ESPN's Stephen A. Smith would favor Boston in hypothetical Warriors-Celtics NBA finals

If the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors managed to advance past their current series and then their respective conference finals, at least one prominent NBA analyst is favoring the Eastern Conference team in the subsequent league finals matchup it would set the table for.

That analyst would be ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who is clearly impressed with the defense and resolve the Celtics used to even up their series with the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 4 of the East semis on Monday. “This Warriors team,” said Smith, “if they even get out of the West, certainly wouldn’t beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA finals looking the way they looked” in their last game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

For Boston, it is far too soon to be thinking about the finals when they are still tied with the team that won it all last season.

But the ESPN analyst may have seen something some of us did not in how the Celtics fought back from a significant deficit to even the series in Game 4; check out this clip to see what Smith has to say about Boston moving forward.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!