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The Warriors are most definitely NOT afraid of the Celtics. They will not be quaking in their sneakers when the NBA Finals open Thursday night in San Francisco.
Rather, in the words of Larry Fine from the Three Stooges, Golden State is “just apprehensive.”
Asked by co-star Moe in that episode the definition of apprehensive, Larry replies, “It means you’re scared — with a college education.”
Perhaps the more proper way to put it is that the Warriors are concerned. (Yeah, let’s go with that.) And they’ve been concerned about the Bostonians for a few years now. It’s not just that the Celtics, with a 9-7 mark, are the only team to possess a winning record over the Dubs in the Steve Kerr era. It’s the way the Celts can defend — the ability to switch all over the floor that stands the best chance of jamming a spike into the spokes of the Warrior wheel.
Warriors Were Concerned About 2018 Celtics
I can tell you from conversations with the principals that Golden State was exceedingly happy in 2018 when the Celtics squandered Game 7 at home against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals. And it was even happier when it followed through and swept the Cavaliers, confirming the validity of its rooting interest in the East finale. And, mind you, the 2018 Celtics were without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward by that point in the season.
But the presence of big, though young, wings like Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown presented a problem. And with Tasmanian devil Marcus Smart coming off the bench, the Warriors knew they’d be in for a fight. Though they had the No. 1 offense in the league that year (113.5 points per game), they’d split a pair of four-point games with the Celtics in the regular season, scoring just 88 in the first.
Four years later, with the return to Boston of Al Horford, three of the five starters who finished that season are in those roles, and Smart has taken over at the point from Terry Rozier. (Robert Williams has replaced Aron Baynes.)
If anything, the Celtics are even more formidable defensively.
Celtics Defense Must Be at Peak
And they will need to be against the Warriors, who are the gold standard for ball movement and cutting. According to Second Spectrum, Golden State has the fewest dribbles per touch, shortest touch length, highest assist percentage and most hockey assists per game.
Though the Celtics have gotten MUCH better in these regards as this season has gone along, they’ve spent the last five years fighting hero ball urges and over-dribbling into bad turnovers. If they want a reminder of how a selfless offense is supposed to work, they need only glance at the guys in the other colored jerseys.
Of course, the Celts hope to be too busy getting in the Warriors’ way to make it the example it is most usually.
As such, the traditional pre-series exercise of charting matchups is largely useless here. Who’s guarding whom will be a momentary proposition, with the club on offense only hoping the ball is in the proper hands with a modicum of space to shoot when the music stops.
And while Golden State doesn’t have the same type of individual defensive talent much beyond Draymond Green, it has more than enough ability to breathe a little chaos into the Celtic offense, as did Miami at times in these most recent East finals.
But it’s the other end of the floor, where the Celtics have the ability ugly up the most artful and even poetic offense in the league, that is cause for Warrior concern — with a graduate school education.
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