Getty Marcus Smart, Boston Celtics
With the 2022 NBA Finals around the corner, many are talking about how the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors match up with one another. Among all the variables at play, there is one advantage that Golden State has over Boston: NBA Finals experience.
June 2, 2022, will mark the sixth appearance Golden State has made in the NBA Finals since 2015. In that time, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Kevon Looney have accumulated 123 games of NBA Finals experience. Keep in mind that Damion Lee was also on the team when they made the finals in 2019, and Iguodala made the finals with the Miami Heat in 2020.
That’s 123 more games than any of the Celtics have, which had NBA Analysts and former NBA Champions Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins wondering how that could play a role in how the 2022 NBA Finals turn out.
“When you have experience, it just allows you to get into your rhythm (and) your system,” Jefferson said. “Understanding the Super Bowl Media Day is very similar to NBA Finals Media Day. There is so much attention and all of the hoopla that comes with it. When you’ve been through it, it a little bit easier to focus on basketball.”
Perkins, who made the NBA Finals four times in his career with the Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Cleveland Cavaliers, said how a team handles their lack of experience when making their first NBA Finals depends on the team itself.
“It depends on what team you’re on,” Perkins said. “I was on the Boston Celtic team with a lot of veteran guys that didn’t have championship experience and walked right into it and just played the game of basketball. I also was on the young Oklahoma City Thunder team where we walked into the finals and it was a bit overwhelming… The one thing I would give (the Celtics) advice on is ‘Yeah, live it up. Embrace this moment, but you have to regroup and remember that, at the end of the day, yes it is the finals, and I know how hard the journey is to get to the finals, but don’t get caught up in the moment. Remember, it’s still just basketball. Because if you don’t, then the Golden State Warrior team will be waiting on you.'”
Former NBA Star Weighs In On Boston’s Finals Inexperience
Amar’e Stoudemire never made the NBA Finals during his playing days, but he came close twice. Both times came when he played for the Phoenix Suns when they made the Western Conference Finals in 2005 and 2010 – they also made it in 2006 but Stoudemire wasn’t playing. He recently gave his expertise on how big a factor Boston’s lack of NBA Finals experience will be going in on the ESPN show, “Bart and Hahn.”
“As the games play out, where there’s Game 1 through Game 7, there’s going to be stretches throughout those games where you can see the lack of experience they place,” Stoudemire said. “Whether it’s closing out quarters, whether it’s managing the timeouts, whether it’s making the right plays, whether it’s controlling every possession. You’re going to have those stretches throughout the game where there’s going to be ‘a lack of experience’ moments, but I do think they have enough talent around them to make up that difference.”
Stoudemire also predicted that Boston will win the series.
Boston Did Not Have Much Finals Experience in 2008
As Perkins said in that previous segment for ESPN, the first time he made the NBA Finals with the Celtics, they didn’t have much finals experience when they faced the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals.
At that time, they only had three players on that team who had NBA Finals experience going in. Those players were Sam Cassell, who two championships with the Houston Rockets in 1993 and 1994, James Posey, who won the title with Miami in 2006, and Brian Scalabrine, who played for the New Jersey Nets both times the team made the finals in 2001 and 2002. Combined, the three of them had 23 games of NBA Finals experience.
The 2007-08 Lakers on the other hand had more finals experience between the late great Kobe Bryant (20 games), Derek Fisher (20 games), and Luke Walton (four games). Combined, they had 44 games of NBA Finals experience.
The disparity then may not have been as substantial as it is now between the current Celtics and current Warriors, but Boston’s lack of NBA Finals experience did not stop them from defeating the Lakers 4-2 to win their 17th championship as a franchise.
The only way we’ll know if Boston will suffer from their lack of NBA Finals experience will hurt them is how they do against Golden State.