The Matchup

[gouki88]

Well, I hope your right in your assessment. We'll see. I wouldn't refer to PER as a stat to support your position. PER is arguably the most deceptive and useless stat that exists. Consider that Greg Monroe has a higher career PER than Bill Russell and KAT has a higher PER than Bird and Magic.

PER is definitely a misleading stat. But there are other advanced ones which give us a pretty good read on things for the most part. RAPTOR, VORP, WAR and BPM stats are all helpful in their own way. Jaylen has the advantage in every single one except for offensive BPM.

Per possession he scores more on less shots, rebounds more, gets more assists, gets more steals and overall plays better defence. I don't really think Klay is that close to being his equal, especially as in the playoffs Brown has basically shot the 3 ball just as well as Klay.

[pokeKingCurtis]

Ime = Kerr?

[Moranis]

I expect Smart to Draymond Curry all series long.

[liam]

Ime = Kerr?

Kerr>Ime... But Ime has beaten coaches that are better than him so...

[cman88]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

[SparzWizard]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

Warriors feasted on the Cavs in 2015 when Love and Irving got hurt. In 2017, they had Durant which adds another talent scorer on their team to overwhelm the Cavs. Plus that was the year when they had Zaza take out Kawhi Leonard in a deliberate injury otherwise they prob wouldn't sweep the Spurs and that series go 7 games. In 2018, it was just the LeBron show.

[RockinRyA]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

[colincb]

here is some interesting information to entertain us as we all kill time waiting for the series to begin.

since 2014 (kerr and smart era) the only team in the nba to have a winning record against golden state is, you guessed it, the boston celtics, who are 9-7.

over the past 5 years the celtics have won 7 games and lost 2 games against them. so, yes, the celtics do seem to match up well with golden state. here's hoping that run of domination continues. 

https://www.landofbasketball.com/head_to_head_gl/celtics_vs_warriors_game_log_season.htm

BOS is 6-0 after playoff losses and tied for 2nd best in NBA history with a series to go.

and...

BOS has the 4th best scoring margin in playoff road games in NBA history with a series to go.

[slamtheking]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

I think you have a point that the C's performance in games 6 and 7 bolster the confidence of the GSW fans and I can see why.  I think what they're overlooking is that GSW hasn't faced a D as good as the C's D so far and that over the past several years the C's have a winning record against GSW in the regular season matchups.  I think their fanbase is in for a rude awakening.

having said that, I did predict GSW in 6 in the other prediction thread because of Boston's inconsistency as well as my prediction errors ensuring the C's will win the series.

[Vermont Green]

Ime = Kerr?

Kerr>Ime... But Ime has beaten coaches that are better than him so...

Kerr has the advantage of being there longer so his schemes and philosophies are more engrained.  Curry and Kerr have been together a bunch while Tatum and Ime are still developing.  That makes a big difference.

Kerr is a smart and experienced coach.  Probably if they had a coach draft, Kerr would get picked before Ime.   I don't see this deciding the series, probably not even deciding a game.

[Goldstar88]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

I certainly would be more confident. C’s got  out of the last 2 rounds of the postseason by the Skin of their teeth despite having the better roster each series.

[Neurotic Guy]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

I certainly would be more confident. C’s got  out of the last 2 rounds of the postseason by the Skin of their teeth despite having the better roster each series.

True, but I continually remind myself that they did beat both the Bucks and the Heat 4 out of 7 games and probably outplayed them at least 1 if not 2 other games in the series.  It's disheartening a bit that the C's haven't closed well (OK understatement), but they did defeat the defending champs and the top player in the East, and then beat the #1 seed, a very well-coached, savvy team with their star player playing at the top of his game for the last 2 closeout games -- of which we won one.   C's aren't coming into this having accomplished nothing and they probably faced a tougher road than the Warriors.

My question is -- how much better is GSW than Milwaukee minus Middleton or the Heat (I don't count the Heat injuries as I think Heat and Celtics were equally battered)?  And... how much will having an advantage in the middle play to the Celtics favor?

