2022 NBA Finals preview: Three reasons why Celtics can beat Warriors

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The 2022 NBA Finals featuring the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics is a dream matchup for basketball fans.

There will be a lot of star power on the court in this series. The environments at Chase Center in San Francisco and TD Garden in Boston should be incredible, too, as two of the league's most passionate fan bases cheer on their team.

These franchises also are two of the most successful. The Celtics are aiming for their 18th championship, which would be a record. The Warriors have won three championships in the last seven years (2015, 2017, 2018) and six overall. These teams also met in the 1964 NBA Finals, where the Celtics prevailed in five games.

The Warriors are the betting favorites to win this series. They also have more experience than Boston.

But it would be foolish to discount the Celtics' chances. Let's look at three reasons why the Celtics can absolutely defeat the Warriors and win Banner 18.

1) Celtics have plenty of scoring depth

The Warriors' offense gets a lot of praise, and rightly so. It leads the playoffs at 114.3 points scored per game. But the Celtics have plenty of guys who can score as well.

Let's start with Jayson Tatum, fresh off his Eastern Conference Finals MVP performance. He averaged 25 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.6 assists against the Miami Heat, while shooting 47.6 percent from the floor.

Jaylen Brown quietly put together a strong conference finals himself, averaging 24.1 points, seven rebounds and 3.1 assists versus Miami. Brown shot 38 percent from 3-point range and 48.7 percent overall.

Boston's secondary scoring is impressive.

Even though Marcus Smart sometimes shoots a little too much, he is capable of providing 15 to 25 points on a given night. Game 7 against the Heat saw Smart chip in 24 points. Al Horford and Grant Williams are threats from beyond the arc, and this helps space the floor for Tatum and Brown to drive and score or kick the ball out to the open man on the perimeter.

Payton Pritchard is capable of catching fire off the bench. He's a quality 3-point shooter and can even pull up from midrange. Pritchard has the highest offensive rating (113.9) and net rating (10.9) of any Celtics player during the playoffs. If this turns into a high-scoring series, Pritchard could see more time than he did in the three previous series.

Derrick White is not an elite scorer, but he averaged 14.3 points over the last four games of the conference finals, including a 22-point performance in a Game 6 loss. He closed the series hitting five of 10 3-point attempts over the final two games.

The Celtics should score well over 100 points throughout this series. This offensive depth, combined with their elite defense (more on that below), gives Boston a strong chance to win the Finals.

2) Boston's elite, versatile defense

The Celtics match up better against the Warriors' high-powered offense than any team in the league.

Boston has the talent, high IQ level, length, toughness and versatility on defense to frustrate the Warriors and make them earn every single point. The Celtics are so versatile that they can switch just about every matchup on the floor, which means there are no weak links for the Warriors to hunt on offense. Derrick White might be the weakest C's defender on the court for large stretches of this series, but he's by no means a bad defensive player.

Marcus Smart is well-equipped to guard Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, who's the best outside shooter in league history. The Celtics have the best defensive starting lineup in the league with Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford and Robert Williams. All five received Defensive Player of the Year votes, and Smart actually won the award.

Horford and Williams are elite interior defenders. Grant Williams is capable of guarding good perimeter players, too.

The Warriors are loaded with quality 3-point shooters. The Celtics will be ready for that, though. They had the No. 1 ranked 3-point defense during the regular season. The C's rank No. 2 in 3-point defense in the playoffs. Boston does a great job fighting over screens and contesting outside shots. The Celtics also rank No. 2 in opponents' field goal percentage and No. 2 in defensive rating during the playoffs.

The Warriors have not faced an opponent in the postseason that plays with the level of physicality and skill defensively that the Celtics bring to the floor. It will be an adjustment for Golden State early in Game 1.

3) Celtics have fared well vs. GSW, even on the road

No team in the league has played the Warriors tougher than the Celtics over the last seven seasons. Boston's 9-5 record versus Golden State is by far the best during that span. 

If you go back to Steve Kerr's first season as Warriors head coach in 2014-15, the Celtics are the only team with a winning record against Golden State over that stretch.

The Celtics also have won four of their last five games against the Warriors, including an impressive 110-88 victory at Chase Center on March 16. 

The Warriors have homecourt advantage in this series, but it shouldn't be a huge factor given the Celtics' recent success in California. The C's have won four consecutive games at Chase Center/Oracle Arena, with their last road loss to the Warriors coming in 2018. 

The Celtics won't be intimidated by the Warriors crowd, and their recent run of good performances against Golden State should add to the team's already high confidence level entering Game 1.

Don't forget that Boston has a 7-2 road record in the playoffs, including elimination game road wins against the Bucks (Game 6 in Round 2) and the Heat (Game 7 in conference finals).

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