Draymond Green Says Playing Celtics Isn’t Like Facing LeBron James

The Warriors are one win away from their fourth championship in eight years, though this one would stand out from the others in one regard: They didn’t have to go through LeBron James.

Golden State and James’s Cavaliers squared off in four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 to ’18, giving the most veteran Warriors players a unique insight into what it takes to go against one of the game’s all-time greats. On Wednesday, Draymond Green was asked to compare the task of playing the Celtics this series against James, and he said the two challenges are not of the same ilk.

“Well it doesn’t compare to, like, mentally playing against LeBron James, who I think is arguably the smartest guy to ever play this game,” Green said. “Not ‘one of,’ he’s arguably the smartest guy to step foot on a basketball court. So to say that it compares to that, it’s disrespectful to LeBron and it’s a lie to you.”

Green was quick to compliment this year’s Celtics team as a worthy adversary, and said the Warriors have had to work hard to stay a step ahead the younger, more athletic Boston team.

“It is a challenge mentally because these guys are super athletic, they’re super young, fast and strong … So when you’re facing that, you have to try to out-think a guy,” Green said. “If a guy is faster than me, how can I beat him to a spot? I have to anticipate, I have to think, I have to try to understand what he’s trying to get to. So I think that’s been huge in this series, from a mental standpoint, just trying to understand and be a step ahead of them.”

Green has fouled out in three of the series’s first five games, averaging 5.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest.

Green concluded his comparison by singling out Marcus Smart as “kind of the brain of that team,” and touted Celtics coach Ime Udoka as being “extremely smart,” while ultimately tipping his cap to James as the superior opponent.

“The challenge is there,” Green said of the Celtics. “But you can’t put it up there against LeBron.”

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