The Golden State Warriors headed to TD Garden Thursday night and beat the Boston Celtics 103-90 to win the 2022 NBA Finals. Their sixth game victory was a dominant performance in territory. hostile, highlighted by an initial 21-0 run that secured the Warriors their fourth championship in eight years.
The contest had looked very different at first. The Celtics started the game 14-2, and briefly looked like they would force a decisive 7 game in San Francisco. But the Warriors countered with a streak of their own, and finally finished the first quarter with a five-point lead. From here, things get trickier.
The Warriors kept Boston goalless for the first two minutes of the second quarter while Golden State rained triples on their unfortunate opponents. By the time the blitz was over, the Warriors had a 21-0 streak, the biggest streak of its kind in the final in 50 years. The Celtics, meanwhile, were forced to wait for a more dramatic comeback.
In the half, the Celtics lost 15 points, a not insurmountable task given their history of comebacks in these playoffs. The Warriors, however, refused to yield. A Stephen Curry three in the middle of the third quarter gave them a 22-point lead that effectively ended the game and assured Curry the first MVP award of the final of a race that will end with his consecration in the Hall of Fame. Fama.
For Boston’s credit, they refused to stretch, even reducing Golden State’s lead to eight in the middle of the third quarter. They couldn’t get close, however: the Celtics had dug a hole too deep, too soon, against a too formidable rival.
These finals were presented as a battle between youth and experience, and experience is sure to win. Throughout the series, the Warriors took advantage of Boston’s image loss (the Celtics committed 22 in Game 6 alone) and mental errors.
“Our experience is part of a championship pedigree. We built this for 10-11 years, “Curry said after the game.” That means a lot when you get to that stage. “
Although Golden State trailed 1-2 to start the series, they struggled to win three in a row, two of them on the road, against a team that hadn’t lost consecutive games all postseason.
Curry, who scored 34 in the decisive game, was brilliant for most of the series, a slight error in game 5 aside. His final MVP was not a reward for total success: the turning point of the series came with Curry’s 43-point performance in Game 4. Those were his finals.
“At the start of the season no one thought we would be here … it’s very surreal,” Curry said. It was easy to understand his joy: the Warriors finished with the worst record in the NBA just two seasons ago.
Part of the reason for this fall was injuries to Curry and his longtime teammate Klay Thompson. “It’s crazy, I’m in Cloud 109 right now,” said Thompson, who has missed most of the last two and a half years due to injury before returning to help his team get the win. “It was dog days, many tears shed … You knew it was a possibility, but to see it in real time … It’s crazy.”
The Warriors now have seven NBA titles, one more than the Chicago Bulls. Only the Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers (17 each) have more. This team is not the list of the most successful Warriors to win the title, but after a few difficult years, they may be the happiest.