The Celtics defeated the Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals with a historic fourth-quarter comeback, but Golden State star Draymond Green isn’t ready to hit the panic button just yet.
Boston made 21 3-pointers Thursday night at Chase Center, with Al Horford lead the team with six threes made. The Celtics were down 12 heading into the final quarter of Game 1 and came out with a 12-point victory. Draymond Green explained what went wrong for the Warriors.
“They stayed within striking distance, and they made shots late,” Green told reporters, per Twitter video from The Mercury News’ Mark Medina. “We’ll be fine. We’ll figure out the ways we can stop them from getting those threes and take them away, but I don’t think it was a rhythm thing. We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes, so we’ll be fine.”
Green’s bold comments continued as he discussed how Golden State continued to leave players like Horford and Derrick White open consistently. White was second on the team in three pointers, shooting 5-for-8 against the Warriors.
“I don’t know, we’ll see, we’ll figure it out, watch some film, but they have guys that put pressure on the rim,” Green said. “So you’re gonna have to rotate to help. We’ll have to figure out where our next rotation is coming from and do it. They hit 21 threes, and Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Derrick White combined for 15 of them. Those guys are good shooters, but they combined for 15-for-23. 15-for-23 from those guys, eh, we’ll be fine.”
The Celtics shot 21-for-41 overall from beyond the arc compared to the Warriors, who shot 19-for-45 from distance. Green, himself, was inefficient on the offensive end scoring four points on 2-for-12 shooting (0-for-4 from three), but he did secure 11 rebounds along with five assists and two steals.
Green’s experience as a three-time NBA Champion could explain why he is confident the Warriors can bounce back in Game 2. Golden State will get a chance to tie the series against the Celtics on Sunday with tipoff scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
