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

WHEN THE BOSTON CELTIC called up for training camp in September, it began another NBA champion’s quest to repeat for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

Now, just two weeks into the 2024-2025 campaign, the Celtics will face the franchise whose record-breaking success they are trying to emulate: the Golden State Warriors (7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, ESPN).

The game in Boston has even more buzz after Celtics star Jayson Tatum’s time with Team USA this summer, which included Warriors coach Steve Kerr benching him twice. It’s Stephen Curry’s annual visit to TD Garden — and a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals, in which the Warriors claimed their fourth title in eight seasons. It’s also a reminder of the heights the Celtics are striving to reach.

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

“All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship. Now it’s just a conversation about, ‘How great are you trying to be?'”

While the league boasts a six-year run of parity, the path Tatum and the Celtics are pursuing looks eerily similar to the 2015-16 Warriors — the winningest team of all time — from their style of play to their roster construction to skeptics questioning the veracity of their championship.

MORE: Warriors counting on ‘second level’ for Wiggins

AFTER USING AGAIN for the 2015 title, the Warriors were not yet seen as the NBA’s next dominant franchise. Despite starting the 2014-15 season 21-2, finishing with a 67-15 record and winning the Western Conference by 11 games, they were derided as a “jump-shooting team” by pundits who didn’t believe that Golden State’s style had staying power.

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

After beating 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 because it came at the hands of a diminished opponent. Some even dismissed the six-game winning streak as lucky.

Boston was similarly panned as a team too reliant on jump shooting – and was similarly criticized for the relative ease of their title run. (The Celtics broke the NBA record for 3-pointers in 2023 and 2024). The Celtics’ playoff run was dominated by injuries to 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, with Jaylen Brown claiming the award and Eastern Conference finals MVP.

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

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

“So many times people are focused on trying to win. I think that’s just as important as preventing you from losing,” Mazzulla said at media day. “As hard as it is to win, it is very easy to lose.”

“STRENGTH IN NUMBERS” defined those Warriors’ championship teams as Kerr relied on a deep 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. Backup centers Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta have all helped fill in for center Kristaps Porzingis, who is out at least another month after offseason ankle surgery. (Kornet scored 19 points in 30 minutes Saturday at the Charlotte Hornets.)

Iguodala, a dynamic two-way wing, was brought to Golden State as the potential missing piece in the Warriors’ championship puzzle. For Boston, Jrue Holiday has provided a similar impact after being acquired last fall.

Golden State’s “Death Lineup” featured five elite defenders, each of whom were credible 3-point threats. 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 similar fashion.

The Warriors were built around their trio of drafted stars – Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Boston has been built around the dynamic wing tandem of Tatum and Brown. And since Mazzulla took over before the 2022-23 season, Boston has gone 128-44 — 14 more than any other NBA team.

All of this has positioned the Celtics, as well as any defending champion in the past six seasons, to become the first repeat winner since those Warriors teams with Curry and Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018.

However, these Warriors teams came about because Golden State’s 73-win 2015-16 season ended in heartbreak after blowing 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, that’s the one result Boston is hoping for history don’t do repeating itself.