Wednesday night’s slate includes several incredible matchups, including a 2022 NBA Finals rematch between the Warriors (6-1) and Celtics (7-1), two teams that are red-hot at the beginning of the season.
While both look quite a bit different now than when they faced off in the finals three seasons ago, their general blueprint remains.
For this matchup, the C’s will still be without Kristaps Porzingis (foot), while Jaylen Brown (hip) is questionable.
Meanwhile, the Warriors will be without De’Anthony Melton (back) and could be missing Brandin Podziemski (illness), as he had to leave the Dubs game on Monday against Washington.
Boston’s style should not surprise anyone: The Celtics shoot (first among NBA teams in 3-point attempts) and make (eighth in 3-point shooting) a ton of triples.
However, Golden State’s harassing perimeter defense (first in opponent 3-point shooting allowed on the ninth-fewest opponent 3-point attempts allowed per game) could disrupt the Celtics flow.
Since it is early in the season, teams could be over- or underperforming in certain areas.
A fantastic way to tell whether the Warriors perimeter defense is the real deal is to look at how many wide-open 3s it allows per game.
In this case, Golden State allows opponents the sixth-fewest wide-open 3s per game.
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The Warriors are stylistically similar to Boston.
They have struggled only against teams that dominate the paint (Clippers), and the Celtics are not one of those teams (26th in points in the paint).
I’ll take the points with Golden State.
THE PLAY: Warriors +7.5 (-110, Caesars Sportsbook)
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Andrew Norton handicaps the NBA, WNBA, NFL, college basketball and football, UFC and golf. During the 2022-23 NBA season, he achieved a standout 14.1% ROI, cashing 60% of his NBA spread picks and leading Tallysight in its SportsIQ metric.