Phew! That was a close one.
Try as they might to give away the last two games with repeated sloppy play and disappearing stars in crunch time the Celtics managed to hold on to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals 100-96.
Outside of the final two games, it wasn’t all bad. But beating the Heat in Miami was not easy.
It earned the C’s their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2010. But before we get to the three-time champion Golden State Warriors here’s a quick review of surviving the seven-game series with Miami.
Give Miami Credit for Toughness: With Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry limping, they looked dead in the water after a Game 5 Celtics beat down. But somehow they pulled it together, which is what admirable teams do, to be a missed Butler 3 from being in the lead with under 30 seconds to go. Ditto if an eagle eye at the scorers table hadn’t disallowed a crucial Max Strus 3 after seeing his heel catch the sideline in an after-the-play review to see if it was a 3 or a 2.
Tatum’s Hall of Fame Berth Back On Hold: While he’s certainly had some high highs, he didn’t deserve the MVP, because the play in this series was so erratic. And as I said before the playoffs you only get into the Top 10 players group if you dominate in the playoffs. But in Game 6 he disappeared in the fourth quarter and in Game 7 he had the softest 28-point (with at least four missed lay-ups) game I’ve ever seen. Fortunately he has the Finals to erase that. Word to the wise: Ditch the Kobe wristband, ’cause he looked like Kobe when he shot 40 percent from the field and 31 percent on 3’s in the 2010 Finals.
Why Let Marcus Smart Take The Last 5 Shots With Game 7 Slipping Away? Because with Tatum shrinking from the moment somebody had to take them and as ineffective as he was, Marcus had the stones to take them. Plus he was wide open on the 3’s.
That’s The Derrick White We Were Sold: He’s had his ups and downs since arriving in February. But he was the best guy off the bench vs. Miami in making huge defensive and offensive contributions in games 4 through 7.
Bravo – Jimmy Butler: He played through pain. Put his team on his back to score 47, 41 and 35 in the way many expected Tatum to and Tatum didn’t. I’m fine with the 3 he took in the final minute. Strength or not he broke Boston’s backs in Game 6 with 3’s. Standing O for Jimmy.
The Main Event: What to expect from the Warriors.
Previous 2021-22 Games: GS won a tight one in Boston before the January turnaround and C’s blew them out in March in SF in the game Curry got hurt.
Players to Watch
Steph Curry: After all the early playoff hoo-ha over Kyrie Irving, we get to see the real deal here instead. A two-time MVP, three-time champ and the best shooter who ever lived. He kills you with 3’s and off the dribble is a leader and a winner. All the things Kyrie ain’t. So watch out for this dude.
Klay Thompson: After two painstaking years rehabbing tears of an ACL and Achilles that cost him two seasons he’s back to form shooting 38 percent from deep and averaging 20.4 per. The only really bad thing to say about Klay is his father, Mychal, played for the Lakers in the ’80s heyday.
Jordan Poole: He’s their version of Rob Williams. A low first-round pick who came on strong in Year 3 to average 18.5 per game and can go for 30 on any given night.
Who Should You Boo: This is a pretty hard team to not like. So thank goodness for Draymond Green. Loud, abrasive, nasty and borderline dirty. Guaranteed he will raise the ire of Celtics Nation more than once for sure. And, oh yeah, he’s very good, which is what makes his act most annoying.
Best Match-up: Marcus Smart vs. whoever he guards. Because they have a lot of guys who can score and he can cover all of them. Just not at once.
Issues
3-Point Shooting Battle: Both teams can blow you out shooting 3’s. GS takes 40 3’s a game and makes 36 percent. Draymond shoots under 30 percent, so be my guest.
The Boards: GS rebounds collectively as a team with team leader (with 596) Kevon Looney the only one who can hurt the C’s on the offense glass consistently.
Strategy
Celtics on Defense: Tight, tight, tight D to make the GS guards put it on the floor and take it inside the line. Even if it means them scoring off the dribble, because giving up two is better than getting blown up with a barrage of 3’s, which they can do when Curry and Thompson get it going. The D can get away doing that with Al Horford and Lob it to Rob Williams back there protecting the basket.
Celtics on Offense – Who To Attack: The GS guards. The Warriors are not a big team and have no real shot blocker, so Tatum and Jaylen Brown need to use their size advantage to shoot at the rim and get the foul shots that come with that.
Key Stat: The Celtics hold opponents to shooting 31.9 percent from deep, while for Golden State it’s 36 percent. If that stat holds, edge to C’s because it will throw GS a bit off its game.
Golden State Wins: If the Celtics let the secondary players capable of doing real damage like Poole and Andrew Wiggins have big scoring series to supplement what Curry and Thompson generally do.
Boston Wins: If they control it offensively and defensively around the basket, consistently force GS deep shooters to put it on the floor, while Tatum plays Curry even and Brown outscores Thompson.
