THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
June 2, 2022 - June 8, 2022 • 40
Sports The Celtics meet their most difficult playoff challenge in the Warriors By JAIME C. HARRIS AmNews Sports Editor
The Boston Celtics have demonstrated toughness, resilience, elite young talent and highly competent leadership guided by firstyear head coach Ime Udoka in reaching the NBA Finals. Their victories over the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat in succession should not be minimized, but all of those teams had glaring flaws and or injuries that the Celtics opportunistically exploited. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are a different beast. With Game 1 of the NBA Finals starting tonight in San Francisco, the Celtics must contend with a three-time NBA champion with a wealth of experience and supreme ability who are on a mission to indelibly etch themselves among some of the league’s great historical dynasties. Although the Celtics can light up a scoreboard, with two of the planet’s best wing players in All-NBA First Team selection Jayson Tatum and All-Star Jaylen Brown, capable of generating 30- and 40-plus point games, their calling card is defense. Undoubtedly they’ll need an all-time great series on that end of the floor to defeat a Warriors team replete with lethal shooters and athletic slashers that put relentless mental and physical pressure on opponents.
The Celtics’ aggressive switching defense, spearheaded by 6-foot-4 guard Marcus Smart, the 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, bodied up Kevin Durant in their opening round series versus the Nets and forced one of the most unstoppable scorers in the league’s 75 years of existence into shooting 38.6% overall and 33.3% on 3-point attempts in sweeping Brooklyn 4-0. While the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo imposed his will and massive skillset on the Celtics, becoming the first player ever to attain 200 or more points, 100 or more rebounds and 50 or more assists in a playoff series, Boston matched the 6-foot-11, 250 pound forward’s punishing physicality, and by Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a 109-81 win to advance to conference finals, had exhausted the two-time league most valuable player and 2021 NBA Finals MVP. The Celtics’ meeting with the Heat was a battle of attrition with both teams enduring injuries to multiple players. But the Heat’s loss of NBA Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro—their second leading scorer during the regular season at 20.7 points per game—to a groin injury that kept him out of Games 4, 5 and 6, and confined the shooting guard to only seven minutes in Game 7, was too much to overcome
against the Celtics’ taxing on ball compression. Even Butler authoring a remarkable legacy defining performance in the series, nearly single-handedly dragging his team past the Celtics with 47 points in Game 6 and 35 in Game 7, wasn’t sufficient. Now the Celtics are confronted with a conundrum. They eliminated a Bucks and Heat team with only one consistent offensive threat each. The Warriors come at opponents in waves with Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, and Jordan Poole doing damage from every sector of the court, constantly cutting, slashing and hitting unguardable long range bombs. With forward Draymond Green serv- Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka and All-NBA First ing as the orchestrator, the Team forward Jayson Tatum will face their toughest Warriors’ offense is a bastest of the postseason in the Golden State Warriors ketball symphony. (Bill Moore photo) While they are turnover prone, Boston must convert those mis- they are one of the best defensive teams in takes into points. Additionally, while much the NBA applying both analytics and the plaudits are given to the Warriors’ offense, eye-test. The pick here is Warriors in six.
Facing the Celtics, Curry and Thompson chase their fourth NBA title By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews
Celtics’ blow out. Curry sustained a sprained ligament in his left foot in the March meeting and was sideGame 1 of the NBA Finals tonight in San lined for the last 12 games of the regFrancisco begins the conclusion of the ular season. league’s 75th season. The Golden State The Warriors entered the playoffs Warriors of the Western Conference and as the No. 3 seed in the West and the Boston Celtics of the Eastern Conferhave looked like the best team in ence will collide in a best-of-seven series basketball. They are positioned to that features some of the sport’s brightest extend what has become a dynasty stars. Names such as the Warriors’ Stephen under their head coach Steve Kerr, Curry and the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum ring who has been leading them since loudly among followers of the NBA. May of 2014. They won titles in 2015, The Warriors reached this stage by de2017 and 2018, and lost in the Finals feating the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the in 2016 and 2019. Western Conference Finals and will be But Curry, the consensus best making their sixth appearance in the NBA shooter to ever play the game, has Finals in the last eight seasons. Golden been the driving force of the WarState’s gentleman’s sweep of the Mavs riors’ success. He topped the team was the third leg of the playoffs after their in scoring in four of the five games victories over the Denver Nuggets in five against the Mavericks and will be games and the Memphis Grizzlies in six.AM NEWS relied upon to disrupt AM the Celtics’ NEWS 01154 During the regular season, the Warriors smothering defense. He has a great AM NEWS Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are seeking 04/07/22 06/02/22 and Celtics squared off twice. The first deal of help, including longtime 0 NBA title with the7Golden State04/07/22 their fourth 74470 22784 game was Dec. 12 in Boston, a narrow running mate Klay Thompson. Warriors when they face the Boston Celtics in the 111-107 Warriors’ win. The rematch was Thompson closed out Game 5 Finals beginning tonight (Bill Moore photo) at Golden State on March 16, a 110-88 of the West finals with a 32-point
game performance, netting 19 in the first half. It was an emotional night for Thompson, who fought back from a torn ACL in his left knee on June 13, 2019, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, and an Achilles tendon injury which happened in a pickup game in the fall of 2020. He did not return to play an NBA game until Jan. 9 of this year, missing over two and a half years. “It’s hard to put into words,” said Thompson after the Warriors eliminated the Mavericks. “This time last year, I was just starting to jog again, and get up and down the court. Now, to be feeling like myself, feeling explosive, feeling sure in my movements, I’m just grateful.”
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