Finals Game One: Living by the Three

The 2022 NBA Finals have arrived, and in this go-around, it's the Golden State Warriors facing the Boston Celtics. I'll be blunt: I am not happy that the Warriors are back in the Finals. One of the things that has soured me from the NBA is its lack of parity, but when last year gave us the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks, I thought there was hope for the NBA to be wide open. That hope was dashed this year. Now to be fair, this isn't the "superteam" Warriors, but still, it's the same-old, same-old. Even worse, the two seasons that passed since the Warriors' last Finals appearance in 2019 were both affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which means that some can even resort to saying that the pandemic is the only reason why the Warriors didn't returned to the playoffs, which would give the team more credit than they deserve.

The Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Dallas Mavericks to get to the Finals. The Eastern Conference's representative, the Boston Celtics, had quite a run to this year's Finals. They easily swept the Brooklyn Nets, then defeated the Milwaukee Bucks (last year's champions) before ousting the top-seeded Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. For the Celtics, this is their 22nd Finals appearance in franchise history, and they are looking for their 18th championship, which would give them the lead overall.

The first half was close between the clubs. Stephen Curry scored 21 of the team's 32 first quarter points, but was shut out in the second quarter. At the half, Boston led by two, but Golden State completely dominated the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Celtics by a score of 38-24. The Warriors entered the 4th up by 12, and with the home court on their side, it looked like victory was certain.

And then the 4th quarter happened.

The Celtics suddenly took over the final frame, hitting three after three after three. In fact, they hit nine of them! 27 of the 40 points that Boston went on to score were all behind the arc, and in a span of 12 minutes, a 12-point deficit became a 12-point victory for the road team. The Celtics took Game One, 120-108, and just like that, the team who entered the 2022 Finals with absolutely no overall Finals experience, took a 1-0 series lead over a Warriors team who was in their sixth Finals in eight years.

The player who led the Celtics in scoring in Game One? Not Jayson Tatum. Not Jaylen Brown. That honor went to Al Horford, who was finally getting his first taste of the Finals in his long career. Horford scored 26 points, and went 6-for-8 from behind the three-point line; Boston went 21-for-41 overall from behind the arc. Brown scored 24 points, but went 2-for-8 behind the arc, and Tatum only put up a dozen. Derrick White's 21 points from the bench was good enough to serve as the 3rd-highest scorer on the team. On the Warriors side, Curry only finished with 34 points, meaning that he only put up 13 points after the 1st quarter. The second-highest scorer was Andrew Wiggins with 20, while Klay Thompson only managed 15 of his own.

This was a statement win for the Celtics, in fact, it was their second straight statement win. They managed to strike big in Game Seven against Miami to get to the Finals, and in Game One against the Warriors, the Celtics had their backs to the wall entering the fourth quarter, but managed to rise to the occasion when they needed to do so. As a result, Golden State's home-court advantage is already gone, and they will need to take Game Two to save face in this series.

Game Two is Sunday in San Francisco.

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