When the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors last met in the NBA Finals, all the way back in 1964, it was the first time that NBA legends Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain battled with a championship up for the grabs. The series was captured by the Celtics in five games, and it was their fifth of a whopping nine titles during the historic decade.
The stage is set for an NBA Finals rematch between both teams this summer, but this time around, the Warriors are the experienced dynasty, hoping to win their fourth Larry O'Brien trophy since 2015. With veteran playmakers Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in command, the series favors Golden State, which owns home-court advantage. But former Celtics star Antoine Walker believes that Boston's young stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, will be victorious.
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"If you want to beat the Golden State Warriors, I'm not saying you have to be perfect. But they're very seldom going to beat themselves," Walker explained to The Zach Gelb Show on Tuesday. "So, you don't want to beat yourself. And you need to get quality shots at the end... You do have to get the ball in the hands of your best scorers, and that's Tatum and Brown... One thing Boston has to understand is, Golden State isn't going to be beat themselves...
"I like the Celtics in six. I just believe their size, the physicality they can put on Golden State, is going to wear on them. They have enough wing defenders to be able to switch and guard Steph, and not give easy looks. And if you're able to do that and not give them wide-open threes... and like I said, they've been having a more balanced attack, offensively. But, you've got to minimize -- not let Steph and Klay have those moments."
Behind a combined 50 points from Tatum and Brown, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals on Sunday at FTX Arena, outlasting the Miami Heat, 100-96, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Tatum, who wore a purple-and-gold wristband in honor of the late Kobe Bryant, received the inaugural series MVP award, named after Celtics great Larry Bird. And according to ESPN Stats, Ime Udoka became the first rookie head coach to win multiple Game 7's.
As for the Warriors, they secured a trip to their sixth NBA Finals in eight years by beating the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. Curry was named the inaugural West Finals MVP, as he averaged 23.8 points along with 7.4 assists and 6.6 boards across five games. If Golden State wins four more games, the 34-year-old sharpshooter will be tied with LeBron James and 14 others as a four-time league champion.
Boston, which clinched the East's second seed with a 51-31 record, will visit the Warriors for Game 1 on Thursday, with tipoff scheduled for 9:00 ET inside Chase Center. According to FiveThirtyEight projections, the Celtics currently have an 80-percent chance to win their first title since 2008, and it'd be their league-record 18th championship in history.
The entire NBA conversation between Walker and Gelb can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.