Saturday, Jan. 26 - Warriors at Celtics
Pregame – What Not to Overlook Tonight vs. the Two-Time Defending Champs
BOSTON – Golden State’s offense makes nightly headlines thanks to its elite 3-point shooting, pristine ball movement and high-scoring affairs. The two-time defending NBA champions also get praised consistently for their versatile defense, led by four-time All-Defensive teamer Draymond Green.
Still, there are aspects of the Warriors’ game that sometimes go unnoticed, according to Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens. It’s those elements that he hopes his team does not neglect Saturday night when it hosts Golden State at TD Garden.
“There’s a lot of things that are overlooked about them, which sounds crazy because of how much they’re covered (in the media),” Stevens said ahead of the 8:30 p.m. primetime tip-off. “The No. 1 thing that’s overlooked is how hard they play. Everyone gets mesmerized by their shooting, the offense, the five clips a game of the ball just popping around. These guys play really hard. Everyone that comes in the game does. They’re so active defensively. They have a lot of versatility, but versatility only goes so far if you don’t play the right way, and they play the right way. There’s a reason they’ve been the standard.”
With that knowledge, Stevens believes Saturday night’s game will be a great measuring stick to see where the Celtics stand just past midpoint of the season.
“They have a lot of highly-skilled, highly intelligent basketball players that you can tell if you take your foot off the gas for one second, you’re dead,” Stevens said. “And they make you play possession to possession, they make you have that kind of focus, and that’s really good to see where you’re at at a given time. So that’s what I’m looking forward to tonight: Seeing where we are at.”
Priority No. 1 for his Celtics will be matching Golden State’s effort from the opening tip to the final buzzer. If they’re able to do that, then they should be able to match up well with the Warriors, which would provide a solid indication of where they stack up against the reigning champs.
- Taylor Snow