Robb: Celtics Earn Praise From NBA-Best Warriors
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Golden State Warriors have been the best team in the NBA this season. On Sunday night, the Boston Celtics gave them everything they could handle.
Boston exploded with 65 first half points and even led the Warriors by 26 points early in the second quarter before slowly but surely surrendering the mammoth edge. The Warriors clamped down on defense (Boston shot just 30 percent in the second half) and cut away at the deficit over the final two quarters behind the sharpshooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. They topped things off with 8-2 run in the game's final two minutes, which helped them emerge with a hard-fought 106-101 victory at the TD Garden.
The Celtics dropped to 11 games below .500 with the defeat, but you would never have known it by the way the Warriors spoke about Brad Stevens and company following the game. For the past couple of weeks, Boston has been playing an improved brand of basketball, and Sunday's effort made Golden State the latest team to take notice.
"We weren't ready to play tonight and they were, and they took it to us," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said of the Celtics postgame. "They're playing for the playoffs. They have a fast team. They're incredibly well coached and disciplined and they make it hard on you. Fortunately, we had a full quarter and a half to get back in it."
The setback snapped a three-game winning streak for the Celtics, who had won seven of their past 10 games prior to Sunday's loss. Key new additions Isaiah Thomas and Jonas Jerebko have played just four games in green, but that hasn't stopped the Celtics from going toe-to-toe with the NBA's elite.
Amazingly, Sunday marked the second time this season the Celtics have hung tough with Golden State, dropping a 114-111 contest to them back in January.
"They've improved since the last time we played them," Thompson said of Boston's revamped roster. "They play real well together, I'm just happy we grinded it out."
"We studied [Boston] yesterday and this morning," Curry said postgame. "The trades they made, obviously they're not as familiar with each other, but the talent they have, and the pace that they try to play at now is tough. They showed that obviously in the first quarter.
"We had to make adjustments, we didn't want to be down 26, but we wanted to try and come out a little stronger than we did tonight."
Brad Stevens has been dealt a challenging hand in his first year and a half of rebuilding in Boston, but that kind of praise from the NBA's best shows he's starting to sustain some growth with his group. Despite the Celtics' blown lead, Stevens was appreciating the silver linings following the contest.
"We really got swallowed up by that small lineup that they put out on the floor," Stevens said of the grouping that had Draymond Green at the five for the Warriors. "At the same time – it's like I told them in there – you forced the hand of the best team in the league to play it that way. And so hopefully we can keep growing and getting better."
The bottom line? The Celtics are showing progress and earning respect around the league, and that's all Boston fans can ask for at this point.
"We've been together eight days," said Stevens. "I would say that everything we do better leads to progress tomorrow. But I don't know; I think obviously we're all disappointed in the lost, but we did a lot of good things today."
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.
