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Celtics win, but are Warriors flipping the switch?

Celtics win, but are Warriors flipping the switch?

Three Things To Know is NBC’s five-days-a-week wrap-up of the night before in the NBA. Check out NBCSports.com every weekday morning to catch up on what you missed the night before plus the rumors, drama, and dunks that make the NBA must-watch.

1) Celtics win, but are Warriors flipping the switch?

The Boston Celtics won the nationally televised Finals rematch Thursday night by doing what they have done all season long: Play strong defense, move the ball on offense and trust their stars to make big plays β€” like Jaylen Brown for 3 to tie the game and force OT.

The Celtics have been the best team in the NBA this season. We know they are capable of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy come June. It’s not a surprise they pulled away in overtime for the 121-118 win.

On the other hand, we’ve been waiting for the Warriors to start caring about the regular season, play with a sense of urgency, and start showing up and looking like the defending champs.

Have the Warriors finally flipped the switch?

β€œAll in all, I loved the level of competition, the way the guys played together,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said postgame, via NBC Sports Bay Area. β€œWe looked like what we are, which is a championship team. But we didn’t close the game. Better now than in the playoffs.”

It was a Finals rematch on paper but also a sloppy game overall β€” Jayson Tatum had a few ugly turnovers down the stretch. The Warriors got pushed around in the paint, outscored there 52-30, and the Celtics dominated the glass all night.

However, this was a gritty Warriors team we had seen too little of this season. They had a solid defensive effort against MVP candidate Tatum (34 points, but on 9-of-27 shooting). Kerr also treated it like a playoff game, with an eight-man rotation that leaned hard into his strong starting five (statistically still one of the best five-man units in the NBA this season).

You can argue this was an anomaly for the Warriors β€” they are still a game below .500 (with a brutal back-to-back tonight in Cleveland). They lost to an unimpressive Bulls team on Sunday and just a week ago had a three-game losing streak against the Pistons, Magic, and struggling Suns. All season long they have looked like a bored championship team waiting for the games to matter. They sit ninth in the West because of it.

But all season long we’ve been waiting for the run. Waiting for the string of games where they flip the switch, win 12-of-14 and vault up the standings,…

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