OAKLAND — In a season where the Warriors have made the incredible seem mundane and effort has been a last resort, Saturday’s matchup against the Celtics was a wonderful departure.
It felt different. It felt important. If I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed that summer was here and the playoffs had started early.
Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry had a duel for the ages, with Curry scoring a season-high 49 and Irving dropping 37 on 72 percent shooting; coaches Steve Kerr and Brad Stevens traded tactical jabs that left both coaches utilizing a bit more of their playbooks than they wanted to show in a regular season game; and while the Warriors won 109-105, the Celtics proved themselves to be worthy adversaries to the NBA’s best team.
Given the dysfunction in Cleveland, there has always been a good chance that the Warriors and Celtics will meet at Junes’ NBA Finals in June, but I’d like to formally request that happens — I’d love five, six, and, if I’m greedy, seven more servings of what was served Saturday.
Because man, Saturday’s game was fun.
And there’s no reason to think that would change if these two teams met again for in June.
Saturday’s game was also something rare for the Warriors: A challenge.
The Warriors know that they’re the most talented team in the NBA by a long shot. Deep down, they know that they can coast their way through the regular season (and probably though the majority of the Western Conference playoffs too), so Kerr has frequently used a term he stole Spurs coach Gregg Popovich — “appropriate fear”. The goal is to remind the Warriors to treat every opponent with respect — that even the worst team in the NBA is talented enough to beat the Warriors on every given night if the Warriors don’t show the appropriate fear.
Two games against Boston this regular season have grabbed the Warriors’ full attention, though. This is a new kind of “appropriate fear” for Golden State: the Celtics demanded the best from the Warriors.
And that’s why it will be disappointing if we don’t get these two teams in June’s NBA Finals. The Warriors don’t fear the Cavs anymore, and the Raptors don’t make the Warriors sweat either. Golden State might be a superior team to the Celtics, but Boston is too smart, too talented, too aggressive — and Irving is too damn good — to ever be taken lightly.
Boston, more so than any other team in the Eastern Conference, will make the Warriors work for their second-straight title — and I’m not even sure the consensus second-best team in the NBA, the Rockets, can promise that.
For the second time in as many matchups this season, the young and versatile Celtics knocked the Warriors — a team that might go down as the best offensive team in NBA history — off of their game on the offensive end.
Offensively, the Warriors have been the aggressors in every game this season. Not Saturday.
But Boston’s defense is so long and so active — it’s certainly the best in the NBA at the moment — that until Curry caught fire in the second half, the Celtics seemed to dictate the terms of engagement with the best offense on (flat) Earth.
Cleveland isn’t doing that…
I can’t recall a game this year where the Warriors, as a team, took so many off-balance jumpers or stuck-between-stations floaters. The Warriors players weren’t moving the way they usually move, the ball was certainly not moving the way one expects Golden State to move it — the Warriors looked frazzled for long swaths of time, and, as such, assisted on only 50 percent of their made field goals.
The Celtics turned the Warriors, who had an astounding 77 assists over their last two games, into an isolation basketball team.
That’s downright incredible, and most concerning to Golden State, it appears to be fully repeatable.
Think about it: Curry turned in one of the best performances of his career Saturday, a spectacular shooting dribbling and shooting clinic that left 20,000-plus in the arena and millions at home totally spellbound, and that was just enough to get the Warriors over the top.
In fact, given how superb Irving was, you could argue that Draymond Green’s incredible defensive play in the fourth quarter was the true turning point of the game.
Curry and Irving were trading buckets, oohs, and aahs, but until Green starting locking the other members of the Celtics’ offense, the outcome of the game was in jeopardy for Golden State.
The Warriors and Celtics won’t play again this regular season — there won’t be another game to test out matchups, tactics, and meddle before a possible NBA Finals showdown — and there’s a lot that could change between now and June.
Perhaps the Celtics, after proving for a second time that they can play with the best team in the league, make a splash trade before the deadline — Boston has been flirting with Pelicans big man Anthony Davis for a while now, perhaps they seal the deal before Feb. 8.
Health and chemistry are no guarantees over the next five months either.
But should these two teams avoid bad fortune, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that they’re not the proper participants in this season’s Finals. (Your move, Cavs, Rockets).
And amid another successful campaign for the Warriors that has felt like a slog than a celebration, just the thought — the mere possibility — that these two teams could meet in games that are infinitely more important than a regular-season game in January has me excited for what the rest of the NBA season has in store.
