The Golden State Warriors could be on the verge of securing a 4th NBA Championship in eight years tonight in game 6 against the Boston Celtics.
The Warriors hold a 3-2 lead heading into TD Garden, Boston with a chance to win the series. Golden State has, however, failed to close out a series when on the road in all three of the Denver, Memphis and Dallas series heading into this year’s finals.
Despite losing consecutive playoff games for the first time this postseason in games four and five, the Celtics are unbeaten when faced with an elimination game, currently at 3-0.
A hot topic of this year’s NBA finals is whether Warriors star Stephen Curry can capture a finals MVP trophy, which has eluded him so far in his career.
Curry is averaging 30 (points), 6 (rebounds) and 5 (assists), putting him as the comfortable favourite for the award with bookmakers at -350, whilst the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum trails in as the second favourite at +350.
CBS Sports’ Tim Doyle believes that Curry is “definitely winning the finals MVP” if the Warriors can beat the Celtics tonight and take home the Larry O’Brien trophy.
However, Curry for the first time since November 2018, failed to make a three point shot, going 0-9 from behind the arc. Doyle credits Celtics coach Ime Udoka finally making adjustments in his defensive scheme to slow down Curry.
Doyle is still committed to his finals prediction of the Celtics winning in seven, believing Boston will win game six and force a game seven back in San Francisco Sunday.
Doyle credits this to the Warriors averaging 116 points against per game on the road this postseason, and believes Celtics role players such as Al Horford and Derrick White will play stronger games than previous, especially in front of their home crowd.
If the Celtics were to beat the Warriors in games six and seven and win the NBA Championship, it would be Boston’s 18th in franchise history, putting them one ahead of long-time rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, who hold 17.
