Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, Harry Potter and Voldemort, Simba and Scar, Batman and the Joker… Each great hero has the right to his antagonist. And for the Warriors, we would have the right to a blockbuster on the Playoff series against Cleveland of course. But watch out for the fearsome Celtics in the regular season episode. Yes, Boston is the only franchise with a positive record against Steve Kerr’s Warriors, thanks to a team and a talented tactician who manage to foil Stephen Curry and his friends.
Over the past eight seasons and since the arrival of Steve Kerr on the Golden State bench, the Celtics have experienced a lot of movement but manage to lead 9-7 against the Warriors over this period. Lhe men of Brad Stevens ate those of Steve Kerr by winning eight out of fourteen games between 2014 and 2021, with a cumulative difference of 41 points. During Golden State’s iconic 73-win 2015-16 season, Boston was one of the only teams to tease the Warriors, forcing them to go for the Game 1 win after two overtimes. The return game in Oakland will take place on April 1, 2016, perhaps the Warriors wanted to scare their fans by taking an eighth loss in their season. But in any case, Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner and Jared Sullinger (witness the Big Three) all topped 20 points that day to show them what they were capable of. Almost a year later, Jayson Tatum arrives in Massachusetts. From there, the show begins: in his ten games against the Warriors, JT is averaging 22.1 points. The former Duke even offered us a very nice scoring duel in April 2021 against Stephen Curry: 44 points for the Boston winger, 47 for the best parking lot shooter of all time. Regardless of the Golden State roster, Brad Stevens has always managed to fight back, trying to lessen the impact of the Splash Brothers and also Kevin Durant during his time in the Bay. And the Celtics have always had the offensive weapons to widen the gaps: Jaylen Brown, Kyrie Irving, or even Gordon Hayward who slammed 30 points off the bench in March 2019 against these same Warriors.
There’s only one team with a winning record vs the Warriors under Steve Kerr.
That team is the Boston Celtics. pic.twitter.com/mAEk7ogKfc
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 30, 2022
Since this season, it is no longer Brad Stevens who is in charge: the latter became president of basketball operations for the Celtics after the departure of Danny Ainge. Ime Udoka arrived in Massachusetts for his rookie season as head coach, and managed to carry his team to the NBA Finals despite adversity. This year, the record between the Warriors of Kerr and the Celtics of Udoka is balanced: 1-1, ball in the center. Each franchise has managed to win on the other’s ground. In December, Golden State won on the floor of TD Garden by only four small points, all thanks to Curry’s 30 pawns and 27 by All-Star Game holder Andrew Wiggins. In the second game last March, Boston won at the Chase Center by 22 points. Steph Curry is injured early in the game, and the Celtics unfold: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum each score 26 points against a fiery Jordan Poole, who will finish the game at 29 units. If each franchise knows how to win on the floor of the other, it can help to regain the advantage of the field in the NBA Finals like.
This therefore gives a record of 9-7 for Boston against Golden State since the arrival of Steve Kerr. Yesterday, Stephen Curry in a press conference preferred to recall what makes the matchup against Boston hard and all the more beautiful. But even if he is aware of the positive balance stat, he prefers to warn the Celtics that the regular season and the Playoffs are two very different worlds.
“They are beefy players, quite physical, basketball brains. We are no strangers to this, we will be ready for this. […] Someone told me their record against us during the Kerr era is positive. They had success against us in the regular season but when you come to the playoffs it’s totally different. There are adjustments within games and between games. But I can’t wait to see our series of Finals.”
As Steph says so well, the regular season and the Playoffs are two totally different worlds. And here we are not playing for a division champion banner but for the Larry O’Brien trophy. Will the Celtics succeed in confirming their regular form against the Warriors, or will the latter reverse the trend? We meet on Thursday to get an early response.
Source texte : StatMuse, NBC Sports Warriors
Steve Kerr vs. Brad Stevens’ Celtics: 6-8
Kerr vs. Ime Udoka’s Celtics: 1-1
Warriors: minus-63 cumulative over 16 games
NBA fans deserve this NBA Finals to see which team will tote the torch into 2022-23 season.— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) May 30, 2022