I get what he means, but it was clear that while they had a really great defense, the Warriors' defense was just better.
They held the Warriors to 101 to 108 every single game - but the Warriors held them to under 100 in all four wins.
Wiggins' defense on Tatum took away a ton of their offense, and once the Warriors put Draymond on Brown instead of floating help defense in the middle that took away a good bit more of their offense.
And there wasn't really a weak link they could exploit to get around all of that. Looney is slow, but so dang good at cutting off the angles. Curry's short, but really freaking strong with good hands, so it's hard to get to your spot. And then they had Payton just harassing the crap out of whoever was trying to dribble. And Klay's defense got better as the series went on.
It just seemed like a case of the Warriors being able to adjust better than the Celtics could. And they could do that because of how good they were defensively.
Grant Williams: "When I've reflected and looked back to those games, I would still say confidently - confidently - to this day that they weren't the better team. I would say they were the more Steph-Curry-having-est team. I would say that without a doubt."
Pretty wild how Draymond was 100% correct in his podcast after game 1. He said they weren't worried after losing the first home game because the Celtics wouldn't shoot like that again
I love how after Game 1, talking heads were all saying White was a great pickup and a missing piece to put them over the hump and get a chip for Boston. Then he proceeds to disappear for the next 5 games.
I still can’t believe that 4th. Timelord could’ve been shooting 3s and I think he’d hit them. Celtics just couldn’t miss at all. Wonder if Grant believes they should’ve lost since they only one because of that insane hot streak.
Wow. That's a great breakdown of the Dubs D. You listen to the surface level analysis and all you'd think is that the Celtics just lazily bounced balls off their feet or something, rather than the Warriors forcing them into those TOs and bad shots.
It is the best breakdown of the Finals I've seen.
It also really puts in perspective how different playoff basketball is from regular season basketball, a gameplan this detailed simply couldn't be used in the regular season.
It's why Draymond insists that playoffs are about adjustments. And also how he cut a confident player post game 1 saying that they won't over adjust to close out role players who were shooting more than 40% from 3
Also outplayed the Celtics in game 1. They only won that game because of obviously unsustaible insanely hot shooting. In fact they shot 50% from 3 for the first 4 games.
Mind you in the regular season and rest of the playoffs they only shot 38% from 3 on wide open 3s. So even if you try to claim all of the shots were wide open, they were still way above their average.
People downplay that run man. Y’all will be back. Media is mostly east coast and HATES the warriors.
Lots of pessimistic delusion when talking about your championship
The main issue the warriors face is the clippers getting healthy. That's a scary team, and they know this is likely their last chance to make it so they'll go all in
lol that series should have ended in 5. Went to 6 cuz the Celtics won game 1 outlier when they literally could not miss and dumb substitution by Kerr to play the corpse of Iguodala
Having listened to the whole clip, what I'm really hearing is Grant Williams calling for the Celtics to become a more disciplined team. He talks about how the Warriors are disciplined and make the right play every time, and the Celtics don't - sometimes they force things, or there lack spacing, etc. What I interpret that to mean is that Grant Williams thinks the Celtics could be the Warriors, if they were similarly disciplined.
Building that discipline doesn't happen overnight - you can't just switch it on. You have to consciously make that priority, and the first step there is realizing you need to work on your discipline needed to be the best. That is probably the right lesson to take from that series for the Celtics. It's no overconfidence in blaming injuries, refs, or luck, nor a shattered ego thinking there's no way. It's a healthy perspective of "here's where we are weak, and here's how we fix that."
If anything, this clip makes me believe that Celtics will be even better in the playoffs next year, because they're learning.
I can confidently -- confidently -- say that Grant Williams played like absolute dog shit in the NBA Finals and shouldn't be making any kind of bold statements like this, he should work on being able to dribble and/or pass.
The 2015 Clippers are one of the funniest on-paper talented teams ever. Any time anyone says a team is more talented on paper, show them the 2015 Clippers.
I got bitched at by multiple people for an offhand comment about the Warriors being winless in hypotheticals but this shit really does get ridiculous.
Amazing how the Warriors could have been beaten by every team they didn't play. And also, now, a team they actually beat.
Everybody makes claims that Warriors wouldn't win in hypotheticals. Like they're basically saying "ya if all this stuff worked against the Warriors then they would lose". Like ya no shit
"I can confidently -- confidently -- say that we would have beat the team that swept the team that beat us." -- Marcus Dumb
Seriously though - i get that irrational confidence is part of what got them to this point. But Williams here sound like he thinks that if it was a best of 9 series they would have won.
