As the known saying goes, you only appreciate what you have when its taken away from you and that was indeed the case for the Warriors, who went to five straight finals from 2015-19 winning three of them, , bottomed out, and then rose back to the top of the summit in 2022, vanquishing anyone in their path that challenged them, cementing themselves as the true Warriors of the NBA for the fourth time in eight seasons. They dispatched the Denver Nuggets in five, took out the Memphis Grizzlies in six, and mauled the Mavericks in five games before fending off the Boston Celtics in an exhilarating six game NBA finals. For Stephen Curry, many have longed adduced him as the greatest shooter ever because nobody has made more three-pointers than him,, but now having capped off a season that earned him a title, All-star MVP, and finals MVP, he’s now in the conversation as one of the greatest players ever. Of the four finals wins, this one(That came eight years to the day Golden State won their first) was the most meaningful for them and it showed with the tears of joy Steph showed as the final seconds of game six ticked down. So to soak it in as fans, we’re going to recap the NBA finals that was, and how the Warriors were able to lean on their previous championship pedigree to the vigeous Boston Celtics.
GAME 1: Celtics 120 Warriors 108
It was wide-open, tense and what you would expect from the opening tilt of an evenly-matched NBA finals, but a voluminous third built a heavy cushion at 87-72 towards the end of the third quarter. However, led by veteran Al Horford playing in his first finals, the C’s roared back led by veteran Al Horford, who went for 26 points with six three’s in his first finals game, keying the 48-21 Boston surge, including a 14-0 run late in the fourth, that gave them a 114-103 advantage which they would maintain on free throws. Jaylen Brown would prove humongous with his 24 points and tenacious defense down the stretch, while defensive player of the year Marcus Smart wore down Stephen Curry, who in the first stanza of these finals set an NBA record for most trey’s(6) in a quarter, and finished the contest with a rousing 34 points. It was a staggering comeback win that renounced the Celtics as a team that was perhaps destined to start a new legacy of their own, already dispatching stalwarts of the league in the Nets, defending champion Bucks and top-seeded Heat. But as Steve Kerr said after the game, “Its just one game”, and the Warriors showed that in game two relishing their championship metal.
GAME2: CELTICS 88 WARRIORS 107
This time, Golden State held onto the commanding lead and evened up the series. Steph had 29, Jordan Poole culminated the
mondo third with a half-courter for three of his 17 points on the night. The Warriors used that 35–14 spurt to extend their lead to 23, and salt the game away. Golden State also received 12 from Kevin Loony on 6/6 shooting, and 11 apiece from Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thomson. After going 5-17 from field in game one, Jayson Tatum had a 21 point first half, but was limited by the swarming Dubs defense to seven in the latter 48 minutes.
GAME 3: WARRIORS 100 CELTICS 116
Back in TD Garden, Boston fans thrashed Draymond Green and the Warriors with several obscene chants, while also raucously rooting on their Celtics to the tune of a 116-110 win for a 2-1 series lead.
GAME 4: WARRIORS 107 CELTICS 97
This was the “Steph Curry” game and when fans players and analysts look back on these finals, they’ll say it was this particular contest that was the turning point that led to Golden State wrestling home this championship. Curry dropped 43 points while Klay Thomson had 18 and Andrew Wiggins had 17 points and grabbed a career-high 16 boards in a primarily tightly-contested contest which was blown out of proportion towards the Ben with Curry’s treys. Steph’s predominant quarter when he posted 14 in those 12 minutes helping his team overcome a 54-49 halftime deficit for a 79-78 slim advantage. He also rained down seven three pointers, several of them coming late in fourth to put the contest away, with his explosiveness and a quartet of his 10 rebounds keying the 10-0 run which saw the Warriors turn a 94-90 deficit into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and a game they would seal on free throws.
