Eighteen months ago, the Warriors dismantled the Celtics in six games, stamping their dynasty with a fourth NBA title in eight years.
Golden State was too savvy, too headstrong and too deep for the younger Celtics. Winning his first Finals MVP, Stephen Curry was unquestionably the best player on the court.
Each team looked like it could return to the grand stage — the Celtics with an emerging core around wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown entering their primes, the Warriors refusing to let their championship window close for as long as possible.
“We came back from the abyss,” Joe Lacob said at the start of a raucous parade down Market Street, later adding, “We’re ready to come back next year and do it again.”
Neither the Warriors nor Celtics reached the Finals in 2023, and as they meet Tuesday night in Chase Center, each squad looks quite different from June 2022. Each has gone through dramatic organizational change, yet come out on the other side on opposite tracks. Boston comes to town with a league-best 20-5 record. The Warriors (12-14) have been treading water, with new general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. openly describing the next few weeks as pivotal for determining the franchise’s future.
The game marks the third matchup since the Finals: The teams split two games last season.
For both the Warriors and Celtics, what transpired after the 2022 Finals catalyzed their directions more than the Finals outcome itself.
On Sept. 22, 2022, the Celtics suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the entire season for impropriety that violated team policies. Just weeks later, on Oct. 7, the video showing Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole at a practice leaked to the public.
The Celtics eventually fired Udoka and replaced him full-time with Joe Mazzulla. In the wake of the shocking coaching change, Boston went 57-25 and came one win away from another Finals berth.
Meanwhile, the Poole punch — and its publicity — lingered over Golden State’s title defense effort and led to the team trading away Poole. It left emotional scars, and Green’s behavior has since tailspun to the point of an indefinite suspension for his pattern of on-court violence.
The Warriors returned to the playoffs as a No. 6 and got bounced in the Western Conference semifinals by the Lakers.
For the most part, the Warriors and Celtics doubled down on their championship rosters for the 2022-23 seasons. This past offseason, though, the front offices operated distinctly. Bob Myers, the architect of Golden State’s dynasty, stepped away from the Warriors. Without him, they dumped Poole, hoping to eliminate a distraction and get more production from aging veterans Klay Thompson and Green.
The Celtics, under Brad Stevens, took the types of risks some Warriors fans have clamored for to maximize the end of Curry’s prime. Boston reimagined their roster, trading fan favorite Marcus Smart for Kristaps Porzingis and acquiring Jrue Holiday for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III and two first-round picks.
Those bold moves have the Celtics rolling, and the Warriors’ bet on continuity has them outside of the playoff picture one-third of the way through the season. Andrew Wiggins has been a shell of himself, Green’s erratic temperament has rendered him unavailable, and Thompson hasn’t been close to a capable Curry running mate until the past few games.
Boston enters the contest in the Chase Center winners of eight of its past nine games. Tatum and Brown have led the Celtics to the second-best net rating in the NBA. Boston’s five-out offense makes threats out of not just those two stars but also Holiday, Porzingis and Derrick White. Boston’s biggest obstacle to Eastern Conference supremacy is injury risk, which could apply to any contender.
That’s as everything has looked difficult for the Warriors: creating open shots, finding a reliable rotation, providing help for Curry, getting stops, closing games and establishing rhythm. Golden State had lost four of five before back-to-back wins over the weekend and ranks 19th in net rating. The Warriors foul too much, turn the ball over too often and are still searching for the right rotation.
Coach Steve Kerr admitted this weekend that Curry has had to carry the Warriors so far this season: “We just haven’t been able to build momentum, find lineups that are clicking. He’s carried us.”
The weekend sweep offers hope that the Warriors might be finding their footing, but if they don’t, they could be looking at core-altering changes similar this offseason to the Celtics’ refresh last summer.
Source: www.mercurynews.com