“I know how hard it is to stop a LeBron James-led offense, it’s nearly impossible” JJ Redick suggests Tatum led Celtics will not be Warriors’ toughest challenge
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Stephen Curry against 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2022 Boston Celtics
Stephen Curry will be leading the charge for the Golden State Warriors against extremely hard defensive juggernaut, Boston Celtics. But as per player turned analyst JJ Redick, this won’t be the toughest opponents the Warriors will be facing in the 2021-22 season.
Golden State Warriors looked happy returning to the place where they “belong”. As Stephen Curry said in the conference finals, getting into the NBA finals was their 1st task and now they will look to take care of the business against Eastern Conference Champions Boston Celtics. While the Celtics proved many analysts wrong defeating KD, Giannis, and Miami Heat to reach the finals, they are yet to face the free-flowing offense and switching defense of the Warriors. Similarly, The Warriors might have overcome tough teams like the Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Mavs; they were not stretched to the physicality of the game and locked down defense like Boston. Despite that JJ Redick considers that the Warriors team had faced tougher opponents in the past.
As per the former NBA Star JJ Redick, 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers possessed all the definitive attributes that the Warriors had to deal with. LeBron James led the Cavs to their 1st ever Major sports title and his team had a great blend of offense and defense that the Warriors couldn’t deal with at the end.
Stephen Curry and Golden State Warriors have had tougher opponents in LeBron James lee offense
This Golden State Warriors core team will be playing their 6th NBA finals games, while the young Celtics team would be settling in for the 1st ever NBA Finals appearance. Celtics have proved themselves as a defensive juggernaut in this playoff season stopping some premium scorers like Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jimmy Butler to advance into the finals.
But as per JJ Redick that is not enough to defeat Golden State Warriors. While answering the toughest Challenge Stephen Curry had faced in the NBA finals, JJ considers the 2016 NBA Champions LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers were more difficult to play against than this 2022 Celtics team.
Sharpshooter in his playing days, JJ Redick understands that defenses can disrupt the flow of the offense, but teams need to score on the opposite end too after a great defensive play. Though Boston Celtics are the top defensive team in the 2022 NBA, Golden State Warriors are not far away, they are rather 2nd best team in defense.
Talking about the Offensive prowess, the Golden State Warriors are well equipped with shooters and play-makers to dismantle the defensive formation of the Celtics, but the Celtics offensively might not have an equal chance against the Warriors.
IN the 2016 NBA Finals, LeBron James was in his prime, and he had some good physical defenders who could stop the Warriors from moving the scoreboard, but at the same time Kyrie Irvin, LeBron James, and Kevin Love could hurt the Warriors team with strong offensive display as well. Banking on the balanced team structure, Cleveland made a famous comeback from a 1-3 series deficit to clinch their title at the Golden State home court.
As far as this Celtics team is concerned they are better defensively than the 2016 Cleveland team, but JJ considers the championship Cavs team had better offense which made it “most difficult” to face. We will be able to see how Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry put on the offensive plans to win over the Boston Celtics defenses. Similarly how Ime Udoka and Jayson Tatum make the offense work against the Warrior’s defense.
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Kunal Chawda
(600 Articles Published)