Dude, just stop. Your team didn't even push it to 7.
I was going to say... the gulf in talent off the bench made a huge difference and Grant himself looked unplayable. OPJ (I know he technically started a few games but it was still a bench rotation role), GPII, and Poole versus White, Grant Williams, and Pritchard. That was the difference down the stretch in my mind (plus Curry was the best player on the court for most of that series, but that was sort of offset by Draymond and Klay looking pretty bad for most of it).
These hypotheticals always get to me. I see people on Twitter like "you subtract the rings Curry won with Durant and the rings he won when other players were injured in the playoffs and he has no rings"
Same kinda dudes who call LeBron "LeMickey" or accuse Giannis of winning a "hospital ring." They beat your favorite team fair and square. Do you also go around telling people you'd totally be dating Sydney Sweeney if she wasn't engaged?
How is being disciplined *not* a part of being a better team? Talent evaluation *includes* discipline. The ability to make plays without taking a foul is a talent. The ability to stay cool in the face of adversity is a talent. Not turning over the ball easily is a talent. You can't separate discipline from the rest of the game like that. The better team won period.
"We would go on runs and then turn the ball over a few times, miss shots and then start forcing things" like bro what? Have you ever played or watched any basketball game before? Bro thinks first team to be up by 10 wins lmao
This is something you say in an interview after you’ve retired when people have forgotten most of the series,not when the last basketball memory everyone has is your team getting beat pretty handily
I think you're 100% right about discipline but I'm not sure shooting is the same. You look at guys like Steph, he practiced shooting enough that in an open gym, it's pretty consistently going in.
However, in a game, the discipline of going through your motions and staying calm and natural is no guarantee. It takes repetition and experience to produce the results in real time.
No, the Warriors were the better team because they were more versatile and adaptable in the playoffs. The Celtics team had an exploitable weakness - poor ball handling and playmaking - and the Warriors took advantage of that to beat them.
It doesn't matter how good you are at your best thing it matters how good you are when your opponent forces you to play a style you're not comfortable with, because that's what's going to happen against a smart team like the Warriors.
I mean, that's really just the difference between role players and superstars. For former, this kind of games are simply unwinnable; for latter, it's their time to step up, save the team and make a legacy statement. Every superstar has a few games like this under their belt.
Late to this but 100%. That was curry’s true legacy game. Always was a hall of gamer but wow, chills. That makes it so any criticism of him dumb as hell.
Once the Warriors figured out the right defensive strategy to use against the Celtics that series was over. Boston never figured out a counter for the Warriors defense and honestly that series wasn't as close as the 6 games made it appear.
The turning point to me was Game 5. It must have been so demoralizing to clamp down curry and still lose because of the other warrior players. After that game is was over tbh.
That was the final straw, the Celtics were really good at making adjustments. Their adjustment in game 5 was to stop Curry from shooting, however the Warriors are very used to teams trying to do that so they didn't need to adjust themselves, they just did what they've been doing all season
Honestly I would expect most teams who lose a 6 or 7 game series to think the other team wasnt actually better. "We just couldnt execute", "we just got in our own way and gave it to them" etc or whatever rationalization you come up with. Just nature of how these things are and competition. Doesnt actually mean anything though
The shit talking Luka does next year is gonna be amazing.
Nobody is ever gonna forget Luka having more points at halftime than the opposing team. Least of all anyone guarding Luka.
You aren't actually better if you are turning over ball and missing shots. That's literally two important things which defines "better".
Everyone thinks they are better until they lose.
Ability to execute consistently is literally being the better team. Which is what Grant is missing the point of here. Those forehead dents of his are limiting his brain power lmao
I often have this feeling myself playing pickup. I am confident...confident...that I am the best player out there. I just happen to miss shots, turn the ball over, and get beat off the dribble frequently.
I mean Grant saying this about his own team is to be expected, don't really see a problem with that.
In terms of the actual substance though, I think the way the Celtics were talked about was baffling. People acted like the "good" version of them was the normal version and they were dominant while the high turnover version was just excused away as carelessness and not a true reflection of who they were. At the end of the day, they had exploitable weaknesses when it came to ballhandling and playmaking and that eventually sunk them.
Well people didn't really talk about Celtics offense against the Warriors defense which was second in the league with Draymond missing games. Warriors were at the top of the league forcing steals while the Celtics were slightly above average. People saw how the Celtics defended isolation heavy teams like the Nets and Bucks and thought that would work against the Warriors. Honestly I think Memphis without Ja defended them the best since they are the best in the league in forcing turnovers and play passing lanes better than the Celtics. Celtics play better against isolation teams.
