The Boston Celtics could very well be NBA Champions right now if it had not been for Andrew Wiggins’ performances in games four and five of the NBA Finals. In Game Four, the world watched another masterful Finals performance from Steph Curry.
However, Andrew Wiggins was the silent hero of this game. Defensively, he was consistent and disciplined. This is important to note because it has been one of the knocks on Wiggins in the past. His on ball defense against stud wings, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown was impeccable in the second half.
He scored a modest seventeen points, but grabbed a career high sixteen rebounds and finished as a plus twenty contributor in the plus-minus category. He also played a team high, forty-three minutes. Not too bad for a guy who had been criticized for having a ‘low motor’.
Game Five was even more impressive. In a game where Steph Curry did not make a single three (for the first time ever in the Playoffs), how on earth did Golden State muster enough offense to beat the historically good defense of Boston? The answer is Andrew Wiggins.
Wiggins finished as the Warrior’s leader in points with twenty-six, and rebounds with thirteen, respectively. He also contributed with two assists, two steals, and a block, with no turnovers. Wiggins was far and away the Warriors best player in Game Five, and arguably the most impressive player from either team.
It is also worth noting that despite shooting 0-6 from three, Wiggins shot over 50% from the field. His defense was stellar, yet again. The second half was an offensive nightmare for Boston, in large part due to number twenty-two.
The lights are bright in the NBA Finals, and Andrew Wiggins has shown up, but where did all of the negative chatter around Wiggins come from in the first place? The 6’7” wing out of Kansas had a solid rookie campaign, scoring about seventeen a game and grabbing the Rookie of The Year trophy on the way… but we have come a long way since the 2014-15 NBA season, so what happened since then?
By his third season in the league, playing for Minnesota, Wiggins was averaging 23.6 points per game on 45.9% shooting. Andrew Wiggins has proven time and again that he can score like an All-Star. His defense at the time, however, was mediocre at best. This came into the public eye when Jimmy Butler joined the squad via a draft night trade with Chicago in the 2018-19 NBA season.
Reports arose of a bad relationship between Butler and the rest of the squad, specifically because of the younger guys’ defensive approach. Wiggins was a focal point of this. The relationship between the two got so bad that Wiggins’ brother, Nick, tweeted, “Hallelujah” when rumors of Jimmy Butler’s trade request had surfaced. Butler criticized Wiggins’ defensive commitment. Just about three years later, Wiggins is playing the most important defensive role for a team with championship DNA.
Andrew Wiggins’ scoring numbers have gone down slightly each year since the infamous train wreck of a year that the Timberwolves had in his last season there. His efficiency has improved nonetheless. This season he shot a respectable 39.3% from downtown, and 46.6% from the field.
So why should he be an All-Star? Because he has done whatever his team needed him to do. It is unreasonable to expect a player’s scoring numbers to increase when playing with the likes of Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole, and Klay Thompson, all of whom can light it up for thirty points as we have seen in these Playoffs. When Klay Thompson was hurt, and the Warriors needed a versatile defensive wing to stay in contention, Wiggins showed up. Even since Thompson has returned from his two year long injury hiatus, it’s clear he is not the same player as far as defensive tenacity.
Wiggins brings this to the table. He has effectively guarded four of five positions on the court, and has consistently taken on the toughest defensive assignment throughout the Warriors playoff run. Come the finals, when they needed rebounding and defense, Andrew Wiggins delivered. When they needed scoring, Wiggins proved that he still can reach deep into his bag of tricks for a timely bucket.
In Game Five his aggression and touch around the basket commanded the respect of basketball fans everywhere. These are the same fans who were calling for the end of fan voting when Andrew Wiggins was named an All-Star starter in February.
Andrew Wiggins has matured. He has filled the scoring gap for Golden State when they needed it most. He has rebounded at an astonishingly high level throughout the playoffs, and in the Finals especially. Most importantly, though, he has proven himself committed to excellence on the defensive end, and no longer afraid of a challenge.
