Why more Pinoy fans root for Warriors over Celtics

By Alex P. Vidal

“My dream was to be in the NBA. I wasn’t really focused on being a star player on a team. I just wanted to make it to the NBA. I’ve been blessed for the opportunities to be in the Finals, been in the playoffs ever since I’ve been in the NBA.”—James Harden

OF the 426,225 Asians living in Massachusetts, 13,540 are Filipinos.

On the other hand, there are 3.4 Filipino Americans living in California.

Thus it is not surprising if more Filipinos in the United States and in other parts of the globe, perhaps, are overwhelmingly rooting for the Golden State Warriors.

But many Pinoy fans in New York still prefer Boston to win this year’s NBA championship. Some of them even bet heavily for Boston and upped the ante in Game 2 after Boston’s head-turning Game 1 dominance.

Elsewhere in other states, however, Pinoy fans continued to be head-over-heels for Stephen Curry, Nemanja Bjelica, Drymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and Gary Payton II as manifested by their reactions when the Warriors avenged the Game 1 loss in the Bay Area on June 5.

In the 2022 NBA Finals, Pinoy cage fans are cheering for Boston Celtics mainly because of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart.

They were instrumental in the Celtics’ nerve-tingling 120-108 Game 1 conquest of The Warriors in the same home court on June 2.

“Watching the triumvirate of Tatum, Brown and Smart in the finals is a big boost not only for the NBA championship against any rival (the Golden State Warriors) but also for the league,” said Fil-Am Nemrod Go-Tung, a Boston fan from Capas, Tarlac who grew up in Hartford, Connecticut.

Go-Tung, son of a Fil-Am industrialist of Chinese descent, coaches some kids—the future Jayson Tatums and Jaylen Browns—aged 10 to 16 in Bridgeport and Waterbury.

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Keith Smith, meanwhile, collected some take aways from Game 2 after The Warriors avenged the Game 1 loss, 107-88, to level the series.

Before Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics guard Derrick White said “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be us.”

That now applies to the 2022 NBA Finals too, Smith said.

The Golden State Warriors again used a big third quarter to launch themselves to a big lead. This time around, there was no letup in the fourth quarter.

Simply put, this one was over early, Smith pointed out.

The third quarter was where the wheels came off, but the problems were evident earlier than that. We’ll cover all of it, as we attempt to pick up the pieces after a blowout.

“We wrote before the game the series started that third quarters would be a bellwether. The Warriors are one of the NBA’s best third-quarter teams,” Smith said. “They regularly come out from the break and either turn games around or turn them into runaways.”

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The Celtics trend towards the opposite, observed Smith.

In Game 1, Golden State outscored Boston 38-24 in the third to take a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter.

In Game 2, the Warriors outscored the Celtics 35-14 immediately after halftime to take a 23-pont lead into the fourth quarter.

As they morphed into the NBA’s best team in 2022, it seemed like Boston had figured out the third quarter thing. They were the ones coming out of the locker room and taking control of games. It even became a bit of a running joke that Ime Udoka must be delivering some incredible halftime speeches, Smith added.

In the playoffs, that’s seemed to reverse a bit, for whatever reason.

Bouncing back is a great trait to have. Relying on it quite as much as the Celtics do is concerning, especially when it’s in-game.

Ultimately, Boston lost by 19 points, but that was after a final period that was mostly garbage time. The pre-garbage time margin was consistently around 22-25 points.

Helping the Warriors get there were a whopping 33 points off 19 Boston turnovers. Cut those numbers in half, and it’s a different ballgame.

“We don’t need to go over the numbers from the entire playoff run to state the following: When the Celtics turn the ball over a lot, they lose. When they don’t, they win,” Smith observed.

“Is that overly simplifying things? Perhaps. But sometimes basketball is a pretty simple game. This is as good a spot as any to address the officiating.”

The Celtics didn’t lose because of the refereeing.  You don’t get down by as many as 29 points because of the way the game is being called.

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There were sharp—and sometimes irrational—reactions to our recent article coming from die hards of Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio after we appealed to the good daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte not to be harsh against the critical press, or to refrain from making a knee-jerk reaction each time the press addresses certain problems, wrongdoings and shortcomings related to her function as a public official.

It’s dangerous if an elected or even appointed public official doesn’t know the limits of his or her job; or he or she doesn’t understand the role being played by critical press in nation-building.

They think a media critic is out to destroy them or embarrass them because the commentary isn’t favorable.

Such is the mentality of Ruel Pacquiao, the brother of Sen. Manny Pacquiao and incumbent Saranggani congressman who will soon sit as governor of the province.

I will write about this incident and Rep. Ruel Pacquiao’s behavior in a separate article.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)