NBA Finals: Neither Celtics nor Warriors have seen a team like each other

How do you prepare for a team you haven’t seen yet?

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NBA Finals: Celtics/Warriors Hard to Pick

Ryan Griffin: NBA Finals are hard to predict. Celtics and Warriors, I guess they both shoot a lot of three-pointers, but that’s about it. I think they have a lot of different ways of scoring a lot of different ways of attacking different strikes, weaknesses, all that stuff that we’re going to get into. But I’m really excited to see the adjustments that come out of the series. Because I think both coaches are very good.

And like I said, they don’t really have a whole lot of tape on each other as it pertains to like playing yourself. Again, nothing I would think you could take away from either one of the two games they played in the regular season and the teams that they played in the playoffs.

I don’t really think that Golden State has played a team like Boston. And I don’t think that Boston has really played a team like Golden State. Maybe the Warriors in the doors, the Nets in some ways. But not really because I think the Nets are just a way worse version of what Golden State is trying to do.

And they don’t even do it all that well. And sometimes they don’t do it at all. So I’m really excited to see this series and match-up play out. I didn’t think we were going to get a whole lot of blowouts in the Eastern Conference Finals. And we obviously did, but I don’t see a whole lot of blowouts coming from this series.

And there’s going to be a bunch of people, like us, whatever basketball handle, talking heads, whatever you want to call them, trying to predict what I feel like is honestly, the unpredictable in this NBA Finals. 

Matt Bassin: No, absolutely. And like you said, you can’t take anything away from these first two games. In the first game, December 17th at Boston, the Warriors won. But the Warriors were without Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson. And the Celtics were without Al Horford and Grant Williams. 

And obviously without Derrick White, because that trade had not taken place yet. So you can’t take anything away from that one. And then in the second game, we know about Steph and Marcus Smart. Draymond Green didn’t play much.

It was the second game back coming from a back injury. So there really isn’t much to take from these two games. And you are absolutely right, neither one of these teams has seen anything like their opponent. They’re about to see the Warriors did not see a defense anywhere close to what the Boston Celtics bringing to the table.

And the Boston Celtics haven’t seen an offense anywhere close to what the Golden State Warriors bring to the table. Interestingly enough, fun facts to take with you from these upcoming NBA finals. This is the first NBA finals since 1996, where the top two teams in defensive efficiency are squaring off.

The Celtics are number one at 106.2, the Dubs and number two at 106.6. The last time that happened was the Bulls and the Sonics. It’s also the first finals where one team has all the experience and the other team has none. Not a single minute played in an NBA final for the Boston Celtics. Meanwhile, on the Golden State Warriors.

Thanks to Klay and Draymond, there are 123 games of finals experience between the players on the Golden State Warriors. The last time that discrepancy happened was the year later, 1997. Where the Bulls had 134 games played-in-finals experience and the Jazz had absolutely zero. 

One thing you might be able to take away a little bit going into this is that the Celtics are the only team with a winning record against the Steve Kerr Golden State Warriors. They have a nine and seven record since 2014 and seven and three in their last 10 games Ryan. 

Ryan Griffin: Yeah. So I think the seven and three are probably more important. Since 2014 or 2015 when Kerr ended up taking over because now all these players are on that team in these last 10 games. Which is the last five years since the Warriors have been champions really.

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