Just reading about the Celtics having the 2nd lowest defensive # in the playoffs at 102.__ - but having seen several of their games against the Bucks and the Heat, those teams could not BUY a shot for long stretches. So that 2nd ranked playoff defense seems more than a bit like BS to me. Less to do with their defense and more to do with the weakness of their opponents' offenses. And they swept the Nets in the first round, which was not all that difficult.
The ECF is the series that gives me the most skepticism about the Celtic's defense. The Heat had Bam mostly healthy, Jimmy Butler on one good leg, Lowery on one good leg (maybe, for 1/2 the games), and Herro on one good leg. The Celtics held the Heat to 80 points in the 2 games that the Heat got literally nothing out of Lowry and Herro but otherwise the Heat managed 100 points or more and Jimmy Butler, Bam + scrubs seems like something less on paper than Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, Green, and Looney or Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, OPJ, Green if Kerr wants an extra shooter.
Don’t wanna talk about prediction or schedule, I want to enjoy fully the history of what I hope will be a challenging and heart stopping series, because the last thing I want to think about it is what I will feel when there will be four months of no NBA in front of me.
Ciao Dubs. I have watched the Colin Cowherd (doesn’t his surname sound weird for you? I mean ‘mandria di mucche’ does in Italian) podcast, hosting Dray. It was a clash of journalism titans. I love Colin (and I’m sorry he’s so almost full on Football), and I love Dray when he has an analysis challenger. When will we see a session with Pat Beverley?
It’s pretty weird and interesting that Dray is doing this. I know he’s not going deep into Xs and Os, but I’m remembering when I cornered Ron Adams before a Finals game and he refused to answer anything strategic, saying Steve Kerr forbade it.
Prediction: dubs blitz the Celtics in the 3rd quarter game 1 and win a blowout. Game 2 will cause some lemon booty as Celtics take a double digit lead into the middle of the 3rd, then Steph and Klay trade 3s and ultimately win a relatively comfortable game and put the pressure on Boston down 0-2
I usually have a strong feeling about a teams chances against the Warriors. The Celtics I can’t get a read on them. I didn’t watch very many of their games, but I knew from when we played them last they were a very cohesive team. I just can’t tell what will happen. I could see them taking game 1 but I could also see us punching them in the mouth from the tip. I honestly feel our vet savvy, sheer will, timely defense and playmaking will have us come out on top in 5 games, maybe six. I just see no way barring injury these Warriors leave without a ring. They know what is on the line.
Just Read Monique’s letter to GPII in the athletic, makes me proud to be a dubs fan and gives another reason to hope for GP2 to get at least a little run in the finals. So awesome to see a guy work so hard to make the league, and in his first real year turn around and use his position to help give some kids hope. I know there are a lot of guys in the NBA that try to help out their communities in different ways, so shout out to them too - but so great to see GP2 do some good deeds as well. My only hope is he can add some cash to his foundation by picking Tarun’s pocket a few times.
Match-ups aside, one of the things I am looking forward to is seeing how the Celtics react the Warriors unwavering desire to win a game. Our cores ability to stay locked in 48 minutes should be considered legendary, and it will be fun to see how the Celtics react to to relentless pressure.
How the Celtics react over the course of seven games could decide the series. Mind you, when I say this, its 5-8 minute lapses that can decide the series. It's not like I'm imagining the Warriors can break the Celtics but create just enough winning moments for themself that it is enough.
Blow out wins are great and all, but the true deciders are definitely those 5-8 minute lapses where the dubs find their cohesive rhythm and ice the game. It's been really fun seeing them in the clutch this postseason, especially at home
Even though he doesn't have a long track record RW3 got a lot of deserved publicity as a major defensive force in the 2nd half of the season. They turned him into a Draymond style free safety and they became a historic level defense.
Looney is more subtle. Solid near the rim, excellent rebounder, and extremely effective as a perimeter defender.
To be fair to Celtics fans I think most non-Warriors/Grizz/Mavs fans would say that RW3 is quite a bit better. But then you play him and are like, "Wow. We can't score around that guy."
Looney is deceptive because he doesn't have great hops (probably due to his past injuries), whereas RWIII does. But Loon is super savvy and makes a habit of doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.
Looney, Steph, Draymond, Andrew, and now Klay. All underrated defenders for their quality. Steph’s greatest trick is convincing the NBA that the warriors win because of his offensive brilliance. Yes, it’s there, but we win by locking down opponents first and then Steph breaks their spirit.
