals debut, on the way toa championship.
These Celtics won their NBA Finals debut. The rest of the story — whether they’ll win a championship or not — will play out over the next week or two. But make no mistake: If there was any doubt about whether this
NBA Finals
Boston team could truly contend for a title, it surely evaporated with a dazzling fourth quarter that fueled a 120-108 win over the Warriors in Game 1 of the finals on Thursdaynight.
“It just says what we’ve been doing all year,” Smart said. “We’ve been counted out all year. Rightfully so. We’ve had moments. But we continue to fight. That’s who we are. I think over the last couple months, that’s our identity. I think it stuck with us for areason.”
In their first finals game in 2015, the Warriors erased a 14pointdeficit to win.
On Thursday night, the Celtics did that one better. They erased a 15-point deficit to win their finals debut — literally. Nobody in a Boston uniform had played a single second in a finals game before Thursdaynight.
“We have a lot of great guys here, guys that have really bought into what we’re trying to do,” Celtics center Al Horford said. “It’s just fun to see allthat come together.”
It’s been well-chronicled how this has been a tale of two seasons for the Celtics, who were 25-25 in their first 50 games and have gone 39-12 in 51 games since, including the postseason. Boston handed Golden State its third loss in the Warriors’ last 24 Game 1s by coming up with a massive fourth quarter, outscoring them 40-13 to turn a 12-point deficit into a 15-point lead in thefinal seconds.
All they won is a game. Not a championship. But a confident team coming into Thursday is now going to be even more confident coming into Game2 on Sunday.
“I think everybody had nerves today from our side,” Celtics reserve guard Payton Pritchard said. “Like I said, it’s our first time being here. But it’s more being excited and ready for the moment. Just getting up and down, I think it went away quick. But it’sdefinitely exciting.”
And Boston got Game 1 despite a 3-for-17 shooting night from Tatum, who more than made up for that by finishing with 13 assists — more than any other two players in the gamehad combined.
Horford, who had gone a record 141 playoff games without making the NBA Finals, scored 26 points. Brown and Smart combined for 42. Derrick White scored 21 off the bench. The Celtics were 9 for 11 from 3-point range to start the fourth quarter, an absurd shootingperformance.