NBA Finals Preview

Two championship caliber teams will look to start the journey to add another piece to the
hardware as The Boston Celtics will face the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.
The Celtics on the road this season have been nothing but road warriors with a record of 7-2
when playing away. However, the Warriors at home haven’t lost a single home game all season
(9-0) and look to continue that streak in the Finals.
The last time these two franchises met in the Finals was in 1964 when the giants of Bill Russell
and Wilt Chamberlain roamed the basketball world. Now, two new stars look to continue the
tradition in this rare postseason matchup that has only happened four times. Celtics forward
Jayson Tatum and Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Each player will be leading their team into a Finals matchup that might be based solely on
defense. The Warriors defensive rating in the postseason this year is ranked sixth (111.0)
according to thescore.com, the Celtics are second (105.1).
The Warriors, whose players have combined for 123 games of Finals experience compared to a
young Celtics group with zero, is in their sixth finals in the past eight years. Boston, looking for
banner 18, feels like that the experience from this year will be enough to look past that.
“Once you get out the initial media circus, intensity and how much more everything is
exaggerated, obviously it’s not so much different when you get on the court,” said Celtics head
coach Ime Udoka.“We have guys who are young, but have been through a few eastern
conference finals already and our path this year…I think that prepared us more than anything..”
Each team has won this year on the other's court, splitting the regular season series 1-1. In their
last meeting on March 16th, Celtics guard Jaylen Brown led Boston to a 110-88 victory on the
road as he led in scoring that night with 26 points off of 42.9% from the field. In order to win on
the road again, Brown and others will need to be efficient all June.
Injuries
- With Celtics guard Marcus Smart straying away from the injury report, Boston seems to be
getting back in health with only center Robert Williams III listed as questionable.

- Warriors guard Gary Payton II is listed as questionable for the first time since game 2 of the
Western Conference semifinals after breaking his elbow due to a controversial foul by Memphis
guard Dillon Brooks.

Predictions
Today's matchup in game one will be a defensive masterclass. As fans look to see the Warriors
score in rainbow action from behind the arc, I would suggest that fans should take the under. The
Celtics’ perimeter defense has been incredible, allowing the lowest frequency of wide-open 3-
point attempts this postseason (14.6%) while limiting opponents to 32.2% on 3-point shots
overall. With the Celtics going into this series in full speed after taking game seven from Miami
on Sunday, I expect Golden State to be catched off guard as they’ve been resting for the past
week Thursday. Celtics take this win on the road and go up 1-0 in the series.

Written by- Brandon Hernandez

NBA Finals Preview