GAME 5: CELTICS 94 WARRIORS 104
Once again it looked as if Golden State was going to squander another advantage and the vaunted team that is the Boston Celtics who entered this game, 7-0 after losses in these playoffs, Andrew Wiggins picked up his team as well as a poor shooting night from Steph Curry, and had the game of his life moving the veteran and hungry Warriors within one win of another title. After splashing seven three pointers in his 43 point outburst in game 4, Curry went 0-9 and had his worst game in four years. But the giddy Wiggins soared to a team-high 26 points and 13 rebounds for his second straight double-double after a 17-16 stat line at TD Garden. With the daunting task of overcoming the Dub-Clad Chase Center, the Celtics were glacial at the jump, going 0-12 from three to begin the contest before draining right straight from downtown that catapulted a 35-21 third stanza to take a 74-72 lead late in the third first after trailing 51-39 at halftime. But with time winding down, unsung Jordan Poole launched a half-courter that banked in to ignite e a momentous frenzy amongst the fans and give the Dubs their lead back in this pivotal game five. In the fourth, the downtown party elongated as Poole and Klay Thomson knocked down more three’s to push the advantage to 11, and Golden State wouldn’t
dilapidate that advantage as the ferocious two-way star Wiggins would overwhelm the Celtics and culminated the proceedings with an emphatic dunk, subsidizing the robust fans, who had their trademark “WAAAAAARRIORS” chant ringing as the clock wound down.
GAME 6: WARRIORS 103 CELTICS 90
The Golden State Warriors became NBA champions once again, topping the Boston Celtics 103-90 on June 17th exactly eight years after they won their first, won their fourth title since 2015.
Stephen Curry scored 34 points and was named the NBA Finals MVP, completing a renowned season that saw him make the NBA’s 7th anniversary team, win all-star game MVP, break the all-time three point record, win Western conference Final MVP, complete his studies at Davidson, and now here he is a champion and a first time championship MVP.
It’s a preeminent journey like none other, after a run of five consecutive finals, then a plummet to the bottom of the NBA, and now a return to greatness just two seasons after having the league’s worst record making it all the more meaningful after reaching five straight finals from 2015-2019.
For Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, it’s a fourth championship. The first three rings came in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
This band of champions went through several Injuries, including ones that sidelined Thompson for 2 1/2 years, and roster changes changed everything. But this season, with Thompson returning around the midway point, the Warriors were whole again.
The Celtics meanwhile were denied of what would have been their record 18th championship, one that would have allowed Boston to break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.
But if there’s something that sunders this one from the others, it’s perhaps the exacerbated affect it has on the Brooklyn Nets, who posses Kevin Durant, who spurned the Warriors in 2019 after their finals loss to Toronto and now saw his former team terminate the squad that swept his own in the first round of these playoffs.
The Warriors used their two-year hiatus from the NBA’s biggest stages to “retool” their roster – adding a past No. 1 draft pick in Andrew Wiggins, who was the unsung hero of these finals, along with another rising star in Jordan Poole.
For Warriors coach Steve Kerr, it’s a ninth championship overall after winning five as a player. He’s the sixth coach to capture four titles, joining Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, John Kundla, Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley, while also becoming the first to win in four different decades( 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s, 2020’s).
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 34 points and had a brilliant finals averaging 23.5 points on 43.1% shooting, over the course of six games, with 7.3 rebounds. But it wa w the poor play of Jayson Tatum, who finished with an abysmal 15 points per game on the series, with just 13 in the clinching game six, shooting just 6 of 18 from the field in the contest as well. For the series, the 24 year-old superstar shot a feeble 36.7%, and was practically defunct in late game situations.
Boston also committed 22 turnovers, dropping to 1-8 this postseason when contravening 16 or more.
Boston was 25-25 after 50 games, then went on a tear to get to the finals and nearly claim what would have been just the franchise’s second championship since 1986. With a young core in tact, they’re expected to contend for the East once again in 2023.
An alluring ceremony story was the fact that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could not be at the game because he remained in the league’s health and safety protocols related to the virus. The redesigned Larry O’Brien Trophy – the golden souvenir given to the NBA champions – was presented to the Warriors by deputy commissioner Mark Tatum instead.
Boston trailed by as many as 22 points but battled back and cut the deficit to eight making fans freak of a possible game seven on Father’s Day Sunday. A Jaylen Brown 3-pointer made it 86-78 with 5:33 to play, but that’s at close as Boston would get, for Curry sent Boston fans streaming toward the exits and into the offseason with his sixth 3 of the night to give the Warriors an assertive 15-point lead, 96-81 — then clasped hands against face as he ran back down the court, signaling an end to Boston’s hopes of extending the series.
“We’ve had so many great players,” Steve Kerr said, “but Steph, ultimately is why this run happens.”
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