People keep saying Boston is going to play a switch everything defense, but if they want to guarantee that Robert Williams is near the rim (which they do), they cannot switch everything against the Warriors:
And if he's switching, the gameplan at least early in the series should be to make him test out his change of direction with his knee and all that from Curry and Poole (like in the video posted in the comments). It's a valid strategy, the Cavs took advantage of Curry's knee in 2016 and you don't hear anyone except us loser Warrior fans pointing out his physical issues. If he's playing then it's on the Celtics if anything happens to him.
The Celtics have a great smallball unit but if they can run R Williams off the floor I think that's advantage Warriors. Big if...if he's healthy.
I'm sure they've damn near perfected keeping Williams out of the action with how much they work on it, but the Warrior offense is still a different beast and can make it tougher to hide guys as we saw with Doncic.
I have loads of thoughts about this series. In no particular order:
1. I don't see them having a great offensive series. I think we're very well equipped to guard them, especially if GP2, OPJ and Iggy are healthy. That is unless we're playing JP heavy minutes.
2. I don't think this is a Jordan Poole series. I think the Celtics will struggle to score against us in the half-court whenever Poole is not on the floor. However, I do believe Marcus Smart and Derrick White can bully Poole offensively (we saw Dinwiddie and even Bullock doing it a few times in the past series). Additionally, contingent on Robert Williams' health, I don't think is a team where Poole will be transcendent against offensively either.
3. Imo our best approach this series is to make this a defensive rock fight and try to outscore them in transition (we need to be running off makes and misses this series). This means lots of GP2 (hopefully) and perhaps even Kuminga.
4. We can guard them in various different ways. We can switch (definitely with Draymond, probably with Looney, maybe with OPJ), we can double (we have guys who are experienced in scram situations and good at rotating over) and I also think we can get away with a conventional drop against them too. I'd like to see If Brown and Tatum can make enough pullup 3s and ideally long 2s to break open our defense. Plus, we saw how Milwaukee (with better personnel for a drop obviously) forced them into shooting jumpers all game. And of course, we will throw in weird zones in there as well.
5. I don't think we can score over them in the halfcourt consistently without having all 4 of Steph/Klay/Poole/Wiggs out there.
6. GP2 and Iggy can feast on JT/JB in terms of causing TOs which will boost our offense. Let's hope they're both healthy. Also, this might be the only series where I'm fairly okay with Steph reaching lol.
7. The crucial point in this series imo is Robert Williams' health. He's a JJJ level rim protector and we saw how much trouble JJJ gave us (and even Williams gave us hell in the game where Steph got hurt). However, he has not looked right since he re-aggravated his injury.
8. They're not a great defensive rebounding team. We've been pretty goddamn great on the offensive glass. It would be amazing if we could win the possession battle due to our rebounding.
9. We need Steph more than they need Tatum. Basically, Steph needs to be the best player in the series if we want to win. If he has series that is anything close to his 2019 Raptors series, our odds of winning go up substantially.
10. This might be a series for OPJ more than Looney. Contingent on health obviously.
11. We also should look to exploit Jaylen Brown off-ball. That might be their only weak link defensively.
12. This is going to be more of a mid-range series too. We're not getting as many rim attempts this series as in the WCF. Steph, Klay, Poole and even Wiggins/OPJ will need to take and hopefully make mid-range jumpers.
Agree with this not being a Poole series, pre se, but He'll definitely contribute.
About point 9, I think the opposite. Tatums gonna have to be transcendent to win this, and I'd be worried if I were a Celtics fan on that front.
This is totally gonna be more of a defensive series. Luckily, our offense is better than their defense. And more crucially, our defense is better than their offense, at least imo
Some really good thoughts in this comment but right now I’m counting for basically zero minutes from Andre. If he does play, it will be for 10 minutes in one game and then he’ll be done.
GP2 I’m more hopeful but maybe not until game 3 or 4??? So hard to predict.
So that means relying on some quality D from OPJ and Moody, and the whole team needing to step up on offense (assuming you’re right about Poole having limited impact). I’d love to see Wiggins dive to the bucket and Klay open game 1 with a barrage of swishes to force the Celtics out of double coverage on Steph. My dream is that they over commit on the ‘anybody but Curry’ defense and Klay and Wiggins gladly fill the stat sheets.
