Celtics earn respect from Warriors after double overtime thriller
The Golden State Warriors left the TD Garden on Friday night with tired smiles on their faces, and an undefeated streak intact after a 124-119 double overtime win over the Boston Celtics. In an early candidate for the NBA’s game of the year, the upstart Celtics proved to be a tough test for the defending champions.
“They were amazing,’’ Warriors forward Draymond Green said of the Celtics’ effort. “We knew they were coming in to play this way. This is a club who [are] going at some tough places [to win]. They’re a good team, a good ball club, and they’re going to continue to get better. We knew how that would turn out, and it happened exactly how we thought it was.’’
Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala echoed Green’s sentiments about the challenge the Celtics poised.
“You see that they’re young,’’ he said. “They have some really good pieces. They play really well together. They mesh really well. Everyone complements each other, which is tough to find the right type of guys in this league. But they complement each other really well.’’
The Warriors were without a pair of starters — Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson — on Friday, and the Celtics held their own thanks in part to their performance on the defensive end. Celtics guard Avery Bradley and a host of other defenders harassed reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry into a season-worst 9-of-27 shooting performance from the field and a game-high eight turnovers. Even facing smothering defense all night, Curry still tallied a game-high 38 points.
“He’s been tough the last three years we’ve played against him,’’ Curry said of Bradley. “He loves a challenge and I do too. I know he doesn’t like it but I was happy he got that sixth foul [in overtime].’’
The loss dropped the Celtics to 13-10 and the seventh spot overall in the Eastern Conference, but Curry believes that Boston is a better squad than its record indicates.
“Their record is still above .500, but they’ve played better than their record I think,’’ Curry said. “They’ve got some big wins on the road against some tough teams, OKC, Atlanta. And when they win, they win big. They really show out. So you know they have that punch, that firepower. They provide a couple of matchup problems with some of the bigs that can step out and shoot threes and space the floor. You don’t really know where it’s coming from on a nightly basis, which is tough.’’
Celtics coach Brad Stevens did not take much solace in the loss after the fact. He deadpanned in his postgame press conference that his only takeaway from the defeat was “a flight to Charlotte’’ to face the Hornets on Saturday night.
Stevens’ attitude does not change the fact his team earned some new admirers on Friday night with such a strong performance in a high-profile game.
“They’re good, man,’’ Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. “You hear things. They say they don’t have a superstar-superstar, but they’re a hell of a coached team. I was very impressed with the way they were coached. They go very, very deep, which isn’t something that most NBA teams do. [Stevens] has confidence in all his guys.’’
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