Warriors win 2022 NBA title, defeat Celtics in 6 (2024)

The scene was so familiar, Stephen Curry wrapped in Steve Kerr’s embrace. Or Klay Thompson in Draymond Green’s. Or mix and match.

In just two seasons, the Golden State Warriors went from worst, back to first. It was as though they never left. The dynasty reigns on.

The Warriors are again NBA champions, conquering the Boston Celtics in six games with a 103-90 victory in Game 6.

“They are all unique, they are all special,” Kerr said. “I think this one may have been the most unlikely just from the standpoint of where we’ve been the last couple years.”

It makes four titles in eight seasons for the team coached by Kerr, piloted by Curry, with Thompson as his wingman and Green as the backbone, and fell on the same date, June 16, as the night they won their first title together — seven years ago in Cleveland.

Two seasons ago, with Kevin Durant gone, Thompson on the shelf with a torn knee ligament, and Curry out for most of the season with a broken hand, the Warriors lost 50 games — the most in the NBA during a pandemic-shortened campaign.

“I can say it now, I don’t know how many teams could carry that as long as we have with the expectations of comparing us now to teams of past and make it to the mountaintop again,” Curry said.

As expected, Curry shook off a historically poor shooting performance from Game 5 to pace the victors with 34 points on six 3s. He added seven rebounds and seven assists, and, in a departure from the norm, was named finals Most Valuable Player for the first time.

In six mostly brilliant games, Curry averaged 31.2 points and shot 44.2 percent from 3-point range. He fell one 3-pointer shy of tying his own finals record for 3s in a series (32), but somehow shot 0-of-9 in Game 5, breaking his records for consecutive games with at least one 3 in postseason games and another for most games in a row with a 3, regular or postseason.

Thompson, who is known this time of year as Game 6 Klay, added 12 points, five rebounds, and two 3s. He returned to action in January after more than two years away from the sport, due to two devastating leg injuries. By comparison to past Game 6s, this one was hardly memorable — statistically — for Thompson. But it was the best, perhaps only end of an arduous, trying journey back to the court.

“I saw it in the beginning of season. People called me crazy,” Thompson said. “I said championship or bust, because I saw how we came out of the gate, 18-2. And playing just that Warriors brand of basketball that made us so successful, and then knowing I was going to be inserted in that, I knew we had a chance to do something special, and here we are. It’s so incredible. Wow.”

Green, maligned at times during the finals for poor offensive play, and for picking on the Celtics, was sensational on Thursday with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists. The newcomers to the dynasty, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, finished with 18 points and 15 points, respectively.

Curry, Thompson, and Green have now won 21 finals games — the most of any trio in the last 50 years. Andre Iguodala was also a part of all four championship teams, including this one, but didn’t play Thursday until the final minute.

“Me, Dray, Klay, and Andre, we finally got that bad boy,” Curry said. “It’s special. It’s special. Just all the work that went into it, the faith and belief and everybody in that locker room that’s getting to spray champagne around the locker room, everybody mattered in that process. So I’m just proud of everybody."

This is the Warriors’ seventh title overall, dating to 1947 when they played in Philadelphia. They trail only the Celtics and the Lakers for the most titles in league history, at 17 apiece. They are the second opposing team in history to close out a finals in Boston and the first since the Los Angeles Lakers did it in 1985.

The Celtics were in 11th place in the East in mid-January. They were playing with a first-time coach and a drastic shift away from a traditional point guard, which allowed them to bludgeon teams for months with a stingy defense. It worked all the way through Game 3 of the finals, after which they held a 2-1 lead.

From that point on, they couldn’t stop Curry or hang on to the ball, and when Curry went cold in Game 5, the rest of the Warriors made Boston pay for leaving them open.

“It’s going to hurt. It will hurt for a while,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “Probably that stuff never goes away. That was part of the message. Let it propel us forward, the experience. Growth and progress that we made this season. Obviously, getting to your ultimate goal and fall a few games short is going to hurt. There are a lot of guys in there, very emotional right now.”

The Celtics lost the last three games, marking the first time since Dec. 25-29 they lost three in a row, and they committed at least 15 turnovers in all three losses. On Thursday, Boston gave the ball away a season-worst 22 times, falling to 0-8 this postseason when it hit that 15-turnover threshold.

Boston was led in scoring by Jaylen Brown, who finished with 32 points. Al Horford added 19, and Jayson Tatum struggled with 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting. The Celtics’ bench was dominated again by the other side, getting outscored by Golden State’s reserves, 21-5.

