Marcus Smart finally has the chance to do something he felt the Boston Celtics could have down four years ago: beat the Golden State Warriors.
The Celtics point guard made comments on J.J. Redick’s “The Old Man and the Three” podcast (available on Audacy) back in February that had the Celtics team in 2018 not lost to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Game 7, they would have defeated the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
“We definitely thought we had a great chance,” Smart said. “To this day, we still thought if we went to the championship instead of LeBron and those guys, we definitely would have beat Golden State that year.”
Instead, the Warriors swept the Cavs for their third title in four years.
Smart said that back in February in front of a live crowd in Boston, but the comments have resurfaced in recent days as the Celtics and Warriors gear up for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
Of course, both the Celtics and Warriors are much different teams than they were in 2018.
Boston no longer has Kyrie Irving but Smart, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have all evolved as players since then, particularly Tatum, who has blossomed into a true star in the league.
That Warriors team had Kevin Durant, which makes Smart’s comment even more brow-raising, but while they lost Durant they have gained plenty of depth with guys like Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole in addition to the Big Three of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
It is hard to say if the 2017-18 Celtics would have fared well against that Warriors team (most fans would probably argue they would not have beaten them) but now there is no “what ifs” as Smart and the Celtics have their shot at the Warriors for an NBA championship.
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