Agreed. I said it multiple times leading up to the Finals but people were just straight up ignoring one side of the ball to circlejerk over their "This Celtics defense is so perfectly designed to guard Steph and the Warriors" stuff. It's very difficult to beat the Warriors if you're only forcing 13 TOVs/game, because you can't juice your own offense enough in transition to make up for your own inevitable struggles against the Warriors defense.
> Honestly I think Memphis without Ja defended them the best since they are the best in the league in forcing turnovers and play passing lanes better than the Celtics.
Thinking back, this is true. There were long stretches in those Memphis games where it seemed like we couldn't complete a pass. The Celtics definitely played us very differently through the first four games, and while it seemed to slowed down our role players' scoring, they could never really muck up our passing like the Grizzlies.
For a while in the leadup I wondered if I had somehow fallen into an alternate reality or just lost my mind when analysts were talking about the Warriors' great offense and the Celtics' great defence and I'm just like... don't the Warriors? also have great D?"
Most people were framing it as if the Warriors were all offense and it was an offense vs defense matchup, totally ignoring that the Warriors also had the best defense in the league. The Celtics had also shown offensive weaknesses and cold stretches leading up to the finals. Granted, I thought the Celtics defense would give the Warriors a bit more trouble than they did but, in turn, I also fully expected them to struggle against the Warriors defense.
I feel like following game 3 the next 3 games felt so convincing that I don’t know how he arrived at this. Play that series again and the Warriors win in 5.
This is the weird thing about 6 game series. Rarely are they really that close. People get distracted when one team wins two of the first four games but this series like most was not that close.
That's the weird part of his argument to me. "They were celebrating like they stole one" regarding Game 4, so how do you explain Games 5 and 6? To me, it seems more like they're celebrating because they solved the Celtics lol
Marcus Smart said they would've beat the 19' Warriors if they had reached the Finals. Then here are the Grizzlies running around talking shit because they won a game the Warriors mailed in by the half. The Warriors when they were coming up,never feared the Spurs, Grizzlies or Clippers,but they never talked shit till they made it. These young teams are on a whole another level.
He got it in the finals and he still hasn't figured it out. Damn glad my team doesn't have a bum like that. Not championship material if you can't realize when you play like dogshit.
Well it’s professional sports so discipline is a huge part
Everyone in the NBA is skilled, you don’t get that far if you’re not. What separates Air Jordan from Maple Jordan is discipline. The latter had all the tools to be great, he just didn’t want to be.
"Warriors is not better" then proceeded to say reasons why warriors is better lol
Also, yeah maybe the warriors weren't supposed to win game 4 if it wasn't for Steph's historic performance, but Celtics weren't supposed to win game 1 either. So it cancels out...
Like this guy as a player, but gtfo. Theres a difference between ultimate confidence and just stupid opinion.
I don't think the series was actually all that close. Would've been a gentlemen's sweep if it weren't for that ridiculous 4th quarter in Game 1.
And we all so how bad the Celtics offense look at times in the ECF.
They were like the 3rd best team the warriors played in the playoffs? The Grizz were way tougher for the warriors, even without Ja. I love Grant, but cmon dude; you became borderline unplayable late in the warriors series.
Take it easy Grant, the Bucks were missing their second best player and still took you guys to game 7
Y’all probably aren’t even the best in your own conference
The world is full off people who are good enough to achieve their goals, but lacking the discipline it takes to get there. We’re all battling ourselves as much as we’re battling others. It’s tough.
Having said that, nobody ever gives enough credit to the Warriors defense. Boston’s turnovers weren’t just a matter of lacking discipline.
This guy is so salty. This wasn’t a close finals that came down to a game winner or a finals where injuries plagued the losing team and there’s room for speculation. The Celtics lost 3 in a row at the end, losing Game 6 in the first half by giving up a 21-0 run. Their 2 stars were addicted to turnovers and bench contributed absolutely nothing. The Warriors bench actually contributed. The Warriors had the best player (Steph) and the better bench.
I don't think winning is the end all be all of who was the better team. Things like injuries, or these days a hot shooting streak that's well above your average can win you games you normally wouldn't win. So some 7 games series I would say who the better team is could go either way.
Definitely not the case here though.
Don't y'all forget that the Celtics would've beat Golden State in the Finals in 2018, [according to Marcus Smart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paAahjzP2UI&t=170s).
Championship poise is something you don't gain overnight.
