3 Things We Learned From Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals Game 5 On Monday

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 104-94 in Game 5 of the 2022 NBA Finals on Monday to take a 3-2 series lead heading to Boston for Game 6 on Thursday.

Brett Siegel | Jun 14, 2022

3 Things We Learned From Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals Game 5 On Monday /

The 2022 NBA Finals has been a series that has gone back-and-forth in terms of momentum swings between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors. Entering Game 5 on Monday neither side had suffered two consecutive losses and both the Celtics and Warriors have been the two best teams in the league when it comes to picking up a win immediately following a loss.

In fact, the Celtics were a perfect 7-0 in games following a loss in this postseason. The key word here is “were,” as all good things come to an end at some point.

Early on in the first quarter and throughout the second quarter of Game 5, Stephen Curry really struggled to get anything going offensively for the Warriors with Marcus Smart face guarding him every single possession, but it did not matter because Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and surprisingly Draymond Green stepped up to carry the load offensively.

Along with playing near picture-perfect defense, the Warriors were able to get things going on both ends of the court and they took a 12-point, 51-39 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The third quarter of this series has belonged to Golden State, as they entered Monday night +49 against Boston in the third, but in Game 5, it was the Celtics who controlled the start of the second-half.

In the first and second quarters, the Celtics combined to go 3-13 from three-point range, missing their first twelve shots from beyond-the-arc. In the third quarter, Boston shot 6-8 from three-point range and they made eight consecutive threes at one point dating back to the end of the second quarter!

With this barrage of threes from the perimeter, the Celtics quickly erased their 12-point halftime deficit with a 13-2 run and they even took as much as a 5-point lead at one point, a 21-point turnaround form when the Warriors led by 16 in the first-half.

Leading by one point entering the fourth quarter, the Warriors were having flashbacks to their second-half collapse in Game 1 of this series on their home court. With Curry still struggling, this game was going to come down to who wanted it more and in Game 5, Andrew Wiggins and the Warriors clearly wanted it more.

The Celtics looked absolutely gassed in the fourth quarter after giving it their all to get back in this game in the third and Wiggins took advantage of this. Constantly attacking the Celtics defense, regardless of who was guarding him, the former No. 1 overall pick and All-Star forward finished Game 5 with 26 points on 12-23 shooting and 13 rebounds, his second-straight game with a double-double.

Picking up a 104-94 win on their home floor, the Golden State Warriors now lead this NBA Finals series 3-2 and are one win away from being back on top of the basketball world!

Game 6 on Thursday night in Boston should be yet another exciting and thrilling battle between two of the league’s best teams and based on what we learned from Game 5 on Monday, it is not hard to believe that Thursday’s game could very well be the final game of the 2021-22 NBA season.

Andrew Wiggins May Just Be The Finals MVP If Warriors Win The Series

Okay, hold on a second. Weren’t we all crowning Stephen Curry the presumable Finals MVP after his 43-point performance on the road in Boston in Game 4 of this series?

I mean, yeah, we were all calling Curry the presumably Finals MVP based on his performances in every game of this series, but Andrew Wiggins very quietly has made his presence felt in this series leading up to Monday night's game.

Game 5 was Wiggins “coming out party” if you will and without every single one of his points and rebounds, the outcome of this game is completely different, most likely in favor of the Boston Celtics.

Andrew Wiggins’ ability to not only score off-the-dribble and be a secondary playmaker, but be the primary defender on Jayson Tatum in this series is what has tilted the balance of the series all for the Warriors.

While his numbers have not been terrible, Jayson Tatum has been held in check for a vast majority of the series because of Wiggins’ on-ball pressure and his length. Tatum, who was voted All-NBA First Team and ranked seventh in the league in scoring this season, averaging 26.9 points per game, has been held to 23.2 points per game against the Warriors, 36.7% shooting from the floor and he is averaging 3.6 turnovers per game.

Say what you want about the intensity Draymond Green, Marcus Smart and others play with defensively, but Wiggins has done a masterful job defending Tatum in this series and neither Tatum nor the Celtics have an answer on how to score against Wiggins.

In addition to his defensive instincts and ability to limit the Celtics’ superstar, Andrew Wiggins has also been arguably the second-best scoring weapon on the Warriors next to Stephen Curry and he has been the best rebounder not just for the Warriors, but in this series period!

Scoring 26 points and bringing in 13 rebounds in 43 minutes on Monday night, Wiggins recorded his second 20-point game of the NBA Finals and recorded his second consecutive double-double.

He had a career-high 16 rebounds in Game 4 and in Game 5, he had 13 rebounds. That’s 29 total rebounds for a wing, not a big man, over the course of two games against a team that ranked fifth in rebounding during the regular season!

Wiggins has been arguably the most important and best defender in this series, he has been arguably the second-best offensive talent and he has been arguably the best rebounder in this series.

All of that adds up to Finals MVP-like numbers.

