Starting With the Finals
I’m embracing the irony of making my first story about the end of the NBA season. It’s been a strange year for me and I didn’t get to follow basketball as closely as I would have liked. I did, however, manage to watch all of the Finals. So, with the Finals, we begin.
The Golden State Warriors are, once again, NBA Champions. And now, for all the hate. Am I right?! Why do people hate on the Warriors so hard?
Anyway, that’s a question for another time.
For the second year in a row, I’ve won my NBA playoff bracket against my partner; this year because I picked the Warriors. Don’t get me wrong, if I hadn’t been so serious about winning, I might have picked the Celtics. I was secretly rooting for them. I love a good defensive team and the Celtics have fit the bill this season.
In 2019, I wrote an article wherein I said it was too early to buy into the Celtics as true Finals contenders. Were they getting better? Absolutely! However, they were still a work in progress. A work that looks to be nearing completion with the historic turnaround the Celtics put together this season. It would have been a nice story to top that achievement off with a little bling.
The fact is that most rosters who win an NBA Championship didn’t win after only a single Conference Championship. Just going on the odds, picking the vastly more playoff-experienced Warriors was the safe bet.
The Cure for Inexperience
There’s good news if you’re a Celtics fan. The only cure for inexperience is experience. Being so close to the ultimate goal of an NBA season and falling just short is certainly experience. Barring any free agent craziness or serious injury, it’s not unreasonable to expect to see the Celtics get another shot at the Larry O’Brien next season.
I see two major takeaways for the Celtics after the end of their season. First, as a roster, they need to learn playoff poise. Any fan of basketball knows what I’m talking about. The Celtics didn’t know how to play with a lead, they didn't know how to keep playing their game under duress and they didn’t take care of the basketball. Especially in Game 6, the panic of being so close and it slipping away was almost palpable.
My gosh, the turnovers! Jayson Tatum, dude! You did some cool stuff these playoffs…
But you also did this…
In the long-term picture, I believe that the former accolades will overshadow the later dubious achievement. Immediately, though, for the love of basketball, Tatum needs to get off the pastry.
Ime Udoka has been a great fit for the Celtics this season, but like every newbie, there are things to learn. Better using timeouts to interrupt scoring runs, for instance. I get it’s the Warriors and they’re gonna get their points. But it felt like a lot of the time during the series I was wondering why a timeout hadn’t been called sooner.
When all is said and done, these are little things; polish, if you will. I find myself surprised to be looking forward to actively watching the Celtics next season.
Experience for Days
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to diminish the contributions of the Warriors’ young talent in this playoffs. I especially have a soft spot for Andrew Wiggins, being a fellow Jamaican-Canadian. I knew GSW would be a great fit. Minnesota needed Wiggins to be something he isn’t in terms of taking a vocal leadership role. It’s always frustrating when people imply that someone is fundamentally less than they should be for just being who they are. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all personality for tall and talented.
But I digress…
The Warriors are one of the best in the game at developing talent and it’s obvious that they haven’t missed a beat there. The combined playoff and Finals experience between Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Igoudala was the piece of the puzzle that informed my pick. When it comes to basketball, I never underestimate the stability experience brings. It worked out for me this season, in any case.
