NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. WARRIORS

June 12, 2022

Grant Williams

Boston Celtics

Practice Day

Q. You had a six-hour flight to think about what went down in Game 4. What did it feel like to reflect on what happened?

GRANT WILLIAMS: Yeah, offense is going to determine I feel like the rest of the series for us in a sense. If we control and do what we're supposed to do, we have success. If we don't, our defense is doing its job, holding a team to 102 points prior to the free throws I would say, you try and win those games. But when you have so many turnovers, when you don't necessarily execute and get less shots and allow offensive rebounds, extra possessions for them, it's hard to win games that way.

That's probably the biggest things we’re noticing, and then our physicality as well. We came out with great physicality and intent in Game 3. I feel like in Game 4, we came out lax, so we have to do a better job of that.

Q. You guys said over and over again, we can't let the offense get stagnant. Why does that keep on rearing its head?

GRANT WILLIAMS: Yeah, if I had that answer, I wish I could write it down in an equation for everybody else for ourselves. But I feel like sometimes we go away from things that work because they don't seem easy, but they technically are. Sometimes like accepting a double-team or doing this to create opportunities for somebody else. Sometimes we might deviate from that because we feel like something is different.

Part of it is just feel. Understanding exactly when get a big lead we can't have simple mistakes which allows them back in it. Last game a lot of time we had six-point leads and then we took a bad shot on offense or had a turnover or we had a lapse of judgment on the defensive end and gave up open threes. Things like that, just like the mental blips. I feel like we haven't been the most disciplined team this series between the two teams, but that's something where we can improve and really make some improvements on.

Q. You guys were dominant inside in Game 3. In Game 4, they were the dominant team inside. Is there a factor in that?

GRANT WILLIAMS: I wouldn't necessarily say there's a big factor in a sense. I would say that I think it's just a mindset of making sure that we take those points away. A lot of their points came down to transition, open opportunities, and then offensive rebounds. I think they had 16 offensive rebounds and I think we had 16 turnovers. So that's 32 opportunities for them that we can take for ourselves.

In that sense we'll make sure that we understand that our offense is going to dictate our defense because even with that we held them to 102 points -- well, 100 and whatever it was at the end of the game, but 102 if you look at it without the free throws. We can take those out of the equation, we really held them to 80, 90.

Q. How do you slow down Steph Curry?

GRANT WILLIAMS: He's a generational player. He's a guy that's going to take the attempts. In a sense it's just keep making it hard on him. If he's averaging 35 but he's taking 30 shots and you got to accept that. In a sense we have to make it a little bit harder understanding what he does well and what tendencies you take away to make it a little bit more difficult on him, because we gave him a couple open threes, open looks that got him going and keep him going. Just making sure we're intently -- Smart and D White, those guys are doing a phenomenal job making tough on him. We each have to do a better group effort.

Q. How much do you give them credit for -- obviously they're experienced, great coaching staff, the changes they’ve made between games, how they've changed the game plan and adapted?

GRANT WILLIAMS: Yeah, I feel like less so even the adjustments, I feel like they're just disciplined. That's where that maturity comes in. They've been here many times before, so they try not to beat themselves, even if they do have one or two breakdowns or turnovers that lead to open baskets, they still execute and do what they need to do. Steph when he's committed, either way if he knows if his shot is there, he takes the shot but if he doesn't, he gets off that ball and keeps moving. The off-ball actions help with that, as well.

I feel like that maturity side of things in the sense of like discipline and that's where the difference has been, less so adjustments and everything else because I don't know what necessarily you say they change as much in a sense. They've been committed to this system.