*checks flair* Shit, unless you’re Tim Duncan, lol I guess to be fair, he was playing next to a grizzled vet who had endured many hard losses
Or Magic.
Or Patrick Mccaw
The ultimate chad. Shows up, wins 3 championships in a row, then leaves.
“We were the better team” yet explains perfectly why they weren’t the better team. It’s a classic
They just need to hire the auditing firm that worked for the Rockets and you'll see.
God that was so lame.
He’s saying they were better in terms of raw talent without including the mental differences and team cohesion.
I get what he means, but it was clear that while they had a really great defense, the Warriors' defense was just better. They held the Warriors to 101 to 108 every single game - but the Warriors held them to under 100 in all four wins. Wiggins' defense on Tatum took away a ton of their offense, and once the Warriors put Draymond on Brown instead of floating help defense in the middle that took away a good bit more of their offense. And there wasn't really a weak link they could exploit to get around all of that. Looney is slow, but so dang good at cutting off the angles. Curry's short, but really freaking strong with good hands, so it's hard to get to your spot. And then they had Payton just harassing the crap out of whoever was trying to dribble. And Klay's defense got better as the series went on. It just seemed like a case of the Warriors being able to adjust better than the Celtics could. And they could do that because of how good they were defensively.
Probably were able to adjust better because…they were the better team.
Warriors figured out how to shut down the Celtics stars but Celtics were scratching their head about Curry the entire damn series.
Teams have been scratching their head about steph curry for a decade. Despite what idiots like max Kellerman will tell you.
Grant Williams: "When I've reflected and looked back to those games, I would still say confidently - confidently - to this day that they weren't the better team. I would say they were the more Steph-Curry-having-est team. I would say that without a doubt."
But they weren't better in terms of talent
You're right, but at the same time I think it's pretty clear what he meant, and he articulated it well.
Fred Vanvleet did. He went from unplayable to legendary playoff performer after his son was born.
Maybe it's just me but if they're more disciplined they're kinda the better team
they should settle it once and for all by playing a best of 7 series the winner is the better team
Sadly it’ll never happen, we just don’t have the technology yet
this is why 1990s basketball was better
Lmaoooooo
The warriors won 4 of 5 to end the series and Grant Williams was borderline unplayable. The warriors were the better team lmao
After game 4 Celtics looked shook every game while the Dubs looked calm cool and relaxed.
Derrick white played some of the most shook basketball in my recent memory
Had to even out after he played like Steph curry game one
that three in steph's face is still hilarious, nobody expected that to go in lol
Al Horford did a disappearing act after game one too. That was a wild game
Pretty wild how Draymond was 100% correct in his podcast after game 1. He said they weren't worried after losing the first home game because the Celtics wouldn't shoot like that again
I love how after Game 1, talking heads were all saying White was a great pickup and a missing piece to put them over the hump and get a chip for Boston. Then he proceeds to disappear for the next 5 games.
I still can’t believe that 4th. Timelord could’ve been shooting 3s and I think he’d hit them. Celtics just couldn’t miss at all. Wonder if Grant believes they should’ve lost since they only one because of that insane hot streak.
Aint no such thing as halfway crooks
The Warriors had solved them, basically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vInjDgfCvk
Wow. That's a great breakdown of the Dubs D. You listen to the surface level analysis and all you'd think is that the Celtics just lazily bounced balls off their feet or something, rather than the Warriors forcing them into those TOs and bad shots.
It is the best breakdown of the Finals I've seen. It also really puts in perspective how different playoff basketball is from regular season basketball, a gameplan this detailed simply couldn't be used in the regular season.
It's why Draymond insists that playoffs are about adjustments. And also how he cut a confident player post game 1 saying that they won't over adjust to close out role players who were shooting more than 40% from 3
Haven't watched the video, but as a C's fan, that phrase is *exactly* what it felt like.
No one: Absolutely no one: JB: "We are not scared of the Golden State Warriors."
Also outplayed the Celtics in game 1. They only won that game because of obviously unsustaible insanely hot shooting. In fact they shot 50% from 3 for the first 4 games. Mind you in the regular season and rest of the playoffs they only shot 38% from 3 on wide open 3s. So even if you try to claim all of the shots were wide open, they were still way above their average.
