Will the Celtics show they’re ‘not the same team as last year’ against the Warriors?
Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Warriors are in town this week for the first time since last year's Finals.
Draymond Green said when the Golden State Warriors return to TD Garden on Thursday night, he’ll be wearing a nice smile just like he did when the Warriors clinched the NBA championship on the Celtics’ home floor.
The Warriors also had plenty to smile about the last time they played the Celtics on Dec. 10, when a 32-point, 7-assist performance from Steph Curry paced a double-digit victory in Oakland.
On Thursday, the teams meet in Boston for the first time since last year’s Finals.
The Celtics, winners of their last seven games, have a chance to prove things are different.
“We’re not the same team as last year,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said. “They’re not the same team as last year. Some of us are not the same players we were last year. I’m not the same player I was last year. So you just see and read the game that’s in front of you. You don’t need to go in there with anything from behind in the past.”
Last year was the first time playing in the Finals for most of the Celtics’ core players, including Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford. The experience and motivation gained from the loss kickstarted the Celtics into another level to start the season.
“That playoff run last year was a lot of experience that we were able to gain as a group,” Horford said. “A lot of us had never been in that position before. So carrying that into this season, I feel like we started at a different level of understanding being in that position. So as for us, it’s continuing to improve and I think [Thursday] is a chance for us to do the same thing.”
At 22-22, the Warriors have been treading water this season. They’ve gone a dreadful 5-17 on the road. But they’ve shown they can still cause trouble for the Celtics.
Horford said he’s encouraged by the improvement the team has made over the last month and is looking forward to the challenge.
“Just getting back to good ol’ Celtics basketball,” Horford said. “You have to be able to defend, you have to rebound, it helps a lot to have Rob back, Defensively as a group, I feel that our guys have picked it up a lot as well.”
There’s also the addition of Malcolm Brogdon, who played in Boston’s loss to Golden State in December but was with the Indiana Pacers during last year’s playoff run.
“Just leadership, professionalism, a guy that plays the game the right way,” Horford said. “He’s trying to win, you can see that the minute the way he came in, the way he carries himself, it’s something we did not have. It’s good to have a guy like that.”
Brown said that the Celtics are looking to create separation between themselves and the rest of the league. They can’t really do that without knocking off the defending champs at some point, can they?
Well, the Warriors are back in town this week, and it’s time to see if the Celtics can properly apply the lessons they’ve learned since the last time a grinning Draymond Green walked off the parquet floor.
“The timing is always right to where whatever happens is supposed to happen and you kind of have to figure it out,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I’m glad we go through stuff like that, because it teaches you and you have to know how to navigate that. It’s easier to say it now that we’re not in it anymore.”
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