Confidence has never been a problem for Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green.
In the aftermath of a 120-108 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals, Green didn't appear to be overly concerned with the way things went for his team, noting that despite trailing at halftime and being outscored, 40-16 in the fourth quarter, the Warriors "dominated" much of the game.
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"They stayed within striking distance and made shots late. We'll be fine," Green said. "We'll figure out the ways we can stop them from getting those 3s and take them away.
"We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes. We'll be fine."
Green's rationale for being confident in a turnaround? The performances of Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Derrick White from beyond the arc.
Horford set a Finals debut record with six 3-pointers on eight attempts, also the most in a single game for his career, while Smart finished 4 for 7 and White, off the bench, stayed hot from deep with a 5 for 8 showing.
Boston Celtics
"Those guys are good shooters, but they combined for 15 out of 23. Fifteen for 23 from those guys?" Green said, rather dismissively. "We'll be fine."
Steph Curry seems mystified by performances of Horford, White
It's far from the first time Green has provided bulletin board material and it certainly won't be the last. The comments were certainly fascinating from Green, though, after he had just four points for Golden State on 2 for 12 shooting in 38 minutes. To be fair, he did add 11 rebounds, five assists and two steals.
Green is also glossing over the fact that the Celtics received next to nothing from Jayson Tatum (12 points, 1 for 5 from 3-point range) from a scoring standpoint and while Jaylen Brown was great (24 points), he was only 2 for 8 from deep. For as much as it's possible, if not likely, to see some regression from the players he called out, isn't it just as likely that Tatum roars back in Game 2?
The Celtics will look to go up 2-0 in the series on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET back at the Chase Center in San Francisco.