Why these Celtics look so much like the 73-win Warriors

WHEN THE BOSTON CELTICS Calling up for training camp in September began the search for another NBA champion, repeating for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

Now, just two weeks into the 2024-25 season, the Celtics face the franchise whose record-setting success they want to emulate: the Golden State Warriors (Wednesday 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The Boston game drew even more attention after Celtics star Jayson Tatum played with Team USA this summer and Warriors coach Steve Kerr benched him twice. It's Stephen Curry's annual visit to TD Garden – and a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals, when the Warriors won their fourth title in eight seasons. It's also a reminder of the heights the Celtics want to reach.

“I believed we were going to win at some point,” Tatum said at media day in September about the Celtics’ title run in 2024. “It was never just about winning one.

“All the guys I looked up to as a kid won at least one championship. Now it's just a question of, 'How great do you want to be?'”

While the league has been level for six years, the path Tatum and the Celtics are headed for looks eerily similar to the 2015-16 Warriors – the winningest team of all time – from their style of play to their roster construction to the skeptics who challenge the veracity question their claim.

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AFTER THE BREAKTHROUGH Heading into the 2015 title, the Warriors were not yet considered the NBA's next dominant franchise. Although they started the 2014-15 season 21-2, finished with a 67-15 record and won the Western Conference by 11 games, they were labeled a “jump-shooting team” by pundits who didn't believe in Golden State's style. mocks perseverance.

And Curry, who won the first of his back-to-back MVP awards this season, narrowly lost the Finals MVP vote to teammate Andre Iguodala, heightening criticism of the guard's ability to be the best player on a championship team.

After defeating a LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers team that was without both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals, there were attempts to downplay Golden State's championship as coming from a weakened opponent. Some even considered the victory in the six-game series to be luck.

Boston was also viewed as a team that relied too heavily on jump shooting – and was also criticized for the relative ease of their title run. (The Celtics broke the NBA record for 3-point shots in 2023 and 2024). The Celtics' playoff run was marked by injuries to their star opponents; Miami's Jimmy Butler, Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell and Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton all missed multiple games against Boston. And Tatum narrowly missed out on Finals MVP as Jaylen Brown took the award and was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

“Joe (Mazzulla) was probably the luckiest person in the world that I didn’t win Finals MVP,” Tatum said. “It was strange, but if you know Joe, it makes sense.”

The Celtics coach spent the summer making sure his team didn't suffer a championship hangover.

“People often focus on winning. I think that’s just as important as saving yourself from defeat,” Mazzulla said at media day. “As hard as it is to win, it is just as easy to lose.”

“STRENGTH IN NUMBERS” defined these Warriors championship teams as Kerr relied on a full rotation, including a committee approach at center. The Celtics play with a similar ethos. Payton Pritchard has already had two 20-point games off the bench this season. Reserve centers Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta have all helped replace center Kristaps Porzingis, who is out at least another month with offseason ankle surgery. (Kornet scored 19 points in 30 minutes at the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.)

Iguodala, a dynamic two-way winger, was brought to Golden State as a potential missing player in the Warriors' championship puzzle. For Boston, Jrue Holiday made a similar impact after being acquired last fall.

Golden State's “Death Lineup” featured five elite defenders, each of whom was a credible 3-point threat. Boston's run to the 2024 title was fueled by six core players – Tatum, Brown, Holiday, Porzingis, Al Horford and guard Derrick White – who dominated in the same way.

The Warriors were built around their trio of drafted stars – Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Boston was built around the dynamic wing tandem of Tatum and Brown. And since Mazzulla took over as coach before the 2022-23 season, Boston has posted a 128-44 record – 14 wins better than any other NBA team.

All of this has led the Celtics, as well as every defending champion of the last six seasons, to become the first repeat champions since the Warriors teams with Curry and Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018.

However, these Warriors squads came into being because Golden State's 73-win 2015-16 season ended in a heartbreaking end after they blew a 3-1 series lead in the NBA Finals. For all the similarities between this Celtics team and the early years of the Golden State dynasty, this is the one result Boston hopes makes history not repeats itself.