Jimmy Butler is still giving me nightmares. Any team seems like a good matchup after he became Michael Jordan the last few games. No matter how good your defense is, in the NBA there’s no way to stop someone like that. Dude was hitting every shot despite being doubled constantly. Nothing against Curry, but he can’t break a defense the same way a guy like Giannis, LeBron or Butler (playing at that level) can. And note that these superstars have eliminated the Celtics in the past. Curry is incredible as an off ball player, but GS needed in the fourth for an alpha to iso up and score…the Celtics were jamming the lanes and making it ugly.
I’m optimistic because I think GS lacks a traditional scoring threat who constantly make plays and goes to the rim to draw fouls. That was Durant and why they were impossible to stop. That’s why the offense wasn’t as pretty with Durant but they were still much tougher because going into ugly, disrupt defense mode didn’t work. They’d just iso him and win that way. But even other guys like Thompson and Iguodala back then were better as iso players and not totally dependent on ball movement and spacing. GS has a lot of good shooters but if you break the passing flow of their offense, they don’t have 1-on-1 guys who can beat the Celtics defenders. They’re still very good, but I think we’ll see a lot of streaks and runs and big lead swings.