In terms of levels of experience, this year’s NBA Finals might as well be “Pros vs. Joes.”
An insane fact went viral this week about the Finals matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. The Warriors enter the series with 123 combined games of Finals experience. The Celtics, meanwhile, enter the series with a goose egg — zero games of Finals experience for everybody on the roster.
Golden State made the Finals for five straight years from 2015 to 2019. Their core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala are responsible for nearly all of the Warriors’ collective Finals experience. As for Boston, they are comprised of mostly young players in their 20s. One of their few older stars even just got rid of the record for most career playoff games without a Finals appearance.
The experience gulf also extends to the respective coaching staffs. Warriors coach Steve Kerr is making his sixth career Finals appearance and already has three rings under his belt. Celtics coach Ime Udoka, on the other hand, is a first-year head coach in his very first postseason. That may explain why the early betting line for the series is what it is.
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