Ime Udoka praised the Boston Celtics for their defense, especially in the fourth quarter of Game 1 vs the Golden State Warriors.
After trailing by 15 late in the third (72-87), the Celtics conceded just 21 points in the remaining minutes and cruised to the win (120-108).
Boston outscored the Warriors 48-21 in the last 14 minutes of the contest and that was the key to their triumph.
“Yeah, that’s kind of who we’ve been all year. Tough grinders, resilient group that we can always know we can rely on our defense to kind of buckle down when needed.
Like I said, we weren’t playing our best in the first quarter. Curry got loose, didn’t score in the second quarter, and we held them to 22, got ourselves back in the game.
They had another big third quarter due to some of our mistakes, lack of physicality on our part. Then we locked down again and played great in the fourth.
We always rely on that. Impressive against a really elite scoring team,” Ime Udoka told media, including Hedgeout.net, afterwards.
The Celtics know defense will be key in the NBA Finals and will rely on it in Game 2 on Sunday. For their part, the Warriors remain confident and will try to regroup and even the series.
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