By: Tyler Stark
The 2022 NBA finals have arrived! Game 1 of the series is set for Thursday, June 5th at 6:00 PM PST. Basketball fans are in store for an absolute treat of a best of 7 series.
This year’s Finals features the team that’s been there 6 of the last eight years in the Golden State Warriors. They will be taking on a team in the Boston Celtics who have not made the finals since 2010.
For the Boston Celtics, this year’s finals appearance has been a long time coming, this group led by star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown previously made three eastern conference finals, but fell short of reaching the NBA Finals each time before finally reaching it this year.
When looking at this matchup the one aspect that really is intriguing is the Warriors coming into the finals having all the experience they do. Golden State’s 3 stars Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green have all been on this stage multiple times whereas the Celtics star’s Brown and Tatum have never been. It’s going to be an interesting aspect for sure.
Frankie Viera ‘23 is coming into this series very interested to see if a young Celtics team can win the Finals after facing their fair share of struggles earlier this season.
“I’m interested to see if a young team led by a 24-year-old Jayson Tatum can win the Finals after being under .500 at the all-star break.”
If the Boston Celtics come out of this series victorious it will certainly be one of the greatest single-season turnarounds in NBA history.
Regardless of who you think is going to win the series, one thing everyone can agree on is this is likely going to be an incredibly entertaining, incredibly competitive series. Warriors fan Jalen Bullock ‘23 believes that the series will be razor close, and will test both teams.
“As a warriors fan of course I want them to win, but I can see it going either way. I think it’s going to be a fantastic series and will go minimum 6 games but I can see it being 7 and down to the final shot.”
The Boston Celtics come into this series as the number one defensive team in the NBA. Their defensive play is what got them this far. Celtics fan Bo Rico ‘23 believes that if the celtics are going to get past the Warriors their defense will have to be as great as it’s been to this point.
“The Warriors are an all-around great team I think their offensive skills is what sets them apart from the others. I think the Celtics are also a really good all-around team but they are going to have to use their defensive skill set to beat the warriors.”
Defense is definitely the key to victory for Boston, Golden State’s offense is incredibly unique and hard to stop, and the Celtics will need to make life hard for Seph Curry and company if they want to bring home the title.
There are so many layers to this finals matchup and you can’t possibly cover everything because the number of storylines are endless. However, a few more things to take into account before Thursday’s game 1:
The coaching of both teams is going to be very interesting. Celtics head coach Ime Udoka is in his first season as head coach and done a tremendous job with Boston. On the other side Warriors, head coach has won three championships with his squad. The point that was made earlier about the experience of the Warriors compared to the lack of experience in Boston is reflected perfectly by the coaches, and it’s going to be very fascinating to see what time coaching plays in this series.
Perhaps the most intriguing storyline of all coming into these Finals is the effect a finals win could have on Steph Curry and his legacy. Curry currently has 3 championships, a fourth would tie him with fellow superstar Lebron James and it would also secure Curry’s spot as a top two-point guard of all time and one of the best players to ever play the game. No player has more to gain in this series than Curry.
This series is going to be an absolute war! It’s going to be pure entertainment. This is what basketball fans wanted to see, the two best teams playing for the championship. It doesn’t get better than this!
Tyler Stark
Tyler Stark ('24) is in his freshmen year, and this is his first year writing for the Redwood Gigantea. Tyler hopes to work for Sports Illustrated in the future. you can contact him by email with: tyler.st3800@vusd.us