Did the Warriors make a ‘statement’ with win over the Celtics? Buddy Hield thinks so.
"It's a statement," Hield said. "If we don't win, everybody says, 'Oh, they ain't played nobody."
Everybody wants to defeat the defending champions.
That’s what Golden State did Wednesday night at TD Garden, topping the Celtics 118-112.
The two teams split the season-series last year. The Celtics went on to win the NBA Finals, and the Warriors lost in the play-in tournament.
Now the Warriors, who are aiming to make a return to the playoffs, are one of three teams sitting at 7-1 atop the Western Conference after a hot start.
Golden State guard Buddy Hield called the victory a statement win.
“What do you think? I mean, it’s a statement,” Hield said. “If we don’t win, everybody says, ‘Oh, they ain’t played nobody.’ You gotta come make a statement, right? That’s how the basketball world talks.”
Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who scored a team-high 27-points in the win, said the Warriors still have a long way to go to get to where they want to be.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” Curry said. “A good team, or a relevant team, wins the games they are supposed to win. You steal a couple on the road against good teams. You protect home court. We’ve done those things so far but we’ve got two more games on this trip, two tough tests. So, I like where we’re at obviously, but there’s a long way to go.”
Golden State’s work on the offensive glass gave them an advantage, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
“When you have an alertness to Curry, being in shifts trying to stop him as a team, they do a good job of cutting behind you,” Mazzulla said. “One was off of an airball, the other was off a blocked shot. I thought the Hield one was the toughest one. I thought the other two were a little 50-50, but I don’t know it’s what happens.”
Golden State built a double-digit halftime lead and did enough to hang on for the win.
“They’re physical. They force you to fight for your space,” Mazzulla said. “They have active hands. I think in the first half they were able to get a ton of deflections and get some stuff there but I thought we did a better job of handling the physicality in the second half … it took us a little while to get adjusted to that. Once we did we did really well and then it just came down to a couple of possessions at the end.”
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