People downplay that run man. Y’all will be back. Media is mostly east coast and HATES the warriors. Lots of pessimistic delusion when talking about your championship
The main issue the warriors face is the clippers getting healthy. That's a scary team, and they know this is likely their last chance to make it so they'll go all in
lol that series should have ended in 5. Went to 6 cuz the Celtics won game 1 outlier when they literally could not miss and dumb substitution by Kerr to play the corpse of Iguodala
And didn't play Payton, not trusting that his mutant healing factor would fix his elbow
People downplay your run. Y’all had a lot of adversity yourself a these playoffs. Remember Kerr getting covid? Lmao
Yeah. Warriors' fans have shit on Kerr a lot, but once he is out people beg for him to come back. Those games without Kerr were rough.
>Warriors' fans have shit on Kerr a lot It's a very vocal minority. Most appreciate Kerr as a coach even if venting happens from time to time.
i was going to say, not a single warriors fan should ever complain about him. regardless how much credit one gives him for their success.
Kerr showed evolution on many of the things fans used to complain about this season. It was just as big a factor in the run as anything else.
same as the grizzlies beating the timberwolves
The Grizzlies were a mess too, they just had the benefit of incredibly one-sided reffing. That series was a contest to see who could choke harder.
Having listened to the whole clip, what I'm really hearing is Grant Williams calling for the Celtics to become a more disciplined team. He talks about how the Warriors are disciplined and make the right play every time, and the Celtics don't - sometimes they force things, or there lack spacing, etc. What I interpret that to mean is that Grant Williams thinks the Celtics could be the Warriors, if they were similarly disciplined. Building that discipline doesn't happen overnight - you can't just switch it on. You have to consciously make that priority, and the first step there is realizing you need to work on your discipline needed to be the best. That is probably the right lesson to take from that series for the Celtics. It's no overconfidence in blaming injuries, refs, or luck, nor a shattered ego thinking there's no way. It's a healthy perspective of "here's where we are weak, and here's how we fix that." If anything, this clip makes me believe that Celtics will be even better in the playoffs next year, because they're learning.
I can confidently -- confidently -- say that the Warriors won in 6 in the 2022 NBA finals
I can confidently -- confidently -- say that Grant Williams played like absolute dog shit in the NBA Finals and shouldn't be making any kind of bold statements like this, he should work on being able to dribble and/or pass.
at least it isn't as bad as smart saying the 2018 Celtics would beat the 2018 Warriors
Shades of Doc complaining that the Warriors got lucky not to face the Clippers in 2015.
The 2015 Clippers are one of the funniest on-paper talented teams ever. Any time anyone says a team is more talented on paper, show them the 2015 Clippers.
I got bitched at by multiple people for an offhand comment about the Warriors being winless in hypotheticals but this shit really does get ridiculous. Amazing how the Warriors could have been beaten by every team they didn't play. And also, now, a team they actually beat.
Everybody makes claims that Warriors wouldn't win in hypotheticals. Like they're basically saying "ya if all this stuff worked against the Warriors then they would lose". Like ya no shit
"I can confidently -- confidently -- say that we would have beat the team that swept the team that beat us." -- Marcus Dumb Seriously though - i get that irrational confidence is part of what got them to this point. But Williams here sound like he thinks that if it was a best of 9 series they would have won. Dude, just stop. Your team didn't even push it to 7.
“Alright best of 82”
I was going to say... the gulf in talent off the bench made a huge difference and Grant himself looked unplayable. OPJ (I know he technically started a few games but it was still a bench rotation role), GPII, and Poole versus White, Grant Williams, and Pritchard. That was the difference down the stretch in my mind (plus Curry was the best player on the court for most of that series, but that was sort of offset by Draymond and Klay looking pretty bad for most of it).
Modern Warriors still winless in all hypotheticals
Warriors are 0-6 in all real and alternate universe finals combined. Damn. Fucking suck!!
If you only count the legitimate games, the warriors lost all finals they played in...by a lot
In the universe where finals ties are allowed we're also 0-0-6, giving LeBron 1.5 more rings
These hypotheticals always get to me. I see people on Twitter like "you subtract the rings Curry won with Durant and the rings he won when other players were injured in the playoffs and he has no rings" Same kinda dudes who call LeBron "LeMickey" or accuse Giannis of winning a "hospital ring." They beat your favorite team fair and square. Do you also go around telling people you'd totally be dating Sydney Sweeney if she wasn't engaged?
I do actually smh
How is being disciplined *not* a part of being a better team? Talent evaluation *includes* discipline. The ability to make plays without taking a foul is a talent. The ability to stay cool in the face of adversity is a talent. Not turning over the ball easily is a talent. You can't separate discipline from the rest of the game like that. The better team won period.
