2022 NBA Finals Game 6 Observations

For each game during the Finals, I took notes of random things I observed or thought throughout the game and will post it either the day of or day after each game.  These are my notes regarding Game 6, which the Warriors won 103-90 to win the series 4-2.

  

Quarter 1

·         I don’t love the Warriors’ small ball starting lineup since it will likely be susceptible to points in the paint early

·         That was a quick foul early against Thompson; I wonder if we’ll see favorable calls for one team to push the series to 7

·         I love Marcus Smart posting up against Curry; while I wouldn’t consider Curry a horrible defender, he’s no match against Boston’s size

·         Already Thompson has 2 fouls; that’s not a good sign for Golden State

·         Draymond has been aggressive early, which I think could be the game-changer there

·         I thought Tatum played the mismatch against Looney perfectly since he is faster than Looney and was able to not run into opponents in the paint

·         And now we have the first instance of Jaylen Brown not passing and taking a heavily contested shot; the Celtics cannot afford him to keep doing this

·         Now Looney has 2 fouls also; they should keep driving on him or try to post-up Curry

·         I’m admittedly not loving the Warriors playmaking early; they had a few plays early that was more isolation, which doesn’t bode well against the Celtics defense

·         Tatum just had another great play with a mismatch created by movement off a pick and resulted where neither Looney nor Curry were sure who should guard him

·         Gary Payton II just had a play where he got a layup after getting an offensive rebound; while the broadcasters said Williams was responsible, he was not in a position to get back since Payton was boxing him out and it would have been a foul.  Pritchard was in an area where he should have boxed out better

·         That was a nice recovery by Grant Williams against Payton’s layup

·         And Draymond finally hit a 3!  I wouldn’t be worried if I was Boston since he’s not getting many

·         I’m not worried about Warriors run quite yet since they’ve gotten some good looks and 6 points on the run came from Draymond hitting a 3 and Poole hitting a straight-on 3 off the backboard, a shot shooters never go for

Quarter 2

·         The Warriors are clicking offensively, which is a good sign for them.  Boston needs to change their defensive strategy since Golden State is scorching them this quarter 2

·         Golden State keeps getting offensive rebounds which is why I believe Boston is losing bad here

·         Jaylen Brown broke the cold spell and he did it on excellent offense

·         That was awesome transition defense by Tatum and Brown to force the turnover and get the ball back on what should have been an easy bucket

·         That foul by Smart against Payton didn’t look fun, though it wasn’t malicious or anything like that

·         The Celtics have had a bunch of good looks this quarter but can’t hit anything right now.  The turnovers have absolutely killed them this quarter

·         It really is beautiful the play that the Warriors do with a player handing off to a guy who shoots it since the passer acts a screener who isn’t actually setting a screen so contact is different

·         Even though he got to the line, I don’t like Brown shooting on that fast break opportunity with 2 guys guarding him; that’s how he misses or turns the ball over and wastes a possession

·         If Tatum is pushing off of Curry and not hitting an open shot, the Celtics won't be able to make anything

·         Tatum, what on earth was that shot?  They’re not going to call willy-nilly fouls and it wasn’t one anyways.  That said, great defense by Draymond

·         I hope Curry isn’t badly injured.  It looked like it was just shaken up as a result of the reaction to the moment (which I totally get) but still

·         I know it wasn’t a goaltend, but that said, the Warriors got another offensive rebound because while Rob Williams was boxing out, the positioning on the boxout wasn’t great in my opinion

·         I’m a bit worried about the Celtics on both ends; while their offense is the thing to worry about normally, I think their defense hasn’t looked as good all the time as it normally does

Quarter 3

·         Draymond hit 3 number 2…if that keeps happening, there’s only so much the Celtics can do since that’s the shot the Celtics want

·         When the Celtics have Horford being guarded by Curry due to screens, they really need to exploit that matchup, which didn’t happen just there

·         It’s interesting to see Curry not take the shot immediately despite being open; I wonder if he’s worried about Boston’s length

·         The Celtics keep allowing so many open 3, which is something that for strange reason I would say isn’t the best defense against the Warriors

·         This game is ridiculous.  I was watching Shrek 2 during halftime and that was more entertaining.  I wonder if anyone would notice if I started giving my observations about Shrek 2 instead

·         The Celtics were lucky that Looney’s tip missed after the offensive rebound; some would say good defense by Rob Williams to get back but it really wasn’t in my opinion

·         I loved that line in Shrek 2, “it’s Fiona’s choice”, “but she was supposed to choose the prince we picked for her!”

·         I never get enough of the line “my diet is ruined!”

·         Did Looney hit Grant Williams in the face?  I couldn’t tell honestly…though I wrote that before they showed Williams with blood

·         The broadcasters discussed how the magic number (or in the case maybe the tragic number) for turnovers for the Celtics is 16 even though it’s a 17-point game…not sure the 2 more turnovers are necessarily the decided factor or just confirmation bias at that point with the way they worded it

·         I thought they said that Curry had given James Brown trouble, which would be very intriguing

·         I thought for sure Jaylen Brown would turn the ball over on that drive, I was shocked he made a floater

·         The Warriors have been so sloppy the last couple minutes that I’m not sure this game is over quite yet…never mind, it must be since they picked up turnover number 17 if you’re an NBA analyst

·         I’m glad to see Horford exploiting the mismatch in the paint.  They need to do that when the Warriors have a really small lineup that is not good defensively on the court

·         I like Brown driving in when Curry was on him and going for the midrange

Quarter 4

·         The fact that the Warriors offense was looking good even with Thompson missing everything is a testament to how they’ve exploited the Celtics weaknesses

·         Rob Williams is unreal and I’m not sure how he hasn’t collapsed with his knee

·         How on earth did both Thompson and Curry miss open 3’s?  Wow, talk about bad luck there

·         I’m not quite sure why Jaylen Brown decided to try to split the defense there, that was a really bad decision.  He’s lucky it hit Thompson on the way out of bounds

·         I really don’t like the double-team on Curry.  I know it’s easy to say to let someone else beat you, but you have to figure the Warriors are good enough offensively to do just that.  I don’t even mind Horford or Rob Williams on him

·         What happened to Smart on that one?  He keeled over when Curry got free but I’m not sure what happened

·         A bad shot by Tatum that he telegraphed poorly is just what the doctor ordered at this point in the game

·         I can’t be the only person who holds his breath anytime Jaylen Brown is dribbling a bunch

·         There are sometimes where you keep the game on during a blowout since there’s something funny; this time it was seeing Del Curry holding a cigar

 

While most would say that turnovers got the best of the Celtics, I think there are two reasons the Celtics lost:  the turnovers and isolation basketball.  That said, loads of credit has to be given to the Warriors because they were able to exploit Boston’s weaknesses like no other team had been able to this year’s playoffs so far, as they torched them in transition and off picks on offense and then defended them in such a manner where Boston naturally shifted back to an isolation type game, which was something I was afraid of entering the playoffs.  The Warriors were the better team in the entire games ultimately and deserve all the praise for their execution, and Stephen Curry was a deserving MVP.  Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors!

 

What did you think of that series?  Let me know in the comments!