Why Grant Williams was ‘excited’ when Celtics won the title last season

Williams was actually at TD Garden the night the Celtics won Game 5 of the NBA Finals, along with Hornets teammates Brandon Miller and Mark Williams. They were there to support Charles Lee, who was wrapping up his stint as associate coach of the Celtics before becoming the head coach of the Hornets.

However, Williams stopped the celebration in the Celtics’ locker room. Watching his former teammates celebrate, there was one specific teammate that Williams was most happy with.

“The smile on (Jaylen Brown’s) face, (Jayson Tatum’s) face, (Al Horford’s) face — that’s the one person I wanted it for the most,” Williams said. “I love Derrick (White) and those guys, but Al, that’s my vet. He and Blake Griffin were huge for me this past year in Boston because they kept my mind and mental space in a good place. I will always be grateful to him and his family.”

Williams also said he enjoyed the finals battle between the two teams he played for, even though the Mavericks traded him midway through the 2023-24 season and rose in the standings after that move.

“That was just a special, unique opportunity to be there,” Williams said. “It was pretty cool to see both teams compete and both guys, whether it was Luka (Doncic) and that group or JT and this group, compete at a high level. You couldn’t ask for more as a basketball fan and as a friend of both teams. That was great.”

Last season’s championship victory certainly seemed like a long time coming for the Celtics, especially for Tatum and Brown. The star wings had led Boston to the Eastern Conference finals in four of the previous six seasons and reached that round in three of Williams’ four seasons with the team.

The closest the Celtics came to a title during that span was in 2022, when they lost to the Warriors in the NBA Finals. Williams admitted the Celtics were better equipped to win it all in 2024 than in 2022.

“I think their offense was significantly better than ours the year we went to the finals,” Williams said. “I think that’s what stagnated us in the final. We did a great job guarding and defending under the Ime (Udoka) side, but I think we still didn’t understand what it took to win in the final. We saw with that team that they just played a little more freely, with a little more passing than isolation than we did in that Finals series against the Warriors.

“JT and JB didn’t feel like they had to do it alone. They had a good group around them with Jrue (Holiday), D White and all those guys.

According to Williams, the Celtics’ offense was better in 2024 than in 2022. After finishing first in offensive rating during the 2023-2024 regular season, Boston posted an offensive rating of 111 in the Finals win over Dallas. It had only posted an offensive rating of 105.8 in the Finals loss to Golden State.

Williams also praised the Celtics’ coaching staff, saying that Joe Mazzulla “did some phenomenal game planning for that series alongside Lee.”

“They had a special opportunity to take advantage of this,” Williams said. “They were playing a team in Dallas with a lot of talented players, but the continuity that Boston had, especially being there, gave them that edge.”