WHEN THE BOSTON CELTICS convened for training camp in September, it once again began the quest for an NBA champion that is being repeated for the first time since the 2017-2018 season.

Now, just two weeks into the 2024-25 season, the Celtics will face the franchise whose record-breaking success they are trying to emulate: the Golden State Warriors (7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, ESPN).

The game in Boston adds to the excitement after Celtics star Jayson Tatum played for Team USA this summer, with Warriors coach Steve Kerr benching him twice. It’s the annual visit to TD Garden for Stephen Curry — and a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals, when the Warriors claimed their fourth title in eight seasons. It’s also a reminder of the heights the Celtics are trying to reach.

“I believed we would win one day,” Tatum said at media day in September about the Celtics’ fight for the 2024 title. “It was never about us wanting to win just one.

“All the guys I looked up to growing up won at least one championship. Now it’s just a conversation about, ‘How great are you trying to be?'”

Although the league has been keeping pace for six years, the path Tatum and the Celtics are seeking is eerily similar to that of the 2015-16 Warriors – the all-time winningest team – in terms of their playing style, their roster construction, and the skeptics who question the veracity of their championship.

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AFTER THE BREAKTHROUGH before the 2015 title, the Warriors were not yet seen as the NBA’s next dominant franchise. Despite starting the 2014–15 season 21–2, finishing with a 67–15 record and winning the Western Conference by 11 games, they were derided as a “jump-shooting team” by pundits who did not believe the style of Golden State had done that. endurance.

And Curry, who won the first of his back-to-back MVP awards that season, narrowly lost a vote for Finals MVP to teammate Andre Iguodala, heightening criticism of the guard’s ability to be the best player on a championship team.

After beating a LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers team that had both Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals, there were attempts to downplay Golden State’s championship as coming at the hands of a diminished opponent. Some even dismissed the six-game series win as a stroke of luck.

Boston was similarly heralded as a team overly reliant on jump shooting – and similarly criticized for the relative ease of their title run. (The Celtics broke the NBA record for three-pointers made in 2023 and 2024). The Celtics’ playoff run was dominated by injuries to star opponents; Miami’s Jimmy Butler, Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton all missed multiple games against Boston. And Tatum narrowly missed out on Finals MVP, with Jaylen Brown claiming the award and Eastern Conference Finals MVP.

“Joe (Mazzulla) was probably the luckiest person in the world that I didn’t win the Finals MVP,” Tatum said. “That was strange, but if you know Joe, it makes sense.”

The Celtics coach made sure his team didn’t get a championship hangover all summer.

“So often people are focused on trying to win. I think it’s just as important as avoiding losing,” Mazzulla said at media day. “As hard as it is to win, it is very easy to lose.”

“STRENGTH IN NUMBERS” defined those Warriors championship teams, as Kerr relied on a deep rotation, including a committee approach at center. The Celtics play with a similar ethos. Payton Pritchard already has two 20-point games this season. Reserve centers Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman and Neemias Queta have all helped fill in for center Kristaps Porzingis, who is out at least another month after offseason ankle surgery. (Kornet scored 19 points in 30 minutes at the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday.)

A dynamic two-way wing, Iguodala was brought to Golden State as the potential missing player in the Warriors’ championship puzzle. For Boston, Jrue Holiday has had a similar impact after being acquired last fall.

Golden State’s “Death Lineup” consisted of five elite defensemen, each of whom presented a credible three-point threat. Boston’s run to the 2024 title was made possible by six core players — Tatum, Brown, Holiday, Porzingis, Al Horford and guard Derrick White — who similarly dominated.

The Warriors are built around their trio of drafted stars: Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Boston is built around the dynamic wing tandem of Tatum and Brown. And since Mazzulla became coach before the 2022-23 season, Boston has gone 128-44 — 14 wins better than any other NBA team.

All of this has made the Celtics, as well as every other defending champion over the past six seasons, the first repeat winners since the Warriors teams with Curry and Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018.

However, those Warriors teams were created because Golden State’s 73-win season in 2015-16 ended in heartbreak after blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals. For all the similarities between this Celtics team and the early years of the Golden State dynasty, that’s the only outcome Boston history hopes for. not repeats itself.