Warriors star and TNT on-air personality Draymond Green has a good omen for Boston Celtics fans who may be worried about the team’s locker-room situation.
Game 2 (and Game 1 for that matter) was a bad loss for the Boston Celtics in their Eastern Conference finals series with the Miami Heat from the NBA Lake Buena Vista bubble on Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports campus.
That said, Game 3 was a rousing success for the Cs as Gordon Hayward rejoined the lineup and Boston actually held on to their lead to beat Miami in a wire-to-wire victory. Perhaps the words of Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green were quite telling after all, following a reported blow-up in the Celtics locker-room:
"“The reality is I think winning teams argue way more than losing teams because losing teams they bicker,” Green said. “So if I’m on a losing team, I’m going to come to you Earnie (Johnson) and say ‘hey man, Shaq (O’Neil) isn’t passing me the ball and he’s freezing me out.’ And then you partner up with me, and now me and you look at Shaq like he’s crazy.“A winning team is going to say ‘Jayson (Tatum), your body language was terrible in the first quarter.’ Because that’s what I saw when I was watching the game. Their (Celtics’) offense was on the run, they’re up a couple points, and he’s not touching the ball and he’s dropping his shoulders … but you’re the best player on the team. So yes, I’m going to say something about that.“Winning teams will always argue more than losing teams. In fact, the media can love losing teams if they want if they don’t want any arguing. And those teams will just lose, and that’s that.”"
If anyone knows the way winning teams act, it’s Green. As part of three NBA Championship-winning Warriors squads and two more that won the west, the former Defensive Player of the Year has been the defensive lynch-pin of a dynastic juggernaut Golden State team.
And wouldn’t you know it? The Boston Celtics followed up his appearance on “Inside the NBA” to take a must-win Game 3 on Saturday night. While no one likes to hear that there were things being thrown around the locker-room following a blown Game 2 lead and loss, if it leads to performances like this, it may be a necessary evil.
While Green’s most recent notable teammate spat may have gotten the ball rolling for Kevin Durant’s Oakland exit, years of disagreements/dominance were led by the outspoken Swiss-Army Knife defender.
While no one wants to relive the toxicity of the 2018-19 Boston Celtics warzone of a locker-room, the current team can feed off of Beantown’s own version of Draymond Green in Marcus Smart to create a spark in the hopes of a championship #18 banner blaze.