Celtics vs Warriors NBA Finals Game 2 Highlights

Did the Boston Celtics expose a weakness that I do not believe they can overcome in games one and two? And were the Golden State Warriors able to exploit it to a degree where they may have found the secret sauce to completely dominate the Boston Celtics for the remainder of this series? We're gonna be discussing that today and more here on FYF Sports. All right, it's FYF Sports' Mattis Lamont. We are back. Another podcast episode. Man, today we gotta talk about it. The NBA Finals is here. We've seen game one. We saw the Warriors dominate for three quarters and then completely collapse in that fourth, allowing Boston to reel off 40 points. When we talk about in that game one, Derek White, Al Horford, and Marcus Smart combined for 15 threes. Those role players were playing otherworldly. And then that put a lot of pressure on the Golden State Warriors coming into this game to win, to equalize this series so they can at least go into Boston 1-1. And when I watched this game and I was talking during the livestream and I saw that it was only a two-point game. Golden State really hadn't played well. Boston was playing fairly decent for being on the road in Golden State. But Boston, they were only down by two at the half in this game. And so I looked to a crucial stat that also was trending in game one. And I saw at halftime that the Boston Celtics were shooting 10 of 19 from the three-point line. Again, another night where they were just shooting at an unbelievable percentage from the three-point line. 10 and 19 is great to end the half in. I mean, above 50%. Their field goal percentage, again, overall was kind of suffering a bit because their overall field goal percentage we're talking about shots inside the two-point range brought their overall field goal percentage, it was actually below 50% around like 44. And so I started thinking, and I said this during the livestream, can Boston continue to make threes at this rate? Because if it took shooting 10 and 19 from the three-point line just to be down two at the half to the Golden State Warriors, if Golden State comes out in the second half and makes an emphasis to simply take away the three because they were doing a good enough job is forcing guys to the rim, help defense was rotating very well, and they weren't allowing easy shots at the rim. If they completely just find ways to nullify the three-point shot, I don't know if this series is actually gonna be close. And as we saw last night, that second half, especially that third quarter, the Golden State Warriors defensively came out and completely put the clamps on this Boston Celtic team. And so again, that same theme that was trending with regards to the three-point line, that second half of last night's game, the Boston Celtics shot five of 18 for the second half, bringing them to the total for the night of 15 for 37 from the three-point line. That's a big time difference from what they shot in game one where they shot 21 of 41, 50% from the three-point line. And then where you had those three role players, Horford, White, and Marcus Smart, just completely going ballistic, especially White's big threes. I think he hit six of eight from the three-point line off the bench. And I think that's what really, really threw a monkey wrench in everything that Golden State had going on. So game two, we're gonna be talking about Golden State's offense, what they're doing offensively to find ways to get Steph easy buckets and not just Steph, other guys on the floor. And then we got to look to the defense. What are they doing defensively on the defensive side of the ball to really stifle the two stars? Because we saw Tatum struggle in game one, Brown struggled in game two, but also in game two, the others, the others that kept them afloat in game one, they weren't able to have the same impact as we saw Steve Kerr make some slight adjustments to the defense. And I know he said in the post game that his adjustments were just about energy and effort. I don't believe that for a second. Obviously it's a game of chess. He's not trying to give away everything that they're doing, but it was clear to me that the Golden State Warriors came out with a concerted effort of not allowing the others to beat them this game. And we're gonna get to the footage. Well, let's go ahead and get to the footage room. We're gonna break down the offense first and we're gonna get to the defense because I really want to show you guys what I saw. All right, and then we're gonna get back here to discuss game two. And then also what we think about the outcome of game three because I've already labeled game three a swing game of the series. Let's go ahead and get to these highlights. All right, offensively, I think the Golden State Warriors did a really good job of confusing this Celtic defense. We see Draymond Green right here with a very sneaky screen on Derek White, but then we see Peyton also come up for a double screen to create the dot coverage. So they're forcing drop coverage reads with the double screen on Grant Williams. Now they're forced in a situation with Draymond screening out Derek White, with Peyton setting the screen on Grant Williams. Horford can't come up to defend the three-point line. Curry knocks down a three at the top of the key. And again, with this type of action on offense, how can the Celtics really contend defensively with the Golden State Warriors? And when you have a guy like Poole making shots like this, it makes it even tougher. All right, so we got another action right here. We see the pick and roll, right? It looks like Golden State is content with fighting over screens, just trying to contest hard. Steph Curry makes a tough three right there. Right when they hedge or try to drop coverage, the extra pass is burning them, right? As we can see right here, when they switch, Poole just throws it over so they're doing a good job of reading. And then with Steph Curry, he's able to split on some of the switches, especially when Robert Williams is in the game. Draymond Green is doing a great job of setting high screens, allowing Steph to get into the open court, create actions like that as Draymond Green rolls for the layup. And then Poole does a good job right here. Drop coverage with Horford in the game. Horford doesn't come up to contest. The floater goes in. And this is what makes this offense thrive because they are so high IQ on the offensive end. And when you talk about the defensive side of the ball, you want to ask yourself, how were they able to force this Celtic team that was so hot from the three-point line in game one? And then also the first half of this game, how were they able to force them off those threes and into bad shots? The goal was to be more physical, force turnovers. And as you can see, Draymond Green right here, they're not sending doubles at Tatum or Brown. They're using their best on-ball defenders to stifle them, make them pick up their dribble, take bad shots at the end of the shot clock. As you see, Draymond Green gets the block right there. We see Wiggins right here, holding his ground, late double over there. Draymond's able to get the strip, get into transition. Right here, sloppy with the ball. Boston, we see Tatum with the ball on Curry, but Curry is doing a really good job of understanding where his help is, allowing them to force the ball. Strong side, and the strong side's not leaving those shooters open like they did in game