The Boston Celtics are hosting the Golden State Warriors tonight for the first time since the NBA Finals, where the Celtics had to watch the Warriors celebrate a championship on their own home court just seven months ago, a time that many players have said haunted them for a while afterwards.

With a new and improved Celtics team compared to last year, the outcome is going to be different this time around. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are playing the best basketball of their careers, along with a strong second unit led by Malcolm Brogdon and accompanied with Derrick White and Grant Williams.

Brogdon was asked what the teams mindset is with the Warriors being back in the city and if anyone has talked about the Finals recently:

“Not lately. I think whenever we go into our ruts and we’re not playing our best basketball, that’s the conversation that comes up. You know, ‘this is why we didn’t win it last year, this is why we got to the end and couldn’t finish the season the right way, this is why we started the season slow last year.’

So that’s the kind of conversation that comes up when we’re not playing our best basketball. But as of late we’ve been playing reall well and things have been rolling. I think guys have the right mindset, guys keep that memory in the back of their mind from last year just so they can stay motivated.”

The very mature Brogdon acknowledges that this is going to be challenging for some of his teammates tonight, playing against the team that took a championship out of their clenched fists, at home on the parquet, becoming just the second team in history to win a championship on the road in Boston.

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