2021-22 NBA Finals (Game One)

Celtics 120-108 Warriors

Great win for the Celtics! The Warriors were up 87-72 with 1:30 left in the 3rd quarter; from that point on the Celtics outscored the Warriors 48-21 on a combination of wasted possessions by the Warriors and some blistering 3-point shooting by the Celtics (especially Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown). This highlights the one serious flaw the Warriors have long possessed: they don't have a killer instinct. When the Warriors are rolling, they casually outscore everyone they play and don't really have to dig deeper for emotional pleading. But when it gets turned back on them, they flail badly. In this case, I'd point the finger first and foremost at Coach Kerr--hey, man, how about a timeout? The ABC broadcast showed the Warriors huddle when they were down 106-103 and Kerr says, 'we're doing great!' Dude...no you're not! You were up by 15, like, twelve seconds ago and you just got an avalanche dumped on your face! Why didn't Kerr slow down the momentum a little sooner? (The answer, I presume, is that the Warriors just assumed that they'd get hot and take the game back....but they never did)

Another troubling takeaway for the Warriors is that Jordan Poole does not look ready for this. That's a problem because they are going to need him to emerge as a reliable scorer if they plan on outrunning the Celtics. Another problem, is that, outside of Poole, everyone played pretty well and they still got rolled in their own building. Curry was good early on, Porter gave good minutes off the bench and even Iguodala hit some big shots. Draymond's stat line (2-12 from the field) is misleading in the sense that most all of his shots were bailouts at the end of the shot clock, but he needs to be dangerous there if he's going to make a worthwhile contribution.

Also, troubling for the Warriors is that Jaysun Tatum mostly sucked. Celtics fas can talk themselves into the notion that he was still contributing, but his role is to get buckets, not simply 'contribute', so the fact that the Warriors played him out of the game and still lost is not a good sign. Indeed, I'd say only Horford was consistently good for 4 quarters, this should've been a walkover for the Warriors and it went quite horribly wrong in the other direction. 

Is this the end of the road for the Warriors? Well you may recall that in the 2019 playoffs, the Celtics swiped a W in Game One against the Bucks (led by a dominant Al Horford performance, as I recall) but then lost the next four games. We can also look back to the Sixers taking Game One of the 2001 finals before dropping four straight, so the Warriors can still dominate this series.

Can the Celtics do this again? Well, again, considering they didn't get much from Tatum or Grant Williams (not sure he's a fit for this series), floundered badly coming out of halftime and still got a big win, the Celtics are already living on house money for now. Once Tatum gets going (oh, he will), the Celtics should be pretty confident in their scoring. Also, I thought Payton Pritchard had a good game and seems like he's gonna get minutes in this series. (That said, over the course of 7 games, feels like the Celtics aren't as deep and their rotation could get chewed up over the long haul) 

What do the Warriors need to do? They've got to get turnovers from Smart and Brown, they need Jordan Poole to step up and be dominant off the bench and Coach Kerr needs to keep a better eye on the flow of the game. Also, I suspect the refs will make a difference, which would likely favor the Warriors, so knocking down their FT's (something Curry has been strangely shaky on this post-season) is a must. We'll see what Gary Payton II has to offer, too, if he can disrupt the Celtics offense, the scoring onslaught could return to the Warriors side. 

Curious to see where this series goes. If the Celtics can score another shocker tonight, then they can start planning the parade. But the Warriors aren't done, they can play better on both ends--and, again, the refs can be serious game-changers. This series isn't over. All right, I'm ready for ball night!