sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): Eight grueling months after we started this NBA season, we’re finally down to our final two: the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors, just like everyone predicted back in October. We have to acknowledge that FiveThirtyEight’s model absolutely did not see this coming: We gave the Celtics just a […]
Ahead of today’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals, let’s get one thing out of the way: Our forecast model loves, loves, loves the Boston Celtics. (Or maybe it just hates the Golden State Warriors.) Either way, the model gives Boston an 80 percent chance of winning the championship over Golden State, in very stark […]
Not all that long ago, it seemed inconceivable that the Boston Celtics would be representing the Eastern Conference in the 2022 NBA Finals. The road leading them here was tumultuous, to say the least. It involved (multiple) disputes between star players, incessant calls to break up the central Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown duo and questions both […]
Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Steph Curry have been through the crucible of the NBA playoffs. They rank sixth, eighth and 10th respectively among active players in total playoff minutes — largely because they are about to play in their sixth Finals together. In the big picture, the three remain dominant together, with the Warriors […]
When the NBA conference finals each wrap up, the league will award two new trophies: the Larry Bird Trophy for the Eastern Conference finals MVP and the Earvin “Magic” Johnson Trophy for the Western Conference finals MVP. Bird and Johnson are fitting namesakes for these awards given that their struggle for supremacy from opposite coasts […]