The Rafters Pod Ep. 99: WELCOME BACK TO THE FINALS!!

They did it! Welcome back to the NBA finals! The Boston Celtics are going to the championship series for the first time in 12 years. This comes after a strenuous game 7 win in Miami. They will face a Golden State Warriors team familiar with the games biggest stage after their dynastic run from 2015-2019. In that span, the Warriors won three titles.

After being up 13 points with 3 minutes and 35 seconds left to play, all signs pointed to disaster for Boston. Miami stormed back cutting the Celtics lead to 7 with a minute to go. Fans were on the edge of their seat as the ball ended up in the hands of Jimmy Butler. Butler pulled up for a transition three in crunch time only to front rim the shot. Celtics secured the rebound and were able to run out the game; leading people to ask was Butlers shot a good or bad decision? It’s easy to say bad looking at how the results came out but Justin and Liam have opposing points on the matter.

The Golden State Warriors welcome the Boston Celtics to Oracle arena Thursday for game 1 of the finals. Two teams with vastly different play styles, both sporting top defenses. Match-ups are going to be key in this series with Defensive Player of the Year; Marcus Smart likely guarding Steph Curry, who will be looking for his first Finals MVP award. The rest of Bostons defenders will have their hands full with Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole, and a revitalized Andrew Wiggins. Golden State opens as early favorites to win the series but both Rafters co-hosts are riding with Boston. Out of the two finals teams, the Celtics clearly had the more difficult path to preservation. Now time to bring it home.