Stephen Curry is one of the greatest of all-time and he definitely deserves to be the Finals MVP should he close out Game 6 for the Golden State Warriors, but when you talk about who has had the biggest impact in this series, it has been Andrew Wiggins.

Turnovers Continue To Plague The Celtics

Entering Game 5, the Boston Celtics have gone 14-2 in the playoffs when they had 15 or less turnovers in a game. When they had 16 or more turnovers in a game in these playoffs though, they have gone 0-6.

In Game 5, the Celtics turned the ball over a total of 18 times and what do you know, the numbers don’t lie!

Boston ended up losing this one 104-94 as mentioned earlier, meaning that they are now 0-7 in the playoffs when they turn the ball over 16 or more times.

Turnovers directly correlate to losing and any good team or any competent basketball mind can tell you this. For the Celtics though, their turnovers directly impact their defense because they are not the most gifted offensive team.

Scoring does not come at a premium some nights for Boston, especially if they are struggling to hit three-pointers like they did in Game 5 against the Warriors.

When you look at the three losses the Celtics have had in the NBA Finals to the Warriors, not only have they turned the ball over 19 times in Game 2, 16 times in Game 4 and now 18 times in Game 5, but in all three of these losses, they have failed to eclipse 100 points on offense.

Golden State is one of the most gifted offensive teams in the league and the last thing you want to do if you are the Celtics is put more strain on your defense to get stops due to the fact that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the two greatest shooters of all-time, are running around on the perimeter hunting their shots.

Following Game 5, the Celtics have now turned the ball over a total of 78 times through the first five games of the NBA Finals and these 78 turnovers have directly led to 103 points for the Warriors.

Just to put this in perspective, Golden State scored 100 total points in their Game 3 loss and they only scored 104 points in Game 5, which ended up being a 10-point victory. The 103 points the Celtics have allowed off of turnovers is the most by any team through the first five Finals games since the 1992 Chicago Bulls allowed 111 points off of turnovers, per Elias Sports Bureau.

Turnovers have directly led to the downfall of the Boston Celtics in this series and should they continue to be careless with the basketball, they will lose Game 6 and this NBA Finals series on their home floor.

Warriors’ Depth Is Better Than That Of Boston’s

Coming off of a 43-point performance, the Boston Celtics knew that they needed to stop Stephen Curry if they were to have any chance of winning Game 5.

All night long, Curry was harassed by Marcus Smart and every time he saw a flicker of light and a small path to the basket, he was cut off by a double-team and sometimes a triple-team!

Boston was more than comfortable playing 4-on-4 and taking Curry out of the picture, which is why the two-time MVP finished with just 16 points on 7-22 from the floor and 0-9 from three-point range, snapping his streak of 233 consecutive games with a made three-pointer.

If you had told me that these would be Steph Curry’s numbers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, I would have predicted that the Celtics won this game by 15-20 points, maybe more, given the way that they have played!

Well, the Celtics lost by 10 points and this was not only because Andrew Wiggins stepped up in a huge way, having arguably his best game in a Warriors’ uniform, but because the Warriors’ depth really showed up.

Andrew Wiggins had 26 points, Klay Thompson had 21 points, Draymond Green had 8 points and coming off-the-bench, Gary Payton II and Jordan Poole combined for 29 points on 10-16 shooting, 4-9 from three-point range!

The bench scoring from Payton and Poole in this game was critical for the Warriors and there was no bigger moment in this game than when Jordan Poole hit yet another long buzzer-beater to end the third quarter, giving the Warriors a one-point lead instead of trailing by two points heading into the fourth quarter.

Jordan Poole at the buzzer

AGAIN!!!! pic.twitter.com/pva6rg7zjQ
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 14, 2022

Finishing +16 off-the-bench in 26 minutes of work, Gary Payton II really made an impact defensively for the Warriors with his 3 steals and giving them the ability to switch every single ball-screen, really limiting the Celtics’ ability to attack the paint from the perimeter.

Boston’s defense seemed rushed and out of sync all night long and this is because of the adjustment they made to literally switch everything out on the perimeter.

Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum found a ton of success in Games 1 and 3 of this series by pulling their defender out in isolation sets and either attacking them downhill towards the rim or rolling off of a ball-screen and getting to the rim with their defenders attached behind them.

In Game 5 however, the Celtics always saw a player in front of them, which resulted in Boston taking a ton of contested, low-percentage shots on the offensive-end of the floor.

Gary Payton II, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins were a big part of this defensive effort by the Warriors and their depth as a whole really outplayed Boston’s entire starting unit.

Bench depth has been a problem for the Celtics all year long and with Grant Williams, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard not giving Boston any production whatsoever off-the-bench in Game 5, they now face “championship-point” in favor of the Golden State Warriors.

Andrew Wiggins May Just Be The Finals MVP If Warriors Win The Series

Turnovers Continue To Plague The Celtics

Warriors’ Depth Is Better Than That Of Boston’s

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