[Follow: Celtics-Warriors in Game 1 of NBA Finals]
This is the Boston Celtics‘ first time in the NBA Finals since 2010, when they lost to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game series. Jayson Tatum was 12 years old, Jaylen Brown was 13 and Marcus Smart 16, each young hoopers dreaming of a chance to be in the shoes of Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Twelve short years later, that dream is a reality.
On the other side, the Golden State Warriors have their own established big-three machine consisting of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The trio is competing for their fourth title together and have reached the Finals six times in the past eight seasons. For Golden State, it’s the surrounding players who are different this time around, as the team is filled with young talent who needed time to grow in the Warriors’ system.
Game 1 of the Finals will be the third time this season the two teams have faced one another. The Warriors took the first game in Boston in December, 111-107, and the Celtics won in San Francisco, 110-88, in March.
Each franchise had a unique road to building its team. Here’s a look at the history of how these teams’ starting fives were formed.
The Celtics struck gold in 2017 when they landed the No. 1 pick in the draft (thanks to the trade that sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets) and had options at the top with Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball, Josh Jackson, De’Aaron Fox and Tatum. The Celtics traded down to No. 3, confident Tatum would still be there. What they got in Tatum is a franchise-changing player who has led this team all season long.
“Sometime in January, we kind of changed the course of the season around,” Tatum told Yahoo Sports in March. “We had a new coach and a new staff, so it took a little more time to adjust than people may have expected. We’ve been playing the right way, and we’ve been having fun doing it. We’re just trying to compete at a high level on a nightly basis, and…