If the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are going to further etch their names into the NBA’s history books, they’ll have to top one of the league’s premier franchises.
The Warriors will take on the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals after Boston clinched the Eastern Conference with a 100-96 win over the Miami Heat in Game 7 on Sunday night.
Despite a late charge from the Heat that included an 11-0 fourth quarter run, the Celtics held on for a victory on the road.
Boston is led by All-NBA first team forward Jayson Tatum, who averaged 26.9 points and 8.0 rebounds per game this season. At 24, Tatum has already been an All-Star three times and was on the U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Tokyo last summer.
The Celtics’ other superstar is Jaylen Brown, who played at Cal for one season before turning pro. In his sixth NBA season, the 25-year-old averaged 23.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
The Celtics bring an elite defense to the Finals, with versatile and disruptive players at all five positions on the floor. Marcus Smart won Defensive Player of the Year this season, and second-year big man Robert Williams was voted onto the All-Defensive second team.
The Celtics’ star players, Tatum and Brown, are also high-level wing defenders and have helped shut down Kevin Durant, James Harden and Jimmy Butler on their way to the NBA Finals.
The Celtics are the only franchise in the NBA to have a winning record against the Warriors (9-7) since Steve Kerr’s first season as head coach in 2014-15.
This season, the the Warriors and Celtics split their two regular season matchups, with each team winning on the road. The highest-profile moment from the head-to-head matchups came at Chase Center at March 16 when Smart dove for a loose ball and crashed into Stephen Curry’s legs.
Curry sprained a ligament in his left foot in the collision and missed the rest of the regular season. It was only the third game that Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green played together — and was the last game until the playoffs.
Here’s a breakdown of the two regular season games:
Dec. 17, 2021 — Warriors 111, Celtics 107 in Boston
The omicron variant of COVID-19 started to disrupt the NBA season in December and the Warriors were hit, too, as Jordan Poole entered health and safety protocols for the Warriors and the Celtics were missing four players, though they had both Tatum and Brown playing.
The Warriors built a 20-point lead in the first half, thanks to Curry scoring 16 points in the first quarter and Andrew Wiggins adding 18 in the second quarter. But Boston fought all the way back and even took the lead early in the fourth. Golden State’s bench stepped up, with Damion Lee scoring eight fourth quarter points and Andre Iguodala adding seven to help the Warriors retake the lead for good and hang on for the win.
March 16, 2022 — Celtics 110, Warriors 88 in San Francisco
The Warriors entered the night optimistic that they were finally getting healthy. Draymond Green was back for his second game after missing more than a month with a lower back issue. Klay Thompson was seeing his minutes get closer to normal. Everything was looking up.
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And then Smart crashed into Curry’s legs in the second quarter.
Curry didn’t return and the Warriors’ offense sputtered in a dismal first half, only scoring 32 points by the break and trailing by 16. Poole exploded in the third quarter, scoring 19 points to try and get the Warriors back into the game. But the Celtics’ defense clamped down again in the fourth, holding Golden State to 6-of-18 shooting in the final frame to cruise to the win.
Now, as May turns to June, both teams have dealt with injury issues during the playoff run. Golden State has been missing Andre Iguodala and Gary Payton II for most of the last two rounds, and issues with both feet have caused Otto Porter Jr. to miss games.
Meanwhile, Boston has had Smart miss multiple games with a variety of injuries, Williams missed a game of the East finals with knee soreness and Al Horford missed a game while in health and safety protocols.
But the time off before the start of the NBA Finals could allow everyone to heal up and be ready for the final push for a championship.