Celtics show they deserve trade help after tough battle with Warriors

OAKLAND -- The NBA playoffs don’t start for another three months, but even the defending champions couldn’t help but feel like Saturday’s national showcase was an early taste of what’s to come in May and June.

“Yeah, it was playoff intensity, back and forth,” Steph Curry said after the Warriors held off the Celtics for a 109-105 win. “It was a fun game, it was intense, it was hard fought through all 48 minutes, so that is kind of what you expect in the playoffs for sure.”

“It was a great basketball game,” Steve Kerr added. "It just felt like a playoff game. High-level stuff, great defense, both teams playing incredibly hard and smart — not a lot of turnovers. Some tremendous individual performances. The guard play tonight was just amazing back and forth.”

Curry delivered his best game of the year, scoring a season-high 49 points (16-of-24 FG, 8-of-13 3pt) for a well-rested Warriors squad that had all of its horses ready to go. The Celtics were down an All-Star and a key rotation player and still managed to hang toe-to-toe with the league’s best for the better part of 48 minutes. Kyrie Irving (37 points) almost managed to steal the game for the visitors, but his supporting cast didn’t quite do enough to keep up with Curry and company.

Brad Stevens isn’t one for moral victories but he couldn’t help but be encouraged by his team’s performance after an ugly past couple of weeks.

“It was a good game,” Stevens declared. “They made great plays down the stretch. I thought we made a lot of plays. Obviously shot the heck out of it early, but they’re a heck of a team.”

The Celtics, on the other hand, are still trying to figure out who they are 50 games into the season with a new cast of characters. However, their success against the elite teams across the NBA cannot be ignored at this point. They’ve beaten the top nine teams in the league at least once and the losses in those matchups have all come by five points or less on the road (Cleveland, San Antonio, Golden State).

“I mean they are a great team,” Curry said. “You have to play a solid game to beat them, kind of like Houston last week, Boston tonight, and not overlooking any team but we’ve got OKC coming up – those type of games where you know you can’t just show up and win. That’s great preparation for us as we try to build those habits and in a playoff kind of mentality towards the end of the season. Coach talked about it before the game that this is a big game because, you know, you show up and play some mediocre game you’re going to get exposed, you’re going to get beat, so you take that challenge on.”

The expectation for this season once Gordon Hayward went down was that a trip to the NBA Finals would have to wait. As we passed the halfway mark of the season and the Celtics remain competitive against the league’s best despite throwing out guys like Semi Ojeleye, Daniel Theis and Shane Larkin in games like this, it’s fair to wonder what this group could be capable of if Stevens had a bit more to work with.

With the trade deadline just 10 days away, it’s time for Danny Ainge to take some action. It’s not the time to get crazy just yet, (i.e. hold onto the Lakers/Kings pick and the Grizzlies pick) but there’s enough potential in this group to be a bit aggressive with an upgrade. The disabled player exception is a valuable tool to add a veteran piece that will give this group a chance to hang with the big boys when the stakes are raised.

The biggest problem with this group remains the second-team offense. Like most nights this season, the Celtics’ offense fell apart on Saturday when Irving went to the bench. The team had a 67.5 offensive rating when he was on the bench compared to 116.8 when he was on the floor. A shooter or playmaker needs to be added to the equation so the C’s offense has additional options outside of Marcus Morris' mid-range jump shots or isolation takes from reserve guards like Larkin, Rozier and Marcus Smart when Irving is sidelined.

A rental (Tyreke Evans, Marco Belinelli, Jeremy Lamb, Joe Harris) shooter could come cheaply (second-round pick) or the team could make a more aggressive play for a younger piece that could make an impact for both the present and the future (Rodney Hood, Aaron Gordon). Either way, this group has shown enough potential with what they have already (without Hayward) for the front office to give Stevens more to work with, in the coming three months.

That kind of addition should be enough to give the Celtics’ more than a puncher’s chance to take down LeBron James and the Cavs thanks to the defensive system that’s been implemented by Stevens.

“We just have to trust our system, (which is) very high level, and our coaches they do a great job preparing us,” Irving explained. “I feel like we’re getting even better individually preparing ourselves in terms of personnel and the plays that teams are throwing at us. We just have to have it on a consistent basis. Whatever the team does, our defense, it’ll get us somewhere. And we trust that.”

The Celtics have played the Warriors tough in the regular season in past years, but with Irving in the fold, things are a little different this time around. The Celtics aren’t happy just to be the No. 1 seed in the East anymore in the regular season. They’re already looking ahead to the spring after games like this.

“As a group, obviously, we want to win these games,” Horford explained. “But for our group, it's more about making sure we play well and we keep improving throughout the season. This is kind of like -- everything we're preparing for (is) the postseason. I felt like we took a step forward today even though we lost.”

With another move in the next couple weeks, the Celtics will be better situated to take that next step and perhaps see the Warriors again this summer as Draymond Green pointed out:

"It's a team we know we may possibly meet down the road."