Are We Watching The NBA’s Next Great Rivalry?
The NBA hasn’t had a rivalry in some time. But, one has come to the forefront recently. Let’s talk about the Warriors and Celtics.
In my lifetime, the NBA hasn’t had a great rivalry. Cavaliers vs. Warriors was good for two years and then fell off. One of the reasons the NBA has relatively struggled with ratings over the past few seasons has been this lack of a defining rivalry. Rivalries draw people’s attention. It gets everybody talking. And I think there’s a new rivalry brewing.
After watching two heavyweights, the Celtics and Warriors, go at it, something occurred to me. Are we watching the NBA’s next great rivalry?
Boston Celtics
It’s scary how good the Celtics have been this season. They currently sit at 21-6, and they’ve been dominating everyone (except for the Warriors). Even with a new head coach and without their starting center, Boston has been cruising. And, they haven’t even hit their stride fully yet.
Last season, they rode the backs of their elite defense. This season, their outstanding offense has led them to this hot start. The Celtics are one of the best shooting teams in the league. Seemingly everyone on their team – from Tatum and Brown to little-known guys like Sam Hauser, can all shoot the ball very well.
MVP-level play from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown emerging right behind him has helped, too. The Celtics are a machine. All of this winning has come when their defense hasn’t been great. It’s hard to say this, but this team still has another gear to reach.
But, there’s one team that stands in their way. The Warriors. Golden State crushed the C’s title ambitions last year, and they dismantled the Celtics on both ends the other night, too. Golden State is the bully in the schoolyard. They’re the seemingly impossible-to-defeat boss battle that the Celtics have to defeat.
On Saturday, without Horford or Robert Williams, the Celtics were outmatched. Nothing they tried defensively worked. The Warriors ran circles around them. Jayson Tatum again was stopped in his tracks by a swarming defense.
Tatum said after the game that the loss won’t dictate their season, and he’s right about that. But, I’m sure it stings to lose to this team in that fashion after what transpired last summer.
Golden State Warriors
We all know who the Warriors are by now. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have Andrew Wiggins for this showdown. It doesn’t matter that they’re just now getting above 0.500, and we’re two weeks from Christmas. The Warriors are the big bad wolf, the inevitable storm of the NBA.
For nearly a decade we’ve watched them pick apart their opponents, and Saturday was no different. Golden State ripped Boston’s hearts straight from their chests last June. Steph Curry’s 43-point masterpiece in Game 4 was one for the ages. That game won’t be leaving the heads of Celtics fans very soon.
Golden State’s start to the season has been an up-and-down roller coaster. But you get the sense that they’re starting to put things together. That win against the Celtics was easily their best of the season.
One glance at the Western Conference standings will show the Warriors closer to the bottom than the top. But, with their trio of shooters in Curry, Poole, and Thompson, that won’t last long. The rest of the league will soon feel the wrath of this team.
Consistency will be Golden State’s challenge going forward. Saturday was a reminder to everyone who was listening. A reminder of just how good and dominant this team can be when they’re clicking. Until somebody dethrones them, the Warriors remain the top dog in every sense of the word.
Ingredients of a Good Rivalry
Now, we’ve established that these two teams are good. But, that’s not the only thing that establishes a rivalry, although that is part of it. So, what makes a good rivalry?
History
While these two franchises are some of the more storied in the sports, their paths haven’t crossed that many times throughout history. However, they have met at the pinaccle very recently. That 2022 Finals series was a hard fought dog fight, one that will ignite this budding rivalry for some time.
Now, because these two teams play in different conferences, we’re only guaranteed two contests per year. But, those contests, like the one on Saturday, will be prime time TV. The next time these two teams play will be on TNT in mid-January.
This isn’t a rivalry that spans generations, but one that has become very intense very quickly.
Star Power
I think this is the biggest part of a rivalry. If two teams that are rivals have two superstars, that just makes things so much better. It creates storylines and legacies. Guys like Bird and Magic were legendary because of how they performed whenever they played each other. In this case, Tatum vs Curry is the headliner.
While there are other good players, Tatum and Curry as the compass for this rivalry. Tatum is the up-and-coming superstar who seems to struggle against the veteran Warriors. Curry is the unstoppable legend who still has a lot of gas left in the tank.
Curry clashed with Lebron in the middle of this prime – and won. Perhaps Tatum is his foe for the second half of his career? And maybe Curry is the first foe of Tatum’s career. I’m having fun with all these hypotehticals in my head already.
The Verdict
Are we watching a great rivlary? One could argue that these teams are already rivals. They’ve played high stakes games before, and all of their games for the foreseeable future will be nationall televised. And, perhaps more importantly, the storyline of Tatum vs Curry will drive this thing forward.
Tatum may be entering his Michael Jordan arc in a way. The Warriors are Tatum’s version of the Bad Boy Pistons. The team that he has to get through to enter basketball immortality. How exciting is that? This is as big a test as a player can ever receive.
And on the flip side, the Warriors may have found a worthy competitor to this second iteration of their dynasty. Not to jump the gun or anything, but this rivalry has a chance to be great. The only thing that stands in the way is luck.
Can we see these two teams in the Finals 1-2 more times? I don’t think people understand how unlikely it is that we saw the same finals matchups for four straight seasons. That just doesn’t happen often, and expecting it to happen again is foolish.
But, I think we’d all be kidding ourselves if we didn’t want to see these teams duke it out more. And if this one doesn’t work out, we always have Pelicans vs Suns.
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