Warriors face test against young, confident Celtics in Finals

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Warriors face test against young, confident Celtics in Finals

Insofar as Boston was the most consistently challenging opponent during the years when the Warriors were at their “Super Villains” best, it seems inevitable that this generation of fans eventually would get an NBA Finals against the Celtics.

Now that such a series has come to fruition, beginning with Game 1 on Thursday at Chase Center, we have no fewer than two intriguing subplots.

The first of which is Boston’s unique ability to give the Steve Kerr Warriors all sorts of fits. The Celtics are the only team against whom the Warriors have not won even one season series since 2014-15.

Kerr, whose .682 winning percentage ranks fourth on the career list, has a losing record against only one team. He’s 7-9 against the Celtics, with five 1-1 season splits, two 0-2 sweepings — and one 2-0 Warriors sweep, which came in Kerr’s first season and was Boston’s last with a sub-.500 record.

In the 16 games the teams have played against each other beginning with 2014-15, the Warriors have one double-digit victory. The Celtics have four such wins. Regarding the cumulative score over those 16 games, the Warriors are minus-63.

Kerr was 6-8 against former Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who last summer was promoted to president of basketball operations in the wake of Danny Ainge’s retirement. 

The teams split this season, with the Warriors taking a 111-107 victory at TD Garden on Dec. 17 and the Celtics rolling to a 110-88 rout on March 16 at Chase Center. Kerr is 1-1 against Ime Udoka, a longtime NBA assistant hired 11 months ago by Stevens.

Which brings us to the second and perhaps juiciest element: Age vs. youth.

The Warriors are the established, time-tested champions, with four veteran thirty-somethings — Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson – in the NBA’s exalted three-ring club.

They’ve been there, done that and are out to prove they still have what it takes to do it at least once more.

Boston represents the New NBA, with a rookie head coach guiding the team’s latest twin touchstones, 24-year-old Jayson Tatum and 25-year-old Jaylen Brown — neither of whom has ever missed the playoffs.

The Celtics are bouncy and young, and they’ve already made impressive statements against the NBA establishment, first sweeping the Brooklyn Nets of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, then ousting Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks in seven before outlasting Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in the seven-game Eastern Conference finals.

But there’s a reasonable chance that consecutive seven-game series will steal some of that bounce and youth — particularly for a Celtics team that has, at best, little more than an illusion of quality depth.

The Celtics opened the conference finals with an eight-man rotation, with guard Payton Pritchard, wing Aaron Nesmith and big man Daniel Theis coming off the bench. When Al Horford exited health and safety protocols for Game 3, Nesmith was bumped.

As the stakes grew taller in Games 5, 6 and 7, Udoka’s rotation dropped to 7.5 players, with Pritchard totaling 12 minutes over the three games.

The Celtics have played seven postseason series over the past 20 months, with four series lasting the full seven games. That’s a total of 40 playoff games; the only team with more is the Heat with 43.

The Warriors have been the league’s top-rated offense (116.1) this postseason. The Celtics have been the No. 2 defense (105.5).

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The burning question for the Finals is this: Do the Celtics have enough stamina to keep their very good defense at a very high level to vanquish the Warriors — and all their offensive weapons — four times in seven games?

Boston is young and confident. Winning Game 7 on the road after losing Game 6 at home is testimony to its resilience. The kids might even believe they are ready to show the Warriors the league is ready for a new era.

Until now, Golden State’s thorniest adversary in every way in eight seasons under Kerr has been — postseason excluded — the Celtics. And now they meet the Warriors at the NBA summit.

As it should be.

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