I think this is a good take. I don't sense that Andre will play much if at all. Maybe not JP2 either, at least until midway through. I'm more hopeful about OPJ. I know Moody is a rookie and all that but he's wise for his 20 (not 19 anymore!) years, and I think we will need him to contribute.
Regarding #2, I also recall Kyle Anderson taking Poole into the post and scoring. I'm fairly sure Marcus Smart has a post game so I can see Poole being susceptible there too. It's not clear where they put him defensively.
I'm not sure if White is going to score on Poole consistently. You pointed out Dinwiddie and Bullock but those were guys where you had to respect the three. White has to prove he can make those threes:
Just reading about the Celtics having the 2nd lowest defensive # in the playoffs at 102.__ - but having seen several of their games against the Bucks and the Heat, those teams could not BUY a shot for long stretches. So that 2nd ranked playoff defense seems more than a bit like BS to me. Less to do with their defense and more to do with the weakness of their opponents' offenses. And they swept the Nets in the first round, which was not all that difficult.
The ECF is the series that gives me the most skepticism about the Celtic's defense. The Heat had Bam mostly healthy, Jimmy Butler on one good leg, Lowery on one good leg (maybe, for 1/2 the games), and Herro on one good leg. The Celtics held the Heat to 80 points in the 2 games that the Heat got literally nothing out of Lowry and Herro but otherwise the Heat managed 100 points or more and Jimmy Butler, Bam + scrubs seems like something less on paper than Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, Green, and Looney or Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, OPJ, Green if Kerr wants an extra shooter.
Don’t wanna talk about prediction or schedule, I want to enjoy fully the history of what I hope will be a challenging and heart stopping series, because the last thing I want to think about it is what I will feel when there will be four months of no NBA in front of me.
Ciao Dubs. I have watched the Colin Cowherd (doesn’t his surname sound weird for you? I mean ‘mandria di mucche’ does in Italian) podcast, hosting Dray. It was a clash of journalism titans. I love Colin (and I’m sorry he’s so almost full on Football), and I love Dray when he has an analysis challenger. When will we see a session with Pat Beverley?
This is turning into a long wait…. I’m ready to go, and the game is not until tomorrow! I hope the players are staying more calm than me!
Dray Finals Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUOHyNm6_nA
It’s pretty weird and interesting that Dray is doing this. I know he’s not going deep into Xs and Os, but I’m remembering when I cornered Ron Adams before a Finals game and he refused to answer anything strategic, saying Steve Kerr forbade it.
I love Dray but this is one prediction I will not watch.
Prediction: dubs blitz the Celtics in the 3rd quarter game 1 and win a blowout. Game 2 will cause some lemon booty as Celtics take a double digit lead into the middle of the 3rd, then Steph and Klay trade 3s and ultimately win a relatively comfortable game and put the pressure on Boston down 0-2
This dog predicts who will win the 2022 NBA Finals.
https://old.reddit.com/r/warriors/comments/v28nes/your_2022_nba_champions/
If you don't want to watch the video, the dog predicts that Warriors win in 6 games (W, W, L, L, W, W).
I so want to see this lockdown on Tatum ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZwheyBpiO8
I watched the "Detail" on Scottie Pippen by Kobe. There is some of Pippen's game in JoKu. If this kid stays hungry he can be a monster.
Crazy how he doesn't fall for punkfakes
I'm optimistic about the future ... but he still a rook ...
"You are on this council, but we do not grant you the rank of master."
I usually have a strong feeling about a teams chances against the Warriors. The Celtics I can’t get a read on them. I didn’t watch very many of their games, but I knew from when we played them last they were a very cohesive team. I just can’t tell what will happen. I could see them taking game 1 but I could also see us punching them in the mouth from the tip. I honestly feel our vet savvy, sheer will, timely defense and playmaking will have us come out on top in 5 games, maybe six. I just see no way barring injury these Warriors leave without a ring. They know what is on the line.
i liked the demeanor and poise of Game 1 vs. Mavs ... if the Dubs can channel that energy ...
Reading the newswires and listening to the talking heads, it seems we are the underdogs here ...
I’d rather we be the underdog who then proves everyone wrong.
Heh heh...
