MADRID — Forward David Lee has played only one game since joining the Boston Celtics and is already seeing some positive similarities with his former team, the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
The two-time All-Star reckons the Celtics have what it takes to surprise people this season despite being a young team and lacking a standout figure like Stephen Curry.
SEASON OPENER
WHO: 76ers at Celtics
WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Oct. 28
TELEVISION: CSN
“It’s a similar make-up as far as the team, with great chemistry, we have an unbelievable chemistry,” Lee said in Madrid on Wednesday, a day before Boston’s final game of a preseason double-header in Europe.
“Guys on the team get along well. There’s not the superstar like Stephen Curry on this team but we do have a lot of depth and I think we are going to be a team that it’s going to turn some heads this year.”
The 32-year-old forward said he also sees plenty in common between the Celtics’ Brad Stevens and former coach, Steve Kerr.
“I’m just getting to know Coach Stevens but he is a very smart coach, teaches the game very well,” Lee said. “We have such a young team, it’s very important to have a guy that can really teach the younger players how the game is supposed to be played and he is similar to Steve Kerr of all the coaches that I’ve had, that really knows the game and has great enthusiasm toward the game.”
The Celtics, who finished under .500 last season, beat Italy’s Olimpia Milano 124-91 in Milan on Tuesday in its first game of the NBA Global Games tour.
Boston finished with a 40-42 regular season record last season and was swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
“I’m excited about what we have ahead of us and this preseason is very important for us to come together and that’s why games like tomorrow’s game (Thursday) is important for us to keep making strides,” Lee said.
A 32-time Spanish champion, Real Madrid is likely to pose a greater challenge than Olimpia Milano did on Tuesday.
“Real Madrid is a very quality team, so the goal is to come out and play even better than we played the last game and continue to build on what we did last night,” Lee said. “We know they are an experienced team that plays well together. We just have to come out and play our style. At this point of the season it’s more about us working on what we need to work on versus who we are actually playing.”
Lee scored 13 points and had seven rebounds and three assists against Olimpia Milano. A 2005 first-round pick who came to Boston in a trade for Gerald Wallace and Chris Babb, Lee was an All-Star in 2010 with New York and 2013 with Golden State.
THUNDER: Kevin Durant says it feels like his absence has been a lot longer than eight months.
But Durant is finally back – he started and logged significant minutes in Oklahoma City’s preseason opener at Minnesota on Wednesday night.
Durant missed 55 games last season and needed three surgeries to repair his broken right foot. He last played in a game on Feb. 18 against Dallas.
Durant says he’s trying not to think about his injury anymore, and trying not to put too much pressure on himself, either.
HARRY GALLATIN, the Hall of Fame basketball player who was a seven-time All-Star forward for the New York Knicks in the 1950s, died Wednesday. He was 88.
The Knicks and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, where Gallatin was a former coach and athletic director, confirmed the death through Gallatin’s family. He died in Edwardsville.
Gallatin spent nine seasons with the Knicks, one in the Basketball Association of America and eight in the NBA, and finished his career in 1957-58 with the Detroit Pistons. The former Truman State star averaged 13.3 points and 11.9 rebounds in 630 regular-season NBA games. He led the league in rebounding with a 15.3 average in 1953-54 and was an All-NBA first-team selection that season.
Called “The Horse” for his rugged play, the 6-foot-6 Gallatin never missed a game or practice in his career. He played 610 consecutive games with the Knicks, a team record that still stands, and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1991.
Gallatin coached at Southern Illinois-Carbondale from 1958-1962, going 79-36 with the Salukis. He then coached in the NBA, going 111-82 in 21/2 seasons with the St. Louis Hawks and 25-38 in parts of two seasons with the Knicks.
Adam Silver, league commissioner, says it is “premature” to talk about an NBA expansion in Europe. Silver says he doesn’t think “it’s going to happen in the very near future” but “could happen one day.”
Silver spoke in Madrid on Wednesday, a day before the Boston Celtics play Real Madrid in NBA’s Global Games tour.
The commissioner also said the NBA will not stop if the international basketball federation decides to go ahead with its plan to change its calendar and have games coinciding with the NBA season.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
