Warriors’ often-overlooked defense has them one win from another ring

The common narrative of these NBA Finals is that the Boston Celtics are beating themselves. The idea is that the Celtics are the bigger, more athletic team, they have the best defense, and if they would just stop turning the ball over and getting away from their game plan for stretches, they would lead these NBA Finals.

“If we are playing offense the right way, we’d be 3-1,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said after the Warriors evened the series 2-2.

Maybe that narrative feels true if one lives in the Back Bay, or Roxbury, or Brookline. However, it ignores one simple fact:

The Warriors have an elite defense of their own and they are causing the Celtics’ troubles.

“Well, the key to our game is defense…” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after his team took a 3-2 series lead. “I thought Gary Payton and Wiggs [Andrew Wiggins] and Draymond really keyed our defensive effort to hold that team to 94 points. That’s what it takes to win a Finals game. It’s got to be about the defense.”

The Warriors had the best defense in the NBA and Draymond Green looked like he might run away with Defensive Player of the Year back at Christmas. However, the surging Celtics defense and Green missing extended time due to injury changed that narrative — but Golden State kept getting stops.

The Warriors still had the second-best defense in the league this season, and that has shown up in the Finals. Boston has a 108 offensive rating through five games of the Finals, 4.2 below their regular season average (for comparison, Boston is holding Golden State’s offense 3.7 below its regular season average; stats via Cleaning the Glass, which filters out garbage time).

Golden State’s defense isn’t built around an imposing rim protector as Boston has with Robert