Celtics' Turnovers Cause for 3-2 Finals Deficit (Boston Must Clean Up Offense to Win Finals)
By Reed Wallach
The NBA Finals have swung drastically.
After going down 2-1, the Golden State Warriors have stormed back to win Game 4 and 5 to go up 3-2 and are a game away from an NBA Championship. While Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins have played at an incredibly high level, the defining stat has been the Boston Celtics' inability to protect the ball.
This has been an ongoing issue for the Celtics this postseason, the team is 1-6 when they have 16-plus turnovers but 13-2 otherwise. In Game 5, Boston had 18 turnovers and the Warriors scored 22 points in the 104-94 victory.
The Warriors scored 22 points off 18 Celtics' turnovers in Game 5.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 14, 2022
The Warriors' 103 points off turnovers are the most by any team through the 1st 5 Finals games since the 1992 Bulls. h/t @EliasSports
Boston is 1-7 with 16+ TO in a game this postseason (13-2 in other games) pic.twitter.com/d9YAwisEgS
Now, Boston is a game away from losing the title and is +310 to win Game 6 and 7 at WynnBET Sportsbook. This series, the Celtics have struggled with turnovers and are coughing it up at a rate that would be the worst in the NBA this regular season.
Boston has a 16.3% TO rate this series, would be worst in the NBA regular season (Rockets 16.2%).
— Reed Wallach (@ReedWallach) June 14, 2022
Warriors were second worst in regular season at 15% but down to 13.8% in Finals.
Jayson Tatum has been the main source of turnovers. He is the team's primary ball handler and has been loose with the ball all postseason, breaking an unfortunate record of the most turnovers in a postseason (of course he has played more games than many players).
Jayson Tatum has 95 turnovers this playoffs, the most by a player in a single postseason ever. pic.twitter.com/2emuJt9tYv
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 14, 2022
For Boston to come back, the team must clean it up with its turnovers and keep it below 16, which appears to be the magic number of success. Currently, the Celtics are favored by four points in Game 6 with a total of 210.