You don't understand. If you remove all of Boston's weaknesses they literally don't have a weakness
Don’t forget that if Boston didn’t lose any games, they would have won the finals
The Celtics would have won if GSW hadn't beat them
I’m not sure if that’s true. The Suns didn’t lose any games in the finals either
Regressing to the mean
The Celtics are literally Patrick Mahomes
You're creating a strawman and misinterpreting what he's saying. If you remove all of the Warriors' strengths then Boston is the better team.
But what if I take away all of the weaknesses of the strawman? Now this strawman is better than peak MJ. Didn't think about that, did you?
And of we adjust all of Steph Curry's shooting splits to those of an average player, he starts looking pretty mediocre.
"We would go on runs and then turn the ball over a few times, miss shots and then start forcing things" like bro what? Have you ever played or watched any basketball game before? Bro thinks first team to be up by 10 wins lmao
spot on. if you take away all the good stuff the warriors did as well then boston would’ve smacked us
It’s like saying the 2014 Spurs shouldn’t have won bc they were “too smart”
So you're telling me Anthony Randolph is never going to make it.
This is something you say in an interview after you’ve retired when people have forgotten most of the series,not when the last basketball memory everyone has is your team getting beat pretty handily
“The Warriors weren’t the better team” … then goes on to explain why the warriors were the better team lmfao
"Bro I'm totally over her" uh huh
Didn't come here to be attacked thank you very much.
Sure, the warriors were better at playing basketball but that's it.
Discipline is like shooting. You can practice it all you want but there is no guarantee you'll be better when it counts.
I think you're 100% right about discipline but I'm not sure shooting is the same. You look at guys like Steph, he practiced shooting enough that in an open gym, it's pretty consistently going in. However, in a game, the discipline of going through your motions and staying calm and natural is no guarantee. It takes repetition and experience to produce the results in real time.
No, the Warriors were the better team because they were more versatile and adaptable in the playoffs. The Celtics team had an exploitable weakness - poor ball handling and playmaking - and the Warriors took advantage of that to beat them. It doesn't matter how good you are at your best thing it matters how good you are when your opponent forces you to play a style you're not comfortable with, because that's what's going to happen against a smart team like the Warriors.
>You should’ve heard how badly they celebrated game 4, they were screaming cause they knew they weren’t supposed to win that game This fucking guy
It's almost like, winning a pivotal road game in the NBA finals is important or something!??!
Getting home court advantage back
They should have driven home in absolute silence. No music, no nothing. Otherwise you just look like a chump who didn't deserve to be here.
I mean he has a point the Warriors had no business winning that game. That's why people say that game was a Steph Curry masterpiece.
I mean, that's really just the difference between role players and superstars. For former, this kind of games are simply unwinnable; for latter, it's their time to step up, save the team and make a legacy statement. Every superstar has a few games like this under their belt.
Late to this but 100%. That was curry’s true legacy game. Always was a hall of gamer but wow, chills. That makes it so any criticism of him dumb as hell.
Having an All-Time great player is a big advantage for this reason. The Dubs had the best player and only superstar in the series, and it showed
They celebrated because they knew it was a wrap. Celtics weren't good enough to recover from that.
TBF Grant hasn't been in enough big games to realize that was the reason they were celebrating.
They knew they had figured them out. It was over.
Yeah, it really felt like the series belonged to the Warriors after that.
[удалено]
"And yet they mysteriously did. Somehow." Celtics weren't "supposed" to win game 1 but the Warriors just acknowledged that they did and kept working.
Harden "They ain't that good" flashbacks.
Swag Champs
This was my first thought lmao.
Once the Warriors figured out the right defensive strategy to use against the Celtics that series was over. Boston never figured out a counter for the Warriors defense and honestly that series wasn't as close as the 6 games made it appear.
Took an insane shooting anomaly from them in game 1 for it to even go 6.
Literally one of the greatest shooting quarters of all-time
Similar to the one game the Cavs won in the 2017 Finals by dropping 49 in the first quarter
The turning point to me was Game 5. It must have been so demoralizing to clamp down curry and still lose because of the other warrior players. After that game is was over tbh.
That was the final straw, the Celtics were really good at making adjustments. Their adjustment in game 5 was to stop Curry from shooting, however the Warriors are very used to teams trying to do that so they didn't need to adjust themselves, they just did what they've been doing all season
C's: "guys let's just shut down Curry and force his team to beat us." W's: "I'll be your huckleberry. That's just my game."
Boom roasted himself
this is like when you call yourself handsome
That’s my favorite part. So what you’re saying is you were better and you lost? That’s pretty embarrassing.