Just Read Monique’s letter to GPII in the athletic, makes me proud to be a dubs fan and gives another reason to hope for GP2 to get at least a little run in the finals. So awesome to see a guy work so hard to make the league, and in his first real year turn around and use his position to help give some kids hope. I know there are a lot of guys in the NBA that try to help out their communities in different ways, so shout out to them too - but so great to see GP2 do some good deeds as well. My only hope is he can add some cash to his foundation by picking Tarun’s pocket a few times.
Match-ups aside, one of the things I am looking forward to is seeing how the Celtics react the Warriors unwavering desire to win a game. Our cores ability to stay locked in 48 minutes should be considered legendary, and it will be fun to see how the Celtics react to to relentless pressure.
How the Celtics react over the course of seven games could decide the series. Mind you, when I say this, its 5-8 minute lapses that can decide the series. It's not like I'm imagining the Warriors can break the Celtics but create just enough winning moments for themself that it is enough.
Blow out wins are great and all, but the true deciders are definitely those 5-8 minute lapses where the dubs find their cohesive rhythm and ice the game. It's been really fun seeing them in the clutch this postseason, especially at home
It's just like how the Warriors won games 4 and 6 of the vs. Grizzlies series and game 2 of the vs. Mavericks series.
DNHQ finger to the wind: Who's better on defense, Kevon Looney or Robert Williams III? (assuming both healthy)
If we assume Dray is playing next to both, then Loon. Being able to guard 1 on 1 on the perimeter is massive
I love looney but put robert William's on the warriors and all his numbers are way better then looneys
Loon is better guarding. RWIII is better on help defense and especially blocking shots as the help defender.
I had no idea RWIII was all-defense team. Celtics fans think he's wayyyy better than Looney but I think they have an education ahead of them.
Even though he doesn't have a long track record RW3 got a lot of deserved publicity as a major defensive force in the 2nd half of the season. They turned him into a Draymond style free safety and they became a historic level defense.
Looney is more subtle. Solid near the rim, excellent rebounder, and extremely effective as a perimeter defender.
To be fair to Celtics fans I think most non-Warriors/Grizz/Mavs fans would say that RW3 is quite a bit better. But then you play him and are like, "Wow. We can't score around that guy."
If RWIII can stay on the floor like JJJ did, then he might actually be better than Loon... that being said... Nah Loon better!
Looney is deceptive because he doesn't have great hops (probably due to his past injuries), whereas RWIII does. But Loon is super savvy and makes a habit of doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.
I was gonna say something similar but this works!
Looney, Steph, Draymond, Andrew, and now Klay. All underrated defenders for their quality. Steph’s greatest trick is convincing the NBA that the warriors win because of his offensive brilliance. Yes, it’s there, but we win by locking down opponents first and then Steph breaks their spirit.
Stephs had some great defensive moments too ("lock that boy down", that blocked 3). Whatever, keep sleeping on em, that seems to work really well
People keep saying Boston is going to play a switch everything defense, but if they want to guarantee that Robert Williams is near the rim (which they do), they cannot switch everything against the Warriors:
https://twitter.com/_JasonLT/status/1531708981181173765
And if he's switching, the gameplan at least early in the series should be to make him test out his change of direction with his knee and all that from Curry and Poole (like in the video posted in the comments). It's a valid strategy, the Cavs took advantage of Curry's knee in 2016 and you don't hear anyone except us loser Warrior fans pointing out his physical issues. If he's playing then it's on the Celtics if anything happens to him.
The Celtics have a great smallball unit but if they can run R Williams off the floor I think that's advantage Warriors. Big if...if he's healthy.
They pre-switch a lot to keep him as the weakside help defender even while switching.
I'm sure they've damn near perfected keeping Williams out of the action with how much they work on it, but the Warrior offense is still a different beast and can make it tougher to hide guys as we saw with Doncic.
True. Much easier to do that against stagnant offenses than against the Warriors.
I have loads of thoughts about this series. In no particular order:
1. I don't see them having a great offensive series. I think we're very well equipped to guard them, especially if GP2, OPJ and Iggy are healthy. That is unless we're playing JP heavy minutes.
2. I don't think this is a Jordan Poole series. I think the Celtics will struggle to score against us in the half-court whenever Poole is not on the floor. However, I do believe Marcus Smart and Derrick White can bully Poole offensively (we saw Dinwiddie and even Bullock doing it a few times in the past series). Additionally, contingent on Robert Williams' health, I don't think is a team where Poole will be transcendent against offensively either.