“Offensively, we were not good this series,” said Brown, who was Boston’s leading scorer for the series with an average of 23.5 points per game. “Give credit to the Warriors. They forced us into doing stuff that we didn’t want to do, and that resulted in turnovers, et cetera. At times, we just got to be better. That’s it.”

The Celtics opened play Thursday with the appropriate edge and desperation. They led 14-2. The TD Garden crowd, tense as it filed into the arena, erupted in relief and euphoria. There would be more times to cheer, another point when it even felt like the Celtics might be in the game again. But it was a mirage.

Golden State went on a 35-8 run from 7:48 of the opening period, well into the second — that included a 21-0 spurt, the longest run in a finals game in 50 years. The Warriors led by 22 with 6:12 left in the third quarter after a Curry 3, and as the Celtics called timeout, Curry pointed to his ring finger in celebration.

The Celtics got back in the game behind 10 points from Brown and 12 from Horford to end the quarter, perhaps offering the last glimmer of hope.

Curry’s 3-pointer with 3:17 to go put the Warriors ahead, 96-81, and erased any lingering doubt. It was the fitting end to a finals where there was never a doubt as to the best player, the leader, the transcendent figure. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Curry fell into embrace with his father, Dell, and then to the court, with his head in his hands.

“I blacked out for a second,” Curry said. “These last two months of the playoffs, these last three years, this last 48 hours, every bit of it has been an emotional roller coaster on and off the floor; and you’re carrying all of that on a daily basis to try to realize a dream and a goal like we did tonight.”

In 2015, while LeBron James dominated, Iguodala was named MVP for slowing him down. In 2017 and 2018, the award and the series belonged to Durant. The loss to the Raptors in the 2019 finals, during which Durant and Thompson suffered year-long injuries (and Durant left via free agency), the bottoming out in 2020, and a failure to make the playoffs followed.

The Warriors opened the season 18-2. Thompson eventually returned. Green looked more like his former self. And the newer players like Poole, Wiggins and Gary Payton II began to find their niche in the Warriors’ machine.

They beat Denver in five games. Memphis in six. Dallas in five. They lost the series opener to Boston, and trailed in the series again.

When they turned it around this time, it was Curry at center stage, like he has been throughout the Warriors dynasty, just not at this particular point in the journey — with the confetti falling, the cigars lighted and the Warriors hoisting trophies.

“I’m obviously thrilled for everyone in that room, and a lot of people had a big hand in this, but I think the thing with Steph is, you know, without him, none of this happens,” Kerr said. “That’s not taking anything away from Joe (Lacob) and (Peter Guber’s) ownership, because they have built an incredible organization. Bob Myers, hell of a GM. Our players, we have had so many great players, but Steph ultimately is why this run has happened.”

(Photo: Bob DeChiara / USA Today)

How did the Warriors win the title?

Joe Vardon, NBA senior writer: It really did start with defense. The Warriors have to be credited with forcing the Celtics into mistakes over and over.

Secondly, Steve Kerr’s small maneuver of swapping Kevon Looney out of the starting lineup, for Otto Porter Jr., paid off in so many small and subtle ways (Porter didn’t do much numbers-wise) that it became an enormous factor.

And Curry, of course Curry.

Where this Warriors championship compares to the previous three

Vardon: Because it is the continuation of a dynasty that momentarily fell apart, and because of Klay’s knee, and because of the new guys involved, and because Kevin Durant was not involved, I think it ranks second, behind the first one against Cleveland.

Yes, the Cavs were without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in that series, but the Warriors still had to beat LeBron James, and overcome a 2-1 deficit to do it.

Draymond Green said it Wednesday — this Celtics team doesn’t compare to playing against LeBron. Fine, then this title ranks behind the first time the Warriors beat him.

How Steph winning Finals MVP elevates his legacy

Vardon: I don’t really think it adds much to Steph’s legacy. He was already one of the greatest to ever play. I don’t think anyone would have held it against a four-time champion with the numbers he’s produced if he didn’t win.

But it is vindicating, to him, and cause for celebration, for him. And after all he’s done for the Warriors, for the NBA, and for the sport, he deserves this moment.

Where do the Celtics go from here?

Vardon: This is a fascinating discussion. They destroyed teams for months with their defense, enabled by playing Marcus Smart at point guard — which is a reach offensively.

It didn’t hurt the Celtics until it killed them, when the Warriors harassed and tricked a team with no ball handlers into throwing it away over and over again. So Boston probably needs to fix that, somehow.

But doing so would require moving Smart back to the bench. Otherwise, the Celtics’ bench really struggled in this series and upgrades are probably coming there.

Still a fantastic season for Boston that no one saw coming for the first two-plus months of the season.