[KeepBigAl]

So much talk about the G State's huge edge in playoff experience, which I don't buy at all.  4 of the 5 Celtics starters have logged huge playoff miles - and the warriors have 2 key guys. Poole and Wiggins, with very limited experience. I see no edge there.

Also, despite all the praise he gets, at this point in his career, Draymond is living off past accomplishments.  He is a borderline starter who can still defend, but certainly no impact player.  His lack of shooting will only help the celtics lock in on the other guys.

[Goldstar88]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

I certainly would be more confident. C’s got  out of the last 2 rounds of the postseason by the Skin of their teeth despite having the better roster each series.

True, but I continually remind myself that they did beat both the Bucks and the Heat 4 out of 7 games and probably outplayed them at least 1 if not 2 other games in the series.  It's disheartening a bit that the C's haven't closed well (OK understatement), but they did defeat the defending champs and the top player in the East, and then beat the #1 seed, a very well-coached, savvy team with their star player playing at the top of his game for the last 2 closeout games -- of which we won one.   C's aren't coming into this having accomplished nothing and they probably faced a tougher road than the Warriors.

My question is -- how much better is GSW than Milwaukee minus Middleton or the Heat (I don't count the Heat injuries as I think Heat and Celtics were equally battered)?  And... how much will having an advantage in the middle play to the Celtics favor?

They did, but the Bucks were missing their second best player for the entire series and Herro who is probably the 2nd most important player on the Heat missed games 4, 5, 6 and played 7 mins in the last game. The Celtics had injury issues, but they were not equal to what the other teams were dealing with. If they were missing Brown for the first series and didn’t have him for games 4,5,6 and the majority of game 7 it would have been comparable.

Warriors at full strength are a lot better than the teams the C’s faced so far. Golden state handled Dallas with little difficulty. I think the C’s have a chance to win the series, but they should be considered underdogs.

[colincb]

Is it me or are warriors fans extremely cocky? Been reading on Twitter all day how the warriors will dominate and this will be over soon. And Celtics have no chance because they beat injured teams.

They very well may. But it's not like they haven't been beaten in the finals before. Cavs with lebron, raptors with kawhi.

I think warriors fans will be surprised with our defense when the series actually starts. This isn't the Mavs.

The media is mostly Warriors as well. I think its mostly because of game 6 and 7. If we ended in game 6, or if not for the near collapse in game 7, I think a lot will be me more confident.

I certainly would be more confident. C’s got  out of the last 2 rounds of the postseason by the Skin of their teeth despite having the better roster each series.

True, but I continually remind myself that they did beat both the Bucks and the Heat 4 out of 7 games and probably outplayed them at least 1 if not 2 other games in the series.  It's disheartening a bit that the C's haven't closed well (OK understatement), but they did defeat the defending champs and the top player in the East, and then beat the #1 seed, a very well-coached, savvy team with their star player playing at the top of his game for the last 2 closeout games -- of which we won one.   C's aren't coming into this having accomplished nothing and they probably faced a tougher road than the Warriors.

My question is -- how much better is GSW than Milwaukee minus Middleton or the Heat (I don't count the Heat injuries as I think Heat and Celtics were equally battered)?  And... how much will having an advantage in the middle play to the Celtics favor?

They did, but the Bucks were missing their second best player for the entire series and Herro who is probably the 2nd most important player on the Heat missed games 4, 5, 6 and played 7 mins in the last game. The Celtics had injury issues, but they were not equal to what the other teams were dealing with. If they were missing Brown for the first series and didn’t have him for games 4,5,6 and the majority of game 7 it would have been comparable.

Warriors at full strength are a lot better than the teams the C’s faced so far. Golden state handled Dallas with little difficulty. I think the C’s have a chance to win the series, but they should be considered underdogs.

We may be underdogs, but according to ESPN on the NBA Finals series betting line.

Despite their differences in recent playoff history, on paper, this matchup is tied for the closest series price we've had in any NBA Finals in the past 35 seasons.

Can't think that massive Boston fan money is driving that alone. We match up well.