SAN FRANCISCO – Nikola Jokic gave it his all but failed. Ja Morant was bringing heat before he was sidelined, missing the final three games. Luka Dončić pushed hard but lasted five games before he went home.
Three alphas, leading three very different offenses, came at the Warriors this postseason and none could complete the assignment.
And now, in the NBA Finals, the Celtics are the last team standing between the Warriors and a championship. One look at their roster is enough for Mike Brown, the Warriors assistant coach in charge of defense, to realize gone are the days of a single-file line of big dogs.
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“When you look at Denver and Memphis and Dallas, they have really good players, but there’s one main guy behind each of those teams,” Brown told NBC Sports Bay Area this week. “And everybody, for the most part, plays off that one guy.
“This team, they have multiple guys that can go get it.”
First among those guys is 6-foot-8 forward Jayson Tatum, a three-time All-Star who on Sunday was named MVP of the Eastern Conference finals. He’s averaging 27.0 points per game in the playoffs, shooting 44.6 percent from the field, including 37.5 percent from distance. At 24, he’s among the 15-20 guys with the tools to win a regular-season MVP award.
“His talent is off the charts,” Brown said. “He can shoot the 3 in catch-and-shoot or off the dribble. He’s got a pull-up game, he’s got a post game, he can get to the rim and finish. He can get out in transition and lead the break. ... I don’t know if there is anything out there, for such a young guy, that he can’t do.”
Golden State Warriors
The closest comp is Dončić -- except Tatum is a vastly superior athlete. Andrew Wiggins, the primary defender on Dončić, will draw the same assignment against Tatum. Whereas Dončić isn’t much of a threat to slither past a defender, Tatum definitely has that ability.
Those instances in which Wiggins or any other defender could react and recover against Dončić will be substantially more difficult against Tatum.
While Dončić had only one teammate posing a serious threat to blast into the paint, Jalen Brunson, Brown pointed out that Tatum has at least three: Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Derrick White.
“Derrick White, off the dribble, can go get it,” Brown said. “So, if you throw him in there, along with Smart and Brown and Tatum -- a guy who can shot-fake and go get it, like (Al) Horford and (Grant) Williams -- that’s a lot of guys.
“So, we have to be really good at understanding the personnel, especially in closeout situations. But just as importantly, in one-on-one situations. We can allow them to what they do best.”
While the Celtics were playing remarkable defense (a 102.4 rating) against the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, the Warriors played good but not great defense (109.7) against both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Dallas Mavericks. Golden State is 12-4 this postseason largely because its offense has, with few exceptions, been humming.
Brown’s response to the defensive issues has been to plumb the depths of the playbook, from the customary switching to man-to-man, from straight zone to box-and-1. Sometimes all four tactics in the same quarter, often after consulting with chief lieutenant Draymond Green.
“If I feel a strong belief from Draymond, which 99.9 percent of the time I do, I’m rocking with it,” Brown said.
There are, according to Brown, two keys to slowing Boston’s offense. The first is defensive discipline, something the Warriors don’t always have but will be crucial given the Celtics’ array of weapons, tendency to isolate and willingness to launch from deep. The second is containing their transition, something Miami struggled with.
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“When you look at Milwaukee in transition, you see Giannis (Antetokounmpo) coming downhill at you,” Brown said. “When you look at Boston in transition, you see Smart coming downhill, Tatum coming downhill and Brown coming downhill. And you also see White coming downhill.”
The Warriors this postseason have tossed plenty of praise toward Brown, flipping kudos to his concepts while holding themselves accountable for individual failures. They have seven games, at most, to please him and themselves before he leaves to become head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
The broad dimension of Boston’s offense will make the last test of Brown’s six-year run as an assistant -- and occasional interim head coach -- with the Warriors as challenging as any.