NBA Finals 2022, Game 4 on Saturday, 11.06.2022
The Boston Celtics only need one more win against the Golden State Warriors to travel to the West Coast with two match points in the bag. If that were to happen tonight, the Californians would have their backs against the wall.
Personally, I am very impressed with what the Green and White basketball enthusiasts have been showing lately. As a result, it is truly not difficult for me to envision a 3:1 overall lead for the home side in my Celtics Warriors tip.
Sometimes playoff games happen, and the way they play out can have a lasting effect on the rest of the series – and that’s exactly the kind of key game basketball fans might have witnessed last Thursday.
For in Game 3, despite being physically outmatched, the Warriors again resorted to their previously successful plan against the Celtics of not defending the immediate vicinity of the basket, but instead increasingly preventing their opponents from hitting open threes in 1-on-1s.
The Celtics, for their part, accepted this challenge and also mastered it. In the interest of the Californians, they only converted 13 three-pointers, but shamelessly exploited the gaps in the zone that presented themselves!
The Warriors are no match for Boston physically, and when they also deliberately offer gaps to the Green and White, things can end badly. At any rate, the C’s Big Three proved that in impressive fashion.
Because Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart penetrated the zone again and again and were able to score an astonishing number of two-pointers from the shortest distance. Al Horford, on the other hand, did the dirty work, overwhelming the Yellow and Blue with his physicality.
In the first quarter, Al Horford shoulder-butted Otto Porter Jr into the crowd and then buried Stephen Curry just before the end. The Warriors’ three-point king isn’t out, but he’s banged up for tonight!
What has now definitely convinced me that Boston will win the NBA Finals has to do not only with their offensive performance, but more importantly with the way they managed to outclass the Warriors in the most important area of the court.
From the paint, the Celtics (52) scored twice as many points as the Californians (26). What’s more, with a preponderance of 15 to 6 offensive rebounds, the Green and Whites didn’t have to take every shot by any means.
This discrepancy in the number of free balls led to an imbalance of 22 to 11 points, which resulted from second chance points. In addition, it was an incredible 16 more rebounds on both sides of the court that Boston secured.
Paired with the home court advantage that Boston will benefit from one more time before shipping the Series to the West Coast for perhaps the last time, I don’t think anything can go wrong in terms of a 3-1 lead.
And indeed, after this show of force, they must also necessarily be considered the likely overall winner.
After all, if they put the Warriors under such physical pressure again, I really don’t know what the yellow and blue will do about it.
For the sake of completeness, I must of course mention the visitors’ win odds, which are currently hovering around 2.50, but are by no means to be recommended – especially not after yesterday’s humiliation.
Conclusion: Physical superiority is possibly even more important in basketball than in football – and this important advantage is clearly on the side of the home side in this final series.
The Celtics have physically dominated the Warriors, especially in the last duel, there is no other way to put it. In terms of rebounds and points from the paint, they were undeniably outclassed.
On top of that, the extremely physical style of play of an Al Horford is getting to the Californians. Stephen Curry will be able to play tonight, but was not running smoothly at the end of yesterday’s game after a hard tackle …
My Celtics Warriors tip: The C’s secure two “match balls”!
