Udoka had a great message for Celtics about Draymond’s trash talk originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Honesty has been Ime Udoka’s best policy this season.
So, as much as the Boston Celtics head coach can implore his players to stay out of trouble while battling Golden State Warriors instigator Draymond Green in the NBA Finals, he can’t tell them he’d take his own advice.
“I told them if I was a player, who I was, I would probably get a double technical immediately,” Udoka said Tuesday of his message to the Celtics about dealing with on-court extracurriculars like what we saw in Sunday’s Game 2.
Green was at the center of that those extracurriculars, getting a technical foul in the first quarter after mixing it up with Grant Williams and barely avoiding a second technical after a dust-up with Jaylen Brown near the end of the first half.
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Udoka appears to have no problem with his players engaging with Green and the Warriors — as long as they stay within their own game.
“I say be who you are,” Udoka said. “If you want to ignore it, ignore it. If you engage, engage. Do what you do. Be who you are.”
For more “chatty” Celtics like Grant Williams or Marcus Smart, that may mean giving it right back to players like Green. For others who prefer to focus on their own game and ignore Green (like Celtics star Jayson Tatum), that approach is fine with Udoka too.
But the Celtics coach does want to see his team do a better job matching Green on the physicality front.
“The main thing is to continue to stay composed,” Udoka added. “With us, I don’t think it’s the talking as much as the physicality that they brought. That was noticeable at times. Talking about the first Milwaukee game, the adjustments Miami made were to be more physical. We know obviously that’s what Green does. Kind of bleeds over into the team.
“… Do what you do. Block it out or meet physicality with physicality.”
Udoka was prone to the latter mindset during his playing days: A 6-foot-6, 215-pound grinder, Udoka carved out a seven-year NBA career by playing aggressive defense and outworking his opponents.
Green outworked the Celtics in Golden State’s 107-88 Game 2 rout, and it will be up to Boston to respond Wednesday night at TD Garden in Game 3.