The First Celtics-Warriors Matchup Of The Year Lived Up To The Hype

It seemed like we were destined to get an NBA Finals matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics coming into the 2018-19 season. The two-time defending champions were as dangerous as ever and had a potential ace in their pocket in free agent acquisition DeMarcus Cousins, while Boston was coming off of a surprise Eastern Conference Finals run that did not feature Kyrie Irving or Gordon Hayward.

While it took a little while for the Dubs to get cooking and the Celtics have been up and down to start the season, Saturday night’s game in Boston still had considerable hype around it. After 48 minutes, the hype was very much justified, as the two teams played a firecracker of a game, one which saw the Warriors steal a win in hostile territory.

Golden State came out on top, 115-111. In what will probably become a common refrain over the next few months as they gear up for the postseason, the Dubs’ starters shouldered the load. The grouping of Cousins, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson combined to score 98 of those 115 points, a number that gets slightly more insane when you consider Green only scored five of those.

Durant and Curry did the heaviest lifting. The former scored 33 points and chipped in nine rebounds, doing all the stuff that has become a hallmark of his most lethal games. There wasn’t anything that looked particularly difficult for Durant or anything like that, he just ruthlessly and cerebrally kept scoring en route to a monster evening.

Curry, meanwhile, did most of his damage in the second quarter. The best shooter to ever live turned into a flamethrower during the game’s second frame, knocking down five of his six threes over the 12-minute span.

At one point Curry was so locked in that he pulled up from deep and started dancing before the ball even went through the rim.

But no matter what Golden State did, it just could not put the pesky Celtics away. Al Horford (22 points, 13 rebounds) and Jayson Tatum (20 points) both had big nights, but the star was, as usual, Irving, who was absolutely sensational down the stretch. Irving scored 13 of his 32 points in the final quarter, pitching in 10 assists and six rebounds for good matters.

Irving did what he usually does when he’s locked in, attempting to take dudes 1-on-1 and looking to break them down off the dribble. Watch on this possession as Irving was checked by Andre Iguodala. As smart and patient of a defender as there is in the NBA, Irving kept dribbling and dribbling, looking to change speeds and directions at the drop of a hat with the hopes of finding even the slightest sliver of space, all the way up until he got just enough room to make it to the rim and lay the ball in off the glass through contact.

Irving found ways to finish with both hands at the rim. Here he brought the ball up the court, got guarded by Thompson, got to the rim, and laid the ball in with his left hand despite getting fouled.

For the game, Irving went 12-for-27 from the field and 4-for-10 from three. It wasn’t quite enough for Boston in the end, but I’ll be damned if somewhere between four and seven games of this come June wouldn’t be a blast. The two teams will meet one more time in the regular season — March 5 at Oracle Arena — and after that, the only time they’d have the chance to play again is in the NBA Finals.