one. Marcus Smart right here, right, bad pass because what are they doing? They're shading the big over, making these guys score, right, score through a lot of strong side defense. Right here, Tatum tries to split. They get their hands in those passing lanes. Again, more physical, really towing the line, making the refs call the call. The refs weren't calling it yesterday, and they were able to get into transition 35 points off of turnovers last night in game two. All right, Derek White, again, a guy who was a suspect ball handler. We saw the Miami Heat really pressure him. The Golden State Warriors did a really good job of applying pressure to Derek White yesterday, not allowing him to get his shots off and really turning him into a true point guard where we know he struggles handling the ball. Tatum with another turnover right there, and we see it turned into points on the other end as once they got into transition, Boston was scrambling and they couldn't identify all of the guys to get back every time. And again, deflections were big in this game. Curry's off to the races one more time. We see another defensive stop right here. Great switch. If you saw their defensive scheme, whenever Tatum or Brown had the ball, they switched. If it was any one of the other guys, they ran drop covers and chased them over and made those guys turn into playmakers. Horford, who had a great game one, struggled to get any open looks in this game. We see him miss the bunny right there in the post. We see the trap right there on Brown, forces him into the turnover. Curry gets it into transition. Again, they were dominating in that aspect. And then even Clay does a great job right here, walling up right here. Refs are not calling it, toeing the line, being physical with those guys, making them miss shots. And then we have Marcus Smart right here getting into the lane. Bodies are right there. Refs aren't calling it. He can't flop his way out of that one right there. Remember, Derek White, what are they doing? They're putting man on him. They're not allowing him to play in space. He's out beyond the three-point line. They're pressuring him. And Peyton Pritchard, they can't get those threes off. And we saw the Golden State Warriors really disrupt this Boston Celtic offense right here. We see the drop covers right there. They switching everything. Guys are scrambling in to help. And then they're off to the races again. This is not the style of basketball that Boston wants to play against this Golden State team. And ball pressure on Peyton Pritchard, not allowing Peyton Pritchard and Derek White to be comfortable out there on the perimeter. They did a really good job of forcing the action yesterday, taking it to them defensively, as opposed to waiting on the Boston Celtics to come to them. And they just kind of figure it out on the fly. So again, when we talk about exposing some of the primary and major weaknesses of this Boston Celtic team, Derek White and Peyton Pritchard, if they're gonna be in the game, the beauty of having Peyton back, Gary Peyton back, is he is one of the best on the perimeter with regards to ball pressure. You can send them out there well beyond the three-point line not necessarily worry about this man getting burned because he's a great on-ball defender, but he's applying pressure to White. He's turning White, he's making White adjust from being a scorer, that guy in game one we saw catching and shooting, to where now he has to be a facilitator playmaker because as the shot clock runs down, they're sending Peyton up there to really apply ball pressure onto either Pritchard or White. And those guys aren't comfortable. We see that they're not comfortable handling the ball. So we got sloppy ball handling from guys that aren't really true point guards, right? We got sloppy ball handling from Brown, sloppy ball handling from Tatum, Pritchard and White. These are not natural points. They're not the best ball handlers. And I think that's one aspect of exposing some of their weaknesses. And then we saw, I think Golden State figured out if we don't allow this team to shoot a high percentage from the three-point line. Yeah, we might give up a few layups at the rim because we saw Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown both have scoring games that were actually not too bad, but they did struggle from the field goal slightly because of all of the pressure on these guys when they get inside the three-point arc. They're having to try to score over two and three players. And we see that philosophy. Switch everything on the two stars, Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, while everybody else, they're going to get dropped coverage. We're going to chase over. We're going to force these guys to drive in and make plays as opposed to stand around on that perimeter, chucking up threes where we saw in game one that was extremely detrimental to the Golden State Warriors. So again, you guys, let me know what you think about this game. Golden State Warriors take game two, 107-88. Tatum with 28, Brown, 17, White with only 12. Brown, White, Williams, Horford, all of these guys shot a poor percentage from the field. And as a team in that second half to shoot five or 18 from the three-point line, right, when we see defensively that Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown individually aren't efficient enough scores to really beat you, I think they might've given the Golden State Warriors the recipe for their own demise. I told some people yesterday that I have a funny feeling that Golden State can come into Boston and actually win two. I don't know why I have that feeling, but I think with some of the problems that Boston has offensively and defensively, I don't know if Eudoka has enough time to rectify or correct those problems before game three. But you guys, let me know what you think about game two. What are your thoughts on game three? What are your predictions on game three? Do you have the Warriors winning? Do you have the Celtics holding home court now and taking a serious lead? Once again, you guys, let me know what you think. But the Golden State Warriors win game two handedly. Draymond Green with a great defensive performance. Gary Payton is back. His defensive prowess looks just as good as it did when he left off in the Memphis series. Curry has been extremely efficient. Really, the only question mark in this series is when is Klay Thompson going to show up? All right, and I think the beauty of this is that this series is tied one-one. We've seen Klay have some of his best games in the playoff on the road, and maybe, maybe Klay is due for one of those big games in Boston. Only time will tell, so we'll be watching for that as well. But as FYI, sports, it's been another great podcast episode. Again, you guys, make sure you chime in. Hit the notification bell, like, comment on this video. I really want to hear your thoughts on games one and two, and I want to hear your predictions for game three. We will be live again for game three. Live streams for games one and two have been absolutely great. Numbers have been through the roof. The engagement's been crazy. So again, share the videos, do whatever it takes, but make sure you are here on FYF Sports where we go live for game three. You definitely don't want to miss it. But as FYF Sports, man, it's been another great podcast episode. We will be back with more sports news, but until then, it's FYF Sports, and we out.