3. Imo our best approach this series is to make this a defensive rock fight and try to outscore them in transition (we need to be running off makes and misses this series). This means lots of GP2 (hopefully) and perhaps even Kuminga.
4. We can guard them in various different ways. We can switch (definitely with Draymond, probably with Looney, maybe with OPJ), we can double (we have guys who are experienced in scram situations and good at rotating over) and I also think we can get away with a conventional drop against them too. I'd like to see If Brown and Tatum can make enough pullup 3s and ideally long 2s to break open our defense. Plus, we saw how Milwaukee (with better personnel for a drop obviously) forced them into shooting jumpers all game. And of course, we will throw in weird zones in there as well.
5. I don't think we can score over them in the halfcourt consistently without having all 4 of Steph/Klay/Poole/Wiggs out there.
6. GP2 and Iggy can feast on JT/JB in terms of causing TOs which will boost our offense. Let's hope they're both healthy. Also, this might be the only series where I'm fairly okay with Steph reaching lol.
7. The crucial point in this series imo is Robert Williams' health. He's a JJJ level rim protector and we saw how much trouble JJJ gave us (and even Williams gave us hell in the game where Steph got hurt). However, he has not looked right since he re-aggravated his injury.
8. They're not a great defensive rebounding team. We've been pretty goddamn great on the offensive glass. It would be amazing if we could win the possession battle due to our rebounding.
9. We need Steph more than they need Tatum. Basically, Steph needs to be the best player in the series if we want to win. If he has series that is anything close to his 2019 Raptors series, our odds of winning go up substantially.
10. This might be a series for OPJ more than Looney. Contingent on health obviously.
11. We also should look to exploit Jaylen Brown off-ball. That might be their only weak link defensively.
12. This is going to be more of a mid-range series too. We're not getting as many rim attempts this series as in the WCF. Steph, Klay, Poole and even Wiggins/OPJ will need to take and hopefully make mid-range jumpers.
I think Poole has learned to pick his spots better, and do less while still contributing with the way they’re defending him. We’ll see…
Agree with this not being a Poole series, pre se, but He'll definitely contribute.
About point 9, I think the opposite. Tatums gonna have to be transcendent to win this, and I'd be worried if I were a Celtics fan on that front.
This is totally gonna be more of a defensive series. Luckily, our offense is better than their defense. And more crucially, our defense is better than their offense, at least imo
Some really good thoughts in this comment but right now I’m counting for basically zero minutes from Andre. If he does play, it will be for 10 minutes in one game and then he’ll be done.
GP2 I’m more hopeful but maybe not until game 3 or 4??? So hard to predict.
So that means relying on some quality D from OPJ and Moody, and the whole team needing to step up on offense (assuming you’re right about Poole having limited impact). I’d love to see Wiggins dive to the bucket and Klay open game 1 with a barrage of swishes to force the Celtics out of double coverage on Steph. My dream is that they over commit on the ‘anybody but Curry’ defense and Klay and Wiggins gladly fill the stat sheets.
I think this is a good take. I don't sense that Andre will play much if at all. Maybe not JP2 either, at least until midway through. I'm more hopeful about OPJ. I know Moody is a rookie and all that but he's wise for his 20 (not 19 anymore!) years, and I think we will need him to contribute.
Poole has a kid?
Regarding #2, I also recall Kyle Anderson taking Poole into the post and scoring. I'm fairly sure Marcus Smart has a post game so I can see Poole being susceptible there too. It's not clear where they put him defensively.
All their core rotation pieces except maybe the 2 Williams (Williamses?) will be able to score on Poole quite consistently.
I'm not sure if White is going to score on Poole consistently. You pointed out Dinwiddie and Bullock but those were guys where you had to respect the three. White has to prove he can make those threes:
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1531779477335748609
If he does prove it though, then yeah Poole is probably fucked lol. But if not, that's probably the hiding place for him imo.
Gary Payton not there yet, in his own words. https://twitter.com/NBCSWarriors/status/1531768701799784451?s=20&t=zH50X5GG_jihxwPUIPXCKg
Sounds like a lot of boxes #sigh
Check all the boxes! You might find Oubre in one of them.
So im assuming the ‘boxes’ are full contact and shooting? Some critical boxes
A thousand poxes on Dillon Brooks.
Ditto X1000