Who Wins The Series?

After the first three games of the 2022 NBA finals, the Celtics lead the series 2 games to 1. The Celtics took game 1, behind a 26-point game from Al Horford and a 24-point game from Jaylen Brown and despite a poor performance from Jayson Tatum. The Warriors responded in Game 2 behind a 29-point performance from Stephen Curry and with significant contributions from Jordan Poole who hit a deep three at the buzzer and the steady play of Draymond Green on defense. The Celtics were a 3.5-point favorite for game 3 and were a -165 on the money line compared to Golden State is +133. The Celtics ended up winning game 3 to take 2 games to 1 lead over the Warriors with Jaylen Brown Scoring 27 points and Jayson Tatum scoring 26. Let's take a look at what the Warriors and Celtics need to do in order to put their respective teams in a great position to win the series after game 3.

Warriors:

Defense: The biggest adjustment that the Warriors need to make for the rest of the series on defense, is to use as many defensive strategies as possible. They did a phenomenal job defending the Celtics in game 2 especially on Al Horford as he finished the game with 2 points after scoring 26 points in Game 1. They will not be able to rely on guys like Stephen Curry or Jordan Poole in the series defensively but they will need Wiggins to step it up. In game 3 the Warriors struggled to stop the duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as well as on the boards as they got outrebounded 47 to 31. In particular, the Celtics grabbed 15 offensive rebounds compared to the Warrior’s 6 which is largely due to the Celtics being bigger but it also was the effort of the Celtics that led to them crashing the glass. Th

Offense: Offensively the Warriors will need to get Klay Thompson and Draymond Green more involved in the offense. If Jordan Poole or Stephen Curry has an off night, then someone will need to pick up the offensive load. The man that should be able to pick up the offensive load if that were to occur is Klay who needs to be more efficient from the field. Also, even though Draymond’s role on the team is not to score he needs to look at the rim more and put more pressure on the defense. The Warriors should also consider moving Jordan Poole to the starting lineup over Klay Thompson if he continues to struggle while Jordan Poole gives them solid production off the bench. After game 3 Klay Thompson showed that he can still hoop as he had 25 points with 5 threes but he did shoot 7 of 17 overall from the field and 5-13 from three.

Celtics:

Defense: It is apparent that the Celtics need to switch up their defensive strategy if they want to continue to contain the Warrior's lethal offense. Their biggest focus needs to be to limit as many three-pointers as possible as the Warriors have three players that shoot at least 40% or higher from three. Since the Warriors have incredible ball movement they will look for players to either cut to the basket off a pin-down screen or a pick and roll and they will look for a three-pointer. The Celtics need to make sure they lock down all areas but especially the three-point line Let’s also not forget that when Marcus Smart defends Stephen Curry he usually does a very great job and slows him down. Stephen Curry in the last 5 seasons when defended by Marcus Smart shot 37% from the field and 30% from three and scored 30 points in 6 games. In the finals so far, Marcus Smart has done a decent job but again Curry is still shooting lights out from three. The Celtics did a phenomenal job in Game 3 limiting the number of threes the Warriors had as they made 15 as a team shooting 37.5% with Steph and Klay having 11 threes combined.

Offense: On offense, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need to continue to lead the charge scoring-wise but they need other scoring contributions as well. Al Horford, Marcus Smart, and Derrick White need to have better games moving forward as opposed to game 2 where they combined for 18 points. In game 3 Marcus Smart had 24 points and played excellent defense on Stephen Curry. Even though Al Horford and Derrick White had ok games, the Celtics still were able to win game 3 behind the play of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown leading the way. If those two struggle to get going early, Al Horford needs to take advantage of the smaller matchups when he is in the paint and Marcus Smart needs to continue to do his thing defensively while providing consistent play on offense.