When the Boston Celtics are in the NBA Finals, they rarely lose. And it’s virtually impossible to close out the Finals in Boston.
The Celtics are 17-4 going into the Finals. That’s pretty impressive. What’s more impressive is that the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers are the only road team to win the title on the Celtics’ home court.
Steve Kerr thinks you can add the Golden State Warriors to that list.
After beating the Celtics in Game 5 in San Francisco to take a 3-2 series lead, the Warriors’ coach told his team in the postgame locker room, “We’re going to get this in Boston. We’re going to finish this in Boston.”
The so-called bulletin board material may be irrelevant in the Finals, but it raised a few eyebrows among NBA pundits. How will the Celtics respond?
USA TODAY Sports will have live updates and analysis throughout the night as Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals kicks off.
HOW TO WATCH MATCH 6: Live broadcast, TV channel, start time, X factors
Jayson Tatum, Marcus in foul trouble
Jayson Tatum committed his third foul with 4:22 left in the second quarter after hooking Andrew Wiggins’ arm while driving to the basket. Ime Udoka instantly took Tatum out of the game as the Warriors’ lead grew to 14. The Warriors extended their lead to 18 (51-33) before Tatum was back in the game with 2:39 to go.
Tatum isn’t the only Celtic in foul trouble. Marcus Smart also has three fouls. Kevon Looney has three fouls and Klay Thompson has two.
The Warriors are on a 21-0 winning streak, the longest in the NBA Finals in 50 years.
A string of undisciplined fouls and turnovers sent the Warriors on a torrid streak late in the first quarter and into the second.
The Warriors scored 10 points in the first 1:47 of the second quarter, cementing a 21-0 run for Golden State.
After starting the game just 4-for-12 shooting, the Warriors made nine of their next 13 shots to force Celtics head coach Ime Udoka to burn a pair of timeouts early in the second quarter.
Boston responded with its own 7-0 run to cut the Warriors’ lead to eight, 37-29.
—Richard Morin
The Celtics strike first; Warriors hit harder to end the first quarter
The Celtics came out with a sense of urgency. They jumped out to a 14-2 lead, but Golden State withstood Boston’s early blow and put together an 11-point run to close out the first quarter. The Warriors lead 27-22.
Steph Curry went scoreless until 4:30 left in the fourth, but hit her first 3-poof of the game after a slump in Game 5. Curry has 5 points, plus Klay Thompson and Draymond Green knocked down his first three of the entire NBA Finals. (He was 0-for-12 beyond the arc until that shot.)
Jayson Tatum has gotten used to starting this series slow, but that wasn’t the case in Game 6. He and Brown lead the Celtics with 7 points apiece, but the Celtics’ offense stalled once again late in the game. fourth.
Both teams are struggling with turnovers and foul trouble early on. The Celtics have scored 7 points from 4 Warriors turnovers, while the Warriors have converted 4 Celtics turnovers into 2 points. Thompson and Marcus Smart have 2 fouls.
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown cooking early for the Celtics
The Boston Celtics came out on a mission. They started the game on a 12-2 run, thanks to a better start from stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, who shared eight of those points.
Brown knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Celtics up 9-2. On the next possession, Tatum did the same, knocking his first shot past the arc to extend the Celtics’ lead to 12-2. Warriors coach Steve Kerr called a timeout shortly afterward. Boston is shooting 66.7% (4-for-6) from the field and is 2-for-2 from 3-point range.
The Celtics have converted two Warriors turnovers into five points.
Should Finals MVP be changed to ‘Most Outstanding Player’?
If the Golden State Warriors win Game 6 or Game 7, maybe even if they also lose, Steph Curry is pretty much a lock for NBA Finals MVP.
This will happen mainly because he deserves it, despite playing a poor game by his standards in Game 5. It will also be a compensatory gesture for Curry, who probably should have won Finals MVP in 2015 instead of Andre Igoudala, who got the award after scoring 25 points in the final game and getting a lot of credit for his defense over LeBron James. Reasonable minds can disagree on these things.
But one thing that would help bring some historical clarity and consistency to the voting process would be to get rid of the most *valuable* player nomenclature and change it to most *outstanding* player in the series.
The value of a single player in a basketball game, or in any team sport, is often difficult to measure and highly debatable. Identifying the best player in a series is much easier and more appropriate.
The word “valuable” is an incentive for voters to overthink. For example, it’s pretty obvious that Curry has been the best player in the series. He’s not particularly close, and that would be true whether the Warriors were winning or losing. But it’s also fair to say that the Warriors would be in a position to close this out were it not for Andrew Wiggins, who has played an immense role on both ends of the floor and picked up the slack offensively with 26 points in Game 5 when Curry left. 0 of 9 from the 3-point line.
In other words, the Warriors won the most important game of the series thus far because Wiggins was the most important player. Based on the valuable criteria, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to give Wiggins a vote at this point.
— Dan Wolken
Should Steph Curry win Finals MVP no matter which team wins?
If the Warriors were down 3-2 and Boston had a chance to close things out tonight, we’d potentially be debating whether Steph Curry could win MVP if his team doesn’t win. It’s not hard to find examples where the MVP in a series could be on the losing team, but it would be highly controversial to give that person the MVP award because the mere existence of that award suggests it should go to someone on the winning team. . equipment.
How about just calling it the most outstanding player award, in which case we’d all have a more consistent understanding of how it should be voted on? Identifying the best player, win or lose, is a pretty valuable insight.
— Dan Wolken
The Celtics haven’t lost three straight since December; ‘will strike back’
Even with their backs against the wall, it’s business as usual for the Celtics.
Asked before the game if the mood in the locker room was angry or nervous, Celtics coach Ime Udoka was undeterred. His boys have been in this position before.
The Celtics’ Game 5 loss on Monday marked the first time they’ve lost back-to-back games this postseason. They have not lost three straight games from December 25-29, 2021.
Boston is a changed unit since then. The Celtics were 16-19 after the December 29 loss, but found their way into the new year to finish the regular season 51-31, proceeding to eliminate the Nets, Bucks, and Heat, respectively, in the playoffs. The Celtics were also down 3-2 in their series against the Bucks.
Udoka said early season adversity gave the Celtics a “resiliency” that helped them stay focused on the details instead of getting caught up in the big picture.
“We have a short memory and that worked well for us and put it behind us,” said Udoka. “And also being in these situations throughout the year where we had to struggle after a big hole early in the season, all of those things bode well for us.”
—Richard Morin
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Steph Curry’s golf friends can attend Game 6
Steph Curry has many friends on the professional golf circuit. Many of them will play at the US Open in Brookline, Massachusetts, about 40 minutes from TD Garden, where Curry is trying to play the Celtics in Game 6.
Curry did not attend any of the first round of the US Open, which began on Thursday. But Curry, who watched the US Open Championship Trophy up close on Wednesday, was hoping to hear from some of his golfing friends.
“I have a couple of friends on tour who will probably contact me between now and next week if they get an early, early or late Thursday tee time. We’ll see. Or Thursday/Friday, we’ll see,” she said earlier this week. “I’m not going out there. Obviously, all my attention is on rest and recovery, preparing myself. However, I will position myself in front of the TV and make sure to watch as much as possible.”
