Getty Jayson Tatum, Celtics
They are strikingly different teams with one thing in common that each wishes it didn’t have.
The Warriors — and Monday night’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals — are in San Francisco, which is 2341.02 nautical miles from the Celtics’ home in Boston.
The hosts moved west from Philadelphia in 1962 (lock, stock and Wilt Chamberlain) and changed their geographic appellation from San Francisco to Golden State in 1971, trying to tell that city they weren’t really abandoning it while not ticking off the folks in Oakland, site of their new home arena.
The Celtics have always been Boston, and that’s where they’ve won 17 NBA championships. The Warriors won their first crown in Philly and have won five since — three of them since 2015. The Celts haven’t won since 2008 and haven’t been to The Finals since 2010.
That gave the Warriors’ roster a 123 games-to-0 advantage in championship series experience at the start of the current dance.
The Celtics have no one like Steph Curry. (No one does.)
The Warriors do not have the overall size and athleticism of the Celtics, nor do they possess the 1-2 wing punch of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown or the shot blocking-altering-scaring presence of Robert Williams.
The clubs’ championship-caliber talent is simply configured differently.
Turnovers, Ball Movement Concern Both Coaches
But as they settle in for what is now a best-of-three battle for glory and a piece of jewelry that will be visible from the Hubble Space Telescope, the coaching staffs of both the Warriors and Celtics live in mortal fear that their charges will suffer a similar type of brain freeze.
It’s been talked about more with the Celts — the propensity to abandon their best interests and melt into hero ball, an isolation game where passing and cutting cease and one or more players take off in solo search of a shot while his teammates stand and watch and the opponents collapse on the dribbler.
Live ball turnovers and easy points in the other direction ensue, a problem that has seemed more injurious to Boston in this series. But that kind of change from crisp team play to rushed and out-of-rhythm shots against defense in too-close proximity has also hurt the Warriors. There was actually some of that, too, in Golden State’s Game 4 win to even the series.
While the Celtics, even in their admitted stagnancy for much of the game, had 22 assists on 34 made field goals, the Warriors assisted on just half of their 40 field goals.
Stephen Curry, Hero-Ball Hero
The most determining difference on the outcome was Steph Curry taking off for 43 points — 24 of them in the second half when Golden State was overcoming Boston’s lead, keeping the Celts at bay and, finally, pulling away in the latter moments.
While hero ball isn’t what either coach is looking for, Steve Kerr will gratefully take the results when Curry successfully pulls off the cape and tights routine.
Tatum has certainly had similar moments in these playoffs (Game 3 in Brooklyn, Game 6 in Milwaukee), and Jaylen Brown is averaging 23.6 points in this postseason. But the Celtics have exited most of their losses lamenting their turnovers.
“It felt like we didn’t have our best possessions and kind of let them back in the game,” said Ime Udoka after Friday’s loss, “whether it was turnovers or poor offense.”
“I felt like we took possessions for granted,” said Al Horford of Boston scoring just 19 points in the last quarter.
Both the Warriors and Celtics have explosive offenses, but they’re also capable of blowing themselves up.
With as few as two and as many as three games left, the team holding a trophy at the end will likely be the one that not only plays best, but, perhaps more importantly, avoids the more damaging aspect of its hoop personality.