Viewed a condensed G6 after catching only the second half live. Some thoughts.
The depth of GSW outshone throughout the series. Kerr played around with bench rotations and found an 8man that provided at least 20pts from the reserves in every game of the W3 streak en route to the title. Their offense, while stuttering at brief segments, was always able to have at least one reliable ball handler on the floor (the major difference in roster personnel between the two teams) in which to generate open shots and quality offense. The majority of their TOs came from unforced kickouts and unnecessarily flashy plays. Outside of that, no real nitpicks; they score tripled digits in each of the six games. The offensive consistency, versatility, and depth is what makes this unit so difficult to gameplan against.
BOS ran out of gas in Q4, just like the previous two games. In the case for the closeout game it came early, and for a few reasons. For one, the early foul trouble on Tatum and Smart, forcing Udoka to play into the bench early (having Pritchard for 8min on the court led to a +/- of -20, lmao). Only 5 bench points total for BOS, confirming my suspicions that their red-hot perimeter shooting from the reserves in G1 was an outlier. The moment proved too big for BOS with that 21-0 run from GSW carrying over into Q2. Here and in G4, they focused their defensive intensity on Curry and it backfired. Boston got torched on the offensive glass and second chance points which is something that cost them at times in prior rounds too and was unacceptable for the Celtics given the size and athleticism they had out there. The offensive inconsistency reared its head in every loss, less than 100pts by the final buzzer in each one.
Jayson Tatum needs to get to work immediately this offseason. The 100 TOs of his in this postseason alone are holding back his potential. He needs to develop a move that doesn't predicate on him driving to the left side of the cup to make a layup/dunk or chuck a shot when he's gassed in late game. Outside of his scoring plays and playmaking in the first half, he faded away again in the second half with only one made FG. His and Jaylen Brown's handles are questionable at best and their lack of a true offensive-minded floor general at PG was made apparent in crunch time and led to panicking and contested shots.
Andrew Wiggins put the clamps on Tatum from the start with a career performance in G6 being his best showing of the series, posting a bonkers 18pt/6reb/5ast/4stl/3blk statline (also an efficient 4/9 from the perimeter). What a career turnaround and excellent showing from him throughout this postseason. With him being the third (maybe even fourth) option on offense, he never ran out of juice to grab late-game Orebs or drive to the bucket with ease. GSW would do well to retain him on a reasonable deal. I find it insulting that a few labeled him as a role player when he was an all star selection this year.
Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors. The most well-run organization in the NBA as of this post. Holy cannoli. I have no reason to believe they won't be in the same position next year.
