BOSTON – Stephen Curry walked onto the TD Garden court this morning and went through his typical game day shootaround routine.
The reigning NBA MVP casually made his way around the 3-point arc, and despite wearing a heavy duty Golden State trapper hat, he swished nearly every shot he took without breaking a sweat.
Curry’s face will likely be glistening tonight, however, as the Boston Celtics will look to lock him down and hand Golden State its first loss of the season.
The reigning NBA Champion Warriors have thrashed their way through the first quarter of the season unbeaten, but they know it will be no easy task leaving Boston 24-0 tonight.
“They’re a tough team,” Curry told Celtics.com following the shootaround. “Every game – especially against us – they try to keep things simple. They don’t make a lot of mistakes, they play tough defense and they have some offensive talent that is pretty imposing, so if you’re not locked in defensively, they can go on these crazy runs.”
The C’s went on one of those crazy runs the last time they hosted Golden State. Boston at one point held a 56-30 advantage during last season’s matchup, though the Warriors – behind a 37-point effort from Curry -battled back and won, 106-101.
The Celtics attempted an astounding 109 field goal attempts during that game, and Curry knows his squad will have to play better defense this time around.
“They obviously shoot some 3s and got plenty of guys that can shoot them,” said Curry, “so you’ve got to be able to rotate and help each other out on the floor, especially on their home floor, they usually play with a lot of energy.”
Much of that home court energy is derived from Boston’s boisterous fan base, and TD Garden will surely be rocking tonight.
Former Warrior David Lee says that if his Celtics can feed off of that crowd energy and play like they have been lately, they will have a good chance at knocking off Golden State.
“I just think if we go out there and do the things we’re capable of doing, we’re gonna have a shot,” Lee said yesterday after the C’s practice. “Especially here [in Boston], with the way the building’s going to be.”
Curry met up with his former teammate for dinner last night. He said it will be “pretty weird” facing off against Lee, having suited up alongside him for the majority of his NBA career.
“I spent five good years with him,” said Curry. “It’ll be different seeing him on the other side.”
He added, “He’ll know all our sets, but hopefully we can still execute.”
The Warriors have had no problem executing on their current road trip. Boston is stop No. 6 on Golden State’s lengthy journey away from the Bay Area, and is the last of two teams that stand in its way of closing out the first undefeated seven-game road trip in NBA history.
The Celtics may be its most difficult challenge of the trip, especially considering how suffocating their defense is capable of being.
Boston is forcing a league-high 18.7 turnovers per game, which could be a concern for a Warriors team that is coughing the ball up at the seventh-highest rate in the NBA (15.9 turnovers per game).
“They make teams turn the ball over, which we’ve been known to struggle with on occasion,” said interim head coach Luke Walton. “We’ve been great with it on this road trip so far, but they run great actions, they’ve got bigs that can space the floor and there’s constant movement with them.”
Walton knows the C’s will not let up tonight, especially considering their matchup history and what is at stake.
“They always play us tough,” said Walton “They had a big lead on us here last year so there’s lots of things that we need to be prepared for.”
You can bet the Celtics will be coming into this game prepared as well. There’s a giant target on Golden State’s back, and Boston wants to be the first team to hit it with a loss.
