THE Warriors of the Golden State And Boston Celtics entered Saturday’s primetime game with the highest win total in the league over the past month. The Warriors were 12-3 since February 1. Boston was 10-1.
There was, especially given the context of Golden State’s 2022 victory on Boston’s home court and all the “declaration” speeches that accompany that story, some temptation to frame this as a heavyweight fight between two high-profile contenders.
This was not the case.
If anything, it took on the appearance of a tune-up fight, and a historically lopsided one at that — a 140-88 defeat by a Boston team chasing a much higher prize than an early March win over a Play – In the Tournament team. As Stephen Curry said afterward of Boston’s entire feeling that Boston still has something to prove to Golden State, “that narrative has gotten old.”
Indeed, 2022 was a long time ago. There are levels in 2024, and despite the Warriors’ recent surge, Boston is at a significantly higher level. Brown and Jayson Tatum They alone nearly doubled the scoring total of Golden State’s entire starting lineup (56-33).
The 52-point outburst was the third-largest margin of victory in franchise history. Boston’s 44-point halftime lead becomes its largest ever. With a 51-point win over Indiana in November and a 50-point win over Brooklyn a few weeks ago, Boston is the first team in history to record three 50-point wins in a single season.
The Celtics are now 29-3 at home and have now won 11 straight overall. During this winning streak, they have beaten teams by more than 22 points per game. Over the last six games, their average margin of victory is over 30 points. Simply put, they are mass teams, all season long. Their 11.6 point differential currently qualifies as the fourth-best mark of all time, a tenth of a point behind the 2016-17 Warriors, arguably the greatest team of all time.
“They’re the best team in the league right now and they played like that,” Curry, who missed all nine of his 3-point attempts and finished 2 of 13 overall, said of the Celtics. “They played hard and it was hard to watch from the other side.”
Again, there are levels to all of this, and the Warriors have certainly raised theirs over the past month. Since the return of Green Draymond, they played like one of the best teams in the league. But that doesn’t mean they are one of the best teams in the league. Anyone who believes they are is looking through the prism of pedigree and not current reality.
During this 12-4 stretch since February 1, the Warriors have picked up two real quality wins. They beat the Suns on a Curry game winner, and the Knicks on the road. They beat the Sixers without Joel Embiid and the Lakers without LeBron James. They beat the Nets, Pacers, Jazz, Hornets, Wizards And Raptors. They’ve had a tough schedule to start the season and now prepare to battle against a softer roster.
Three times during this stretch, the Warriors had the opportunity to face a top competitor: they could have, and probably I should have beat him Clippersbut they didn’t, and they lost to the Celtics and Nuggets by a total of 68 points. They are 13-25 against teams over .500.
None of this means the Warriors can’t be a dangerous team in a playoff series if they manage to get that far. The green makes it a totally different animal on both sides. Jonathan Kuminga now moves the needle considerably. Klay Thompson the right night can turn a game around. Curry can still swing an entire series.
But again, they have to make the playoffs first. Entering play Monday, they are No. 9 in the West, one game ahead of the No. 10 Lakers and one game back of No. 8. Nonconformists. Barring some kind of magical walk, they will almost certainly have to win at least one Play-In tournament game just to get on the court.
The Celtics, on the other hand, are nine games ahead of the Riders in the loss column for the No. 1 seed in the East and a six-game lead over Oklahoma City for the No. 1 overall seed. They will have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, where they have been virtually unbeatable this season with a plus-15.4 point differential.
With all due respect to former Warriors general manager Bob Myers, who said at halftime on ABC that this was a more important game for Boston than the Warriors, nothing could be further from the truth. If Boston had some sort of hold against the Warriors in particular, it won’t matter anyway. They won’t see them again. Golden State does not participate in the final.
The Celtics are paying attention to Heatwho eliminated them in the conference finals last year, the Deer, and the Sixers, if Embiid returns. Maybe they have their eye on Cleveland and New York as potential trap competitions. They watch the Nuggets, the Clippers and Thunder in the West if they qualify for the final.
They are a team not compete against the Warriors. No more. “The past is the past,” Jaylen Brown said. “We focus on what’s in front of us. We handle business and take care of it, but we don’t do it with arrogance. We do it with humility. And that’s a lot of respect for the Golden State Warriors, but we feel like it’s our time now.
