The Boston Celtics handed the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors their worst home loss in franchise history and found their identity while doing so.
They were defending, they were aggressive offensively and most importantly they were smiling. In Tuesday night’s 128-95 thrashing of the Golden State Warriors, the Boston Celtics not only rediscovered their winning ways and winning attitude, they also got their swag back.
Led by Gordon Hayward and his 30-point performance, the Celtics jumped out against the defending NBA champions at Oracle arena and played their most complete game of the season.
With a season-high 38 assists, the ball movement was there, and the shots were going down. Everyone played well in this game. Jaylen Brown was aggressive to the rim, Hayward looked like the Hayward of old, Jayson Tatum played big on both ends of the court and Kyrie Irving simply did Kyrie Irving things by setting up his teammates, picking his spots to take his shots and Uncle Drew even took a charge defensively.
Where did these Boston Celtics come from?
After Brown described the team’s underachieving as “toxic,” it appears the team has found something on their long flight to the Bay Area and it has them looking like the Celtics team that was predicted to give the Warriors some big-time competition in the NBA Finals.
With the much-needed victory, Irving and the Celtics proved they can compete with the best. What they have to do going forward is sustain it and play the way they played Tuesday night consistently. Even when the shots aren’t falling, part of that consistent play is battling through the hard times.
"“Obviously, we’re not going to make every shot like we did tonight,” Irving said following the game, as transcribed by WEEI. “I told these guys, we’re going to have to battle through some tougher road games as we continue to go on and we have to be able to stay the course, stay together and still have a defensive identity. We’ll be fine every single game if we do that and we stay connected.”"
Perhaps now is when that leadership begins to kick in.
In all, it was just one game, but here are three ways the Golden State Warriors helped the Boston Celtics find their swagger again.
Warriors have their own dysfunction
Like the Boston Celtics, the Golden State Warriors are a very talented team even without the services of Klay Thompson. They are also a team, like the Celtics, who also appear bored with the regular season.
Unlike the 2018-19 Celtics, however, the Warriors have a history of turning it on in the playoffs. As the defending back-to-back NBA champions, they reserve the right to do so.
That doesn’t excuse their lack of energy and motivation in a big game against a team predicted to challenge them for a title. There was certainly no excuse for this defensive play (or lack thereof) coming out of halftime down big to the Celtics:
https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1103160053878513664
Oh, and that wasn’t even the worse of the defensive hustle and lack of communication from the Warriors who looked like the Boston Celtics did in the previous game in Houston.
With All-Star players like Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Draymond Green, Golden State should not lose at home by 33 points to any opponent not matter how interested or lack of interested they are in the game.
What it showed the Boston Celtics is that they can compete with Golden State and beat them in their arena. They put their foot on the pedal from the start of the game and continued to accelerate throughout the game, particularly in the quarters where they struggle.
In summary, the Celtics extended their lead in the second and third quarters which has to put some swagger back in their confidence.
DeMarcus Cousins
To beat a bully, you have to stand up to a bully.
While the scoring and actual beatdown was the highlight of the night, have to love the way the Boston Celtics had each other’s back in this one.
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With the game just about put away in the fourth quarter, Warriors big man DeMarcus Cousins was called for a charge backing down Aron Baynes. The play resulted in a little extracurricular activity from Cousins as he said something to Baynes and pushed Jayson Tatum.
That resulted in Terry Rozier coming to defend his teammates. Baynes also stood up and came at Cousins. While the play resulted in a double technical, it really showed the Boston Celtics are willing to battle together.
It really capped off a night in which the entire team showed trust within one another defensively. Not only did they get back and defend on fast breaks, they were engaged in every offensive possession the Warriors had. They played hard and tough to the end frustrating a player like DeMarcus Cousins like they did much of last season.
With Baynes back and Rozier showing his fearlessness, the tough swagger returned at Oracle Arena Tuesday night. It’s just too bad it took till March for fans to see it.
The liability named Gordon Hayward
Remember that unnamed player who said Gordon Hayward was a liability on both ends of the court for the Boston Celtics?
Well, thank you.
On Tuesday night, Hayward seemed to be fueled by those comments as he led the team with 30 points coming off the bench. With 19 of those points coming in the first half, Hayward showed signs of All-Star Hayward combining outside shooting with aggressiveness towards the basket.
He was also locked in defensively coming up with a timely steal leading to a fast break bucket.
Gordon with the steal and the flush! https://t.co/7uT1e8PwVW
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 6, 2019
With all the emphasis on the play and attitude of Kyrie Irving, watching Gordon Hayward find confidence in his game and have a big night against the Warriors gives true hope that this team still has a chance to do great things when it counts.
More importantly, Tuesday night’s overall performance by Hayward to get him back on the right foot both literally and figuratively.
In summary, If Gordon Hayward plays like this the rest of the way, the Boston Celtics will definitely have their championship contending swagger back.