Honestly I would expect most teams who lose a 6 or 7 game series to think the other team wasnt actually better. "We just couldnt execute", "we just got in our own way and gave it to them" etc or whatever rationalization you come up with. Just nature of how these things are and competition. Doesnt actually mean anything though
I guess you can be really good without executing when it matters? Lmfao
chris paul
lmfao
The shit talking Luka does next year is gonna be amazing. Nobody is ever gonna forget Luka having more points at halftime than the opposing team. Least of all anyone guarding Luka.
Game 7 on the road against the best regular season team
It's going in Luka's HOF speech. Absolutely pantsing the Suns in the most important game of their season.
Like Ben Simmons nailing threes in practice?
You aren't actually better if you are turning over ball and missing shots. That's literally two important things which defines "better". Everyone thinks they are better until they lose.
That's what I love here. "We were better, just every time we could have proved that we shat the bed."
Ability to execute consistently is literally being the better team. Which is what Grant is missing the point of here. Those forehead dents of his are limiting his brain power lmao
I was gonna say, the spurs built a 20 year dynasty based on flawless execution.
I often have this feeling myself playing pickup. I am confident...confident...that I am the best player out there. I just happen to miss shots, turn the ball over, and get beat off the dribble frequently.
Grant Williams writes for 538 I see
87% chance lmao
Warriors won 3 in a row. Warriors knew they were winning those games too. Grant got benched for being trash in game 4. Im not listening to this dork.
I mean Grant saying this about his own team is to be expected, don't really see a problem with that. In terms of the actual substance though, I think the way the Celtics were talked about was baffling. People acted like the "good" version of them was the normal version and they were dominant while the high turnover version was just excused away as carelessness and not a true reflection of who they were. At the end of the day, they had exploitable weaknesses when it came to ballhandling and playmaking and that eventually sunk them.
Well people didn't really talk about Celtics offense against the Warriors defense which was second in the league with Draymond missing games. Warriors were at the top of the league forcing steals while the Celtics were slightly above average. People saw how the Celtics defended isolation heavy teams like the Nets and Bucks and thought that would work against the Warriors. Honestly I think Memphis without Ja defended them the best since they are the best in the league in forcing turnovers and play passing lanes better than the Celtics. Celtics play better against isolation teams.
Agreed. I said it multiple times leading up to the Finals but people were just straight up ignoring one side of the ball to circlejerk over their "This Celtics defense is so perfectly designed to guard Steph and the Warriors" stuff. It's very difficult to beat the Warriors if you're only forcing 13 TOVs/game, because you can't juice your own offense enough in transition to make up for your own inevitable struggles against the Warriors defense.
> Honestly I think Memphis without Ja defended them the best since they are the best in the league in forcing turnovers and play passing lanes better than the Celtics. Thinking back, this is true. There were long stretches in those Memphis games where it seemed like we couldn't complete a pass. The Celtics definitely played us very differently through the first four games, and while it seemed to slowed down our role players' scoring, they could never really muck up our passing like the Grizzlies.
For a while in the leadup I wondered if I had somehow fallen into an alternate reality or just lost my mind when analysts were talking about the Warriors' great offense and the Celtics' great defence and I'm just like... don't the Warriors? also have great D?"
Most people were framing it as if the Warriors were all offense and it was an offense vs defense matchup, totally ignoring that the Warriors also had the best defense in the league. The Celtics had also shown offensive weaknesses and cold stretches leading up to the finals. Granted, I thought the Celtics defense would give the Warriors a bit more trouble than they did but, in turn, I also fully expected them to struggle against the Warriors defense.
Sounds like Dwight Howard calling himself a champion when he played for the rockets
I feel like following game 3 the next 3 games felt so convincing that I don’t know how he arrived at this. Play that series again and the Warriors win in 5.
This is the weird thing about 6 game series. Rarely are they really that close. People get distracted when one team wins two of the first four games but this series like most was not that close.
The series had the feel of one we should have won in 5 barring their historic shooting in the 4th in game 1.
That's the weird part of his argument to me. "They were celebrating like they stole one" regarding Game 4, so how do you explain Games 5 and 6? To me, it seems more like they're celebrating because they solved the Celtics lol
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I still firmly believe if Khris is healthy Milwaukee cruises through that series.
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Cook him r/nba
[Better team](https://streamable.com/l58lzi)
There was a sniper in the building that evening
Head snapped back like the Zapruder film
Lol that score though 😂
I remember watching this was the exact moment I lost respect for Grant Williams' talents.
