The Warriors beat the Celtics in six games in last year’s NBA Finals. Still, Boston forward Grant Williams believes the Celtics was the better team.
“When I’ve reflected and looked back on those games,” Williams said on The Long Shot podcast. “I would say confidently, confidently to this day that they weren’t the better team. I would say that confidently.”
That’s an interesting take considering there were no major injuries in the series and the Warriors won four out of the six matchups. How do you define which team is better without using the final score? Williams’ argument centers around the notion that the Celtics basically blew it. They had more talent, but didn’t have the discipline or experience that the Warriors did.
“I would say they they were the most disciplined team. I would say that without a doubt. I would say their discipline, their history of being in the Finals, championship pedigree was real.
“At times when you go back and watch the film, we had commanding leads or went on runs then we just turned it over three times or missed shots. Instead of making the right read, because we missed those shots, we started forcing things and just stuff like that and the discipline of making the right play over and over again we didn’t play with.”
This begs the question, doesn’t being more experienced and disciplined go into what makes a team better than another? Isn’t consistency as much of a skill as being able to jump high? According to Williams, it belongs in some separate category that doesn’t play into who’s better. Regardless, he gave props to the Warriors’ focus.
“They play the same no matter what. They’re going to get the same shots, they’re going to create the same looks, they know what the priorities are and they’re going to play with pace.”