Why these Celtics look so much like the 73-win Warriors
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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
WHEN THE BOSTON CELTICS convened for training camp in September, it began yet another NBA champion’s quest to repeat for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
Now, just two weeks into the 2024-25 campaign, the Celtics will face the franchise whose record-shattering success they are trying to emulate: the Golden State Warriors (7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, ESPN).
The matchup in Boston has even more buzz after Celtics star Jayson Tatum‘s time with Team USA this summer, which included Warriors coach Steve Kerr benching him twice. It’s the annual visit to TD Garden for Stephen Curry — and a rematch of the NBA Finals from 2022, when the Warriors claimed their fourth title in eight seasons. It’s also a reminder of the heights the Celtics are striving to reach.
“I believed we were going to win at some point,” Tatum said on media day in September of the Celtics’ run to the 2024 title. “It was never just about trying to just win one.
“All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship. Now it’s just a conversation of, ‘How great are you trying to be?'”
While the league is boasting a six-year run of parity, the path Tatum and the Celtics seek looks eerily similar to the 2015-16 Warriors — the winningest team of all time — from their style of play to their roster construction to the skeptics who question the veracity of their championship.
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AFTER BREAKING THROUGH for the 2015 title, the Warriors weren’t yet viewed as the NBA’s next dominant franchise. Despite starting the 2014-15 season 21-2, finishing with a record of 67-15 and winning the Western Conference by 11 games, they were derided as a “jump-shooting team” by pundits who didn’t believe Golden State’s style had staying power.
And Curry, who that season won the first of his back-to-back MVP awards, lost a narrow vote for Finals MVP to teammate Andre Iguodala, exacerbating criticism surrounding the guard’s ability to be the best player on a championship team.
After beating a LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers team that was without both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals, there were attempts to downplay Golden State’s championship because it came at the hands of a diminished opponent. Some even dismissed the six-game series win as lucky.
Boston was similarly billed as a team too reliant on jump shooting — and similarly critiqued for the relative ease of their title run. (The Celtics broke the NBA record for 3-pointers made in 2023 and 2024). The Celtics’ playoff run was dominated by injuries to star opponents; Miami‘s Jimmy Butler, Cleveland‘s Donovan Mitchell and Indiana‘s Tyrese Haliburton all missed multiple games against Boston. And Tatum narrowly missed out on Finals MVP, with Jaylen Brown claiming the award and Eastern Conference finals MVP.
“Joe [Mazzulla] was probably the happiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP,” Tatum said. “That was odd, but if you know Joe, it makes sense.”
The Celtics coach spent the summer making sure his team didn’t suffer a championship hangover.
“So many times, people are focused on trying to win. I think it’s just as important as keeping yourself from losing,” Mazzulla said on media day. “As hard as it is to win, it’s very easy to lose.”
“STRENGTH IN NUMBERS” defined those Warriors championship teams, as Kerr relied on a deep rotation, including a committee approach at center. The Celtics play with a similar ethos. Payton Pritchard already has had two 20-point games off the bench this season. Reserve centers Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta have all helped fill in for center Kristaps Porzingis, who is out at least another month after offseason ankle surgery. (Kornet scored 19 points in 30 minutes Saturday at the Charlotte Hornets.)
Iguodala, a dynamic two-way wing, was brought to Golden State as the potential missing player in the Warriors’ championship puzzle. For Boston, Jrue Holiday has delivered a similar impact after he was acquired last fall.
Golden State’s “Death Lineup” featured five elite defenders, each of whom were credible 3-point threats. Boston’s run to the 2024 title was powered by six core players — Tatum, Brown, Holiday, Porzingis, Al Horford and guard Derrick White — dominating in the same manner.
The Warriors were built around their trio of drafted stars — Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Boston has been constructed around the dynamic wing tandem of Tatum and Brown. And since Mazzulla became coach before the 2022-23 season, Boston has gone 128-44 — 14 wins better than any other NBA team.
All of that has positioned the Celtics as well as any defending champion over the past six seasons to become the first repeat winner since those Warriors teams with Curry and Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018.
Those Warriors squads came into existence, however, because Golden State’s 73-win season in 2015-16 ended in heartbreak after blowing a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. For all of the similarities between this Celtics team and the early years of the Golden State dynasty, that is the one result for which Boston hopes history doesn’t repeat itself.