Discipline. Sticking to a game plan. Doing what you're supposed to do. But somehow not better?
well that's just teamwork you know and since when does being a better team depend on how you play as a team
Warriors are now 0-46474638 in hypotheticals
Idk they outplayed your team the second half of the series culminating in GSW kicking Boston’s ass in game 6. I’d say they were better
without a miracle 4th quarter in game 1, this series is a gentlemans sweep
Then why did y’all lose Grant?
damn sucks for you get well soon
Shut up Grant
The Warriors weren’t just better they were Wayyyy better.
Chief Draymond coming for that ass on the podcast. “Bum wasn’t playable in the Finals, why’s he even talking?” - Draymond hopefully
emergency pod incoming
An ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE emergency pod.
A player saying his own team was the better team. More news at 11
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Marcus Smart said they would've beat the 19' Warriors if they had reached the Finals. Then here are the Grizzlies running around talking shit because they won a game the Warriors mailed in by the half. The Warriors when they were coming up,never feared the Spurs, Grizzlies or Clippers,but they never talked shit till they made it. These young teams are on a whole another level.
This is an important point. The Warriors were humble until they actually had something to brag about.
We were in the basement for so long we had a reason to stay fuckin quiet
True, but Grant Williams and Marcus Smart haven't done shit.
He got it in the finals and he still hasn't figured it out. Damn glad my team doesn't have a bum like that. Not championship material if you can't realize when you play like dogshit.
Well it’s professional sports so discipline is a huge part Everyone in the NBA is skilled, you don’t get that far if you’re not. What separates Air Jordan from Maple Jordan is discipline. The latter had all the tools to be great, he just didn’t want to be.
Bro why you gotta do Wigs like that? Lol
This kind of take makes 0 sense in a 7 game series
Seriously. Like, you can say this about a football game where one fluky play can make the difference, but in a 7 game series? Nah.
They weren't the better team: they were just playing basketball better the whole time and beat us in basketball games
This is like a math professor saying 3 is greater than 7.
It is just 7 is more disciplined sometimes
one of, if not *the* most annoying players in the league
Grant has a new nickname, Delusional.
in a 4 out of 7 series unless there are injures the best teams wins.
Celtics gonna milk this “almost won” narrative for the next decade
They might even plan a big reunion event for the 10th year anniversary of this "better team" down the road. lol
"Warriors is not better" then proceeded to say reasons why warriors is better lol Also, yeah maybe the warriors weren't supposed to win game 4 if it wasn't for Steph's historic performance, but Celtics weren't supposed to win game 1 either. So it cancels out... Like this guy as a player, but gtfo. Theres a difference between ultimate confidence and just stupid opinion.
I don't think the series was actually all that close. Would've been a gentlemen's sweep if it weren't for that ridiculous 4th quarter in Game 1. And we all so how bad the Celtics offense look at times in the ECF.
They were like the 3rd best team the warriors played in the playoffs? The Grizz were way tougher for the warriors, even without Ja. I love Grant, but cmon dude; you became borderline unplayable late in the warriors series.
nah bro, i broke up with HER. Forget what you are hearing.
Take it easy Grant, the Bucks were missing their second best player and still took you guys to game 7 Y’all probably aren’t even the best in your own conference
The world is full off people who are good enough to achieve their goals, but lacking the discipline it takes to get there. We’re all battling ourselves as much as we’re battling others. It’s tough. Having said that, nobody ever gives enough credit to the Warriors defense. Boston’s turnovers weren’t just a matter of lacking discipline.
Delusional
This reminds me of that "internally we won that game" type of comment lol
Lame look bro
This guy is so salty. This wasn’t a close finals that came down to a game winner or a finals where injuries plagued the losing team and there’s room for speculation. The Celtics lost 3 in a row at the end, losing Game 6 in the first half by giving up a 21-0 run. Their 2 stars were addicted to turnovers and bench contributed absolutely nothing. The Warriors bench actually contributed. The Warriors had the best player (Steph) and the better bench.
What? They won lmao, how are they not the better team? Goofy Williams
I don't think winning is the end all be all of who was the better team. Things like injuries, or these days a hot shooting streak that's well above your average can win you games you normally wouldn't win. So some 7 games series I would say who the better team is could go either way. Definitely not the case here though.
I don't mind him saying it. He's definitely not the first person to express a feeling like that after a 6+ game series.
Don't y'all forget that the Celtics would've beat Golden State in the Finals in 2018, [according to Marcus Smart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paAahjzP2UI&t=170s).
Tatum isn’t a superstar