The Golden State Warriors never trailed in a single playoff series en route to the 2022 NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics changed that with a series-opening victory over the Warriors in Game 1. The Warriors tied things up in Game 2, but Boston reasserted control in Game 3 with a dominant 116-100 victory. Now, the Warriors find themselves in a somewhat familiar position: facing a 3-1 deficit. They didn’t recover when the Toronto Raptors put them in that hole in 2019.
The Warriors know that doing so is possible. They infamously blew such a lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. But to this day, those Cavaliers are the only team to pull that off in the Finals. If the Warriors want to win the championship, their best bet is going to be evening the series in Boston on Friday. Here’s how you can watch them try to do just that.
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Golden State Warriors at Boston Celtics
- When: Friday, June 10 | 9 p.m. ET
- Where: TD Garden — Boston, Massachusetts
- TV: ABC | Live stream: fuboTV (Get access now)
- Odds: GS +145; BOS -170; O/U 214 (via Caesars Sportsbook)
Featured Game | Boston Celtics vs. Golden State Warriors
Storylines
Warriors: The Warriors have won a road game in each of their past 26 postseason series. For those keeping track, that spans Stephen Curry’s entire career. Well, if the Warriors can’t take care of business in Game 4, they might not get another chance to take a road game in Game 6 because the Celtics could finish them off in San Francisco on Monday. The Warriors have to win at least one road game to win the championship, so we’re about to find out just how powerfully that experience of winning in other buildings really is.
Celtics: Jayson Tatum is shooting under 34 percent from the field in the Finals. That’s not a death knell for Boston. He’s contributed plenty in just about every other area of the game, and inefficient scoring is common in the Finals. But Tatum also grabbed his shoulder early in Game 3. With a healthy Tatum, the Celtics should be heavily favored to win the championship. If he’s really in pain? The Warriors have a chance to muck this thing up and claw their way back into the series.
Prediction, picks
The Warriors assisted on 66.9 percent of their field goals in the regular season, most in the NBA. In the Finals, they’re down to 62.3 percent. That dip is much more significant than it looks. Boston has completely taken away Golden State’s beloved motion offensively, turning the Warriors into a traditional pick-and-roll machine that is struggling to find any points when the ball isn’t in Curry’s hands. Until the Warriors prove they have some other method of generating offense, the Celtics have to be the pick. The pick: Celtics -4
