Skip to content
BOSTON — Throughout the 2022 NBA playoffs, closeout games have been the Warriors’ kryptonite. The opposite is true for the Boston Celtics.
While the Warriors are down 3-0 in closeout games in the first crack, the Celtics face elimination by a perfect 3-0. With a chance to win a fourth championship in the last eight seasons, the Warriors will go head-to-head Thursday night in the TD Garden in Game 6 of the NBA Finals for the fourth time trying to express their charm.
Several warriors stressed Wednesday that finishing a series is not difficult, but winning a finals series is the hardest game of your career. Steve Kerr has been in this boat several times, both as a player and as a coach for the Warriors. Winning Game 6 would earn him nine championship rings – five as a player and four as a coach.
“It’s difficult for a lot of reasons,” Kerr said Thursday at the Warriors shootaround. “No. 1, you are in the final and you are playing against a great team. And a great team playing with desperation will be hard to beat every night. But when you’re also that close, it’s easy to get over-anxious and over-hyped.
“You just have to find the right space to compete and that’s the challenge tonight.”
The Warriors Big Three, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have all been here before. So does Andre Iguodala.
But the Warriors also rely on a handful of players who don’t have the same experience as these four. Gary Payton II is one of them. He was one of Golden State’s heroes, winning Game 5 and picking up 15 points off the bench along with five rebounds and three steals. Kerr will certainly call on him again in key situations against the Celtics.
Payton said Thursday that the best advice he’s received in the past two days is to relax. He’s focused on maintaining the same mindset throughout the season and hanging on from the moment he wakes up until the last buzzer rings.
Like the rest of his teammates, those who were here and those who weren’t, he knows how tough it will be to end the Celtics’ season in Boston.
“It’s going to be tough,” Payton said. “It’s going to be difficult. They keep saying that. It’s going to be tough and difficult. Be prepared, be ready for anything and just do what we’ve done the last two games.”
With their Game 5 win, the Warriors handed the Celtics their first consecutive losses since Jan. 21. They haven’t lost three games in a row since December 29. The franchise as a whole has never lost three games in a row in the Finals.
Not once.
RELATED: Dubs hail latest road trip with hopes of celebrating flight home
When the Warriors went down two games to one earlier in the series, Thompson said he was getting “big 2015 vibes.” These vibrations can now transform into reality. Seven years to the day, the Warriors won their first title in 40 years after going down 2-1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals and celebrating on court.
Whether history is on their side or not, all that matters is the here and now. The past is the past, the present is the only focus for the Warriors to come full circle and bring another title back to The Bay.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast