Warriors' thrill of statement win over Celtics signals new reality

BOSTON — While this current Warriors core has had the target on their backs for years, this new-look Golden State squad has a slightly different makeup. Sure, the old guard of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are still there, but it’s a newer era without Klay Thompson in the mix.

Plus, the Warriors' depth has some new faces. So a 6-1 start to the regular season turned some heads as Golden State boasted an impressive net rating. But the schedule had been relatively soft, leading some to wonder how legit the Warriors were at this point in the year. After a back-and-forth, physical 118-112 win over the defending champs Celtics, the Warriors passed their big first test.

And in some ways, that‘s the new reality for the Celtics. In past seasons, even though they were plenty talented, they didn‘t have that championship pedigree — especially compared to the Warriors‘ four-ring dynasty. But the C‘s have that cache now as the reigning champs; they‘ve been to that mountaintop. So, yes, the Warriors can revel in the thrill of victory, but in some ways, it’s also a new reality.

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“We know who Boston is,” Curry said. “I know they’re missing (Jaylen Brown) and (Kristaps) Porzingis, but felt like it was a good test. They’ve been playing well, despite those guys, they have a certain style that we haven’t seen. ... So defensively to try to match up with them was great. And an environment that’s tough to win in no matter who’s playing. Obviously we know what happened last year (140-88 blowout Celtics win). So it was a great test, knowing we haven’t done a a damn thing. But it felt good.“

The season is still young, though the Warriors look the part of a potentially dangerous team. They won 46 games last year but finished 10th in a competitive West as they failed to make it out of the play-in tourney. But with Curry playing at his best like he did down the stretch of Wednesday‘s game, they’re a dangerous foe.

The Celtics will often be the measuring stick throughout the season considering they‘re the reigning champs. While, yes, the Warriors beat the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals, Boston still gets the label of the most recent champion. And for an early-November game, the intensity was clear Wednesday as both teams came out swinging.

Jayson Tatum postgame took a more measured approach, citing back to Brad Stevens' “they all count one” mantra to not get too high nor too low. So the C‘s will take some bruises — after all, over the course of 82 games, there will be losses sprinkled in. There will be other teams who look at the Celtics as the standard; look no further than a Pacers team winning in overtime last week. And that‘s how the C’s will navigate the entire season as they‘ll often get the opposing team’s best shot on a nightly basis.

“It was a good game between two really good teams,” Tatum said. “They’re better than they were last year. They didn’t have a great season last year, and I’m certain that they wanted to come out this year and have a better start and have a better year, and they’re off to a great start. ... You want to win every game you play. We’re no different. If we would have won tonight, we still gotta play on Friday. We lost tonight, we still gotta play on Friday. That’s the beauty of the NBA.”