NBA Finals 2022: Golden State Warriors defeat Boston Celtics in 6; Steph Curry wins FMVP

Barring a dry Game 5 where he went 0-9 from the three-point line, these NBA Finals have been about Curry’s offense. The Warriors offensive rating is a league-high 115.8 with Curry on the floor and dead last at 88.6 without him. One of the toughest arenas to play in, with a generous heaping of the most raucous crowds possible – Boston can be a nightmare to contend with. Against the Celtics in Game 6, Curry once again rose to the occasion.

“This one hits different for sure knowing what the last three years meant, what it’s been like,” Curry said. “Injuries, the changing of the guard, rosters, the young guys. … Now, we got four championships. Me, Dray, Klay and Andre.

“Finally got that bad boy,” Curry added, referring to the MVP trophy. “It’s special. … Everybody mattered in that process.”

The @warriors are the 2021-22 NBA Champions! #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/ckNLJTdQ1C

— NBA (@NBA) June 17, 2022

Weathering the storm

With their season on the line, everyone expected the Celtics to come out all guns blazing and they did. They raced to a 14-2 lead four minutes into the first quarter. The best parts of their team were on display – be it defending each position like their lives mattered upon it, or the ability to cut from the wings and score inside at will. But the Warriors have championship DNA and rode that initial Celtic wave out and then went on a tear of their own to finish the first quarter in a 11-0 run.

That run continued in the second as the Warriors went 10-0 ahead and Celtics head coach Ime Udoka took two timeouts in the first two minutes itself to stop the bleeding.

It didn’t work.

The difference was between the Warriors and Celtics bench. Grant Williams, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard played for a combined 40 minutes and were -64 in that period. Jordan Poole and Gary Payton II on the other hand played 38 minutes combined for the Warriors and were a combined +29. The result – the Warriors won the second quarter 27-17 and went into the second half with a 15-point lead.

In the first two quarters, there were many instances when the Celtics had a matchup advantage but didn’t use it. On the offensive end, there would be many an opportunity to pit Al Horford, the Celtics’ centre, against Steph Curry in the paint. But for reasons unknown, Jaylen Brown, who finished the game on 34 points, would either drive to the basket, and when closed down, would rarely be able to pass to an open teammate. Brown’s 34 points might have been a Celtic high, but so were his five turnovers.

The 2021-22 NBA Champions… The Golden State Warriors! #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/v5xmymVgHb

— NBA (@NBA) June 17, 2022

In the third quarter, Udoka kept Horford at the top of the Celtics offense a lot more and the veteran responded with 12 points and five rebounds in the third quarter alone. Boston had cut GSW’s lead down to 10 and suddenly the TD Garden could sense a comeback.

Tatum goes missing

But the comeback never arrived. The Warriors managed their lead with ease and it was all down to Jayson Tatum faltering when the lights were brightest – yet again.

There have been two leading criticisms of Boston’s NBA Finals run – their high turnover rate and Jayson Tatum not closing games out in the fourth quarter. In terms of turnovers, the Celtics gave away 22 in a game that they had to win. In the 2022 NBA Playoffs, the Celtics’ record is 13 wins and 2 losses when their total turnovers are under 16 and 1 win and 7 losses when turnovers are over 16.

In Game 6, Tatum had five turnovers and scored only 13 points on 6-18 shooting. Whenever the Celtics’ offense has started to falter, they’ve looked at Tatum to provide that boost. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Tatum dropped 46 points on the 2021 champions the Milwaukee Bucks. That was also when Boston was down 3-2. But in these NBA Finals, the forward was clamped down by Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins and there was no escaping as he and the Celtics crashed to defeat.

“This is tough, getting to this point and not accomplishing what we wanted to,” said Tatum. “It hurts. You know, we all could have done things better. I feel like I could have done a lot of things better. But, you know, like we said, we competed, we tried all season, all playoffs.”

The Warriors on the other hand returned back to a spot no one could have possibly imagined. Especially considering their last trip to the NBA Finals.

we’re not crying

ok yes we’re crying pic.twitter.com/jPtz0xYeJB

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 17, 2022

***

14 June, 2019: Steph Curry sat alone at the far end of the Oracle Arena. He was watching as a group of people surrounded his teammate Klay Thompson. Thompson had gone down in agony clutching his knee and wasn’t getting up – in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. It would turn out to be an anterior cruciate ligament tear – arguably the worst injury that could happen to a professional sports player.

Four days earlier, the Warriors had just gone through the trauma of losing Kevin Durant to an Achilles injury in Game 5. With two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the third quarter and leading by three points, the 2018 champions had lost two of the three greatest shooters to ever play basketball to long-term injuries in the space of five days. They went on to lose Game 6 and saw the Toronto Raptors win an NBA Championship on their floor.

A basketball dynasty was brought to its knees in the space of two NBA Finals games.

At that point, with Curry sitting on the floor, watching his ‘Splash Brother’ being helped off the court, the overarching question was whether the Warriors’ core group would ever come back to the NBA Finals.

Out in the wilderness

The following year, Kevin Durant signed a sign-and-trade contract that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets and brought D’Angelo Russell to the Warriors. Thompson was out injured for most of the season. Curry then proceeded to suffer from a broken hand a few months into the season in October and suddenly a Championship calibre team’s best player was D’Angelo Russell. The Warriors finished the season dead last in the Western Conference, with an underwhelming record of 15-50.

In 2020-21, the Warriors returned hoping to prove that the previous season was a one-off. But Klay Thompson suffered an injury setback – with his right Achilles tendon giving out – and was out for further time. Meanwhile, Curry set the scoring record for the season and took the Warriors to the eight seed in the Western Conference where they lost in the play-in tournament – first to the Los Angeles Lakers, and then to Memphis Grizzlies. It would be yet another season where one wondered if the Warriors of old folklore would return.

Two years can be a long time in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks became unlikely champions. LeBron James won an NBA ring while the entire league was in a bio-bubble in Disneyland. A pandemic happened. The Warrior dynasty seemed to be a far thought.

But then, after years of struggling to get back to the playoffs, Thompson returned, Curry was fit and Wiggins was integrated better into the Warrior setup. They came into this season with more belief than they had in the last two years – even if everyone brushed aside their quiet confidence. But the Warriors overcame the odds yet again to reach the top of the mountain – beating a Celtics team that had taken down a Kevin Durant-led Brooklyn Nets, a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks and a Jimmy Butler-led Miami Heat.

“This one is definitely different because of the three years of baggage we carried coming out of that Game 6 in 2019,” Curry said after the title was handed to them. “I can say it now, I don’t know how many teams could carry that as long as we have with the expectations of comparing us now to teams of the past and make it to the mountaintop again.”