For the fourth time in the past eight years, the Golden State Warriors were the NBA champions after their 103-90 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at TD Garden Thursday night. After trailing 14-2 to start the match, the Warriors finally controlled things, thanks to a 30-8 streak that ran from the end of the first quarter into the second.
While the Celtics were eventually able to cut the deficit down to number one in the fourth quarter, Stephen Curry and the Warriors weren’t deprived of another championship because apparently they had an answer for every round Boston made. In the end, Curry, once again, led the way for Golden State at the end of the attack. He finished off his winning streak with 34 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists, adding another chapter to his career. The rest of the Warriors offered Curry plenty of help with Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Paul, Draymond Green and Clay Thompson all hitting doubles as well.
On the other hand, Jaelyn Brown led the Celtics, who did everything they could with 34 points, seven rebounds and three assists, but unfortunately for the Boston fans, it wasn’t enough to extend their season once more. Moving forward, the Celtics’ front office will need to figure out a way to push this group over the hump, but tonight is all about warriors expanding their dynasty.
1. Curry picks up MVP in the elusive Finals
It was no surprise when Carrie’s name was called by Bill Russell Finals MVP Award Winner. It wasn’t even surprising that he was unanimous in the selection to win it. This is just how dominant Curry’s performance is in the six-game series. His blast of 43 points in Game 4 is the only reason the Warriors were able to win and tie the chain again in two games each. If it wasn’t for every bucket he made in that game, the Warriors would probably fall 3-1 in this series and we’re in a completely different situation today.
For most of the series, the Warriors struggled to get consistent productions from guys like Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Jordan Ball, but Carey stayed consistent with every win and loss. It wasn’t just his scoring that helped elevate the Warriors to a title, but it’s also the charisma he has whenever he’s on the ground that makes him so dangerous. Since he fought just by crossing the half of the field, he draws a lot of attention from the defense, opening up scoring opportunities from other players on the ground. The Celtics have forced the Celtics to make tough defense decisions throughout the series, whether to double the Curry or play straight, show cover in Pick-and-Roll or fight on the top of the screens. All this confusion led to buckets for Carrie And the teammates.
Although Curry was the obvious choice for the award, winning it is a significant moment as the first ever World Cup Finals player in his career. Although the future Hall of Fame guard has two regular season MVP awards to his name, and now four championships under his belt, he has never won a Finals MVP in any of the last three episodes the Warriors have won. Andre Iguodala received this honor in 2015, while Kevin Durant won it in consecutive years in 2017 and 2018.
But this time it was all undeniable Curry and capped with a standout performance in Game 6, where 6 of 11 went from depth of the way to 34 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds. It was the fourth time in this series that Curry scored more than 30 points, and puts him at 32.5 points per game in the title playoffs. This ranks second ever in NBA history in close championship games, behind only Michael Jordan, According to ESPN statistics and information.
2. The warriors showed how terrifying a team they could be
Although the Warriors blew up the Celtics in Game 2 of this series, we’ve never been able to see a Warriors version that can only punish their opponent when they surrender in the series. We’ve seen it in the Western Conference Finals on numerous occasions against the Mavericks, as well as in the first round against the Denver Nuggets, but for the most part the Celtics held out against such a strong Warriors side.
That was until Thursday night. For all but six minutes of game duration, the Warriors put on a masterpiece of performance on both ends of the floor to outsmart the Celtics. Sometime in the second quarter, Golden State He went in a 21-0 . run To completely change the momentum of the game. It gave the Warriors a 15-point lead, and they never looked back from that point. This round happened to be the longest in a final in the league’s last 50 years. The previous high was 20-0…also by the Warriors during the 2019 Finals against the Raptors.
That round was 21-0 enveloping this Warriors family team. The band prides itself on its motto “Strength in Numbers”. It wasn’t just Carrie going to work that sparked this run. Five different Warriors scored buckets during that run to dizzy the Celtics. That kind of depth and unselfishness with the ball is what makes this team of warriors hard to beat, and that was shown in Game 6.
3. The Celtics couldn’t go out of their own way…again
If you want to look at a stat to see why the Celtics lost this match, check out the fact that they’ve run the ball more than 22 times. For context, in the two games Boston won in this series, those games averaged turnover of 12. In the three losses before this loss, the average turnover of the game was 17. While some teams can beat these trends, the Celtics weren’t one of them in this series. The worst part about it was the fact that a lot of their turnovers were non-forced errors, with players like Marcus Smart, Jaylene Brown and Jason Tatum neglecting the ball while driving to the edge or panicking when the defense showed them the pressure.
Beyond turnovers, the Celtics really struggled to respond to the Warriors’ rounds until the fourth quarter when it was a bit too late. Tatum scored just three points in the second half after placing 11 points in the first, and Smart only went 4 of 12 off the field for nine points and their seat earned just six points in total. Brown was the only Celtics player to have a hit tonight, but his 34 points alone weren’t enough to get past the Warriors playing best basketball at the right time.
Although this will be a hard-to-swallow pill during the holiday season, the Celtics will be in the mix for the championship contenders again next season. This was a team that started flaring up in time in the second half of the season, and during the playoffs they overcame adversity on numerous occasions to get here. Even though it wasn’t the outcome they wanted, this experience will only help them prepare better for next season.
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