Rookie Boston Celtics forward Hugo Gonzalez had a successful campaign in the 2025-26 NBA regular season to kick off his career in the league. And a big part of why the 19-year-old did as well as he did with Boston this season likely has a lot to do with his experience playing as a pro in Europe with Real Madrid since his early teens.

The Spaniard took some time to talk about his experience adjusting to the NBA and the contrasts and similarities between the Association and the EuroLeague in a recent interview. "It's a longer season," said Gonzalez, who also pointed to the length of the postseason as a notable change for him to adapt to.

"In Europe, we've got ... best of five," he explained. "Here it's best of seven, so expecting some long runs or some long rounds. But (we) try to get the work done every single game and try our best."

Still, one major difference coming from a series with two fewer games is that each carries more weight. "It's the best of seven, we always try to win in four, I guess," said Gonzalez. "So, I guess it's just the strategy ... to win every single game."

"And, you cannot get one (bad) day, you can have maybe one ... but one bad day in the whole playoffs because, playoff is not waiting for nobody. And if you want to win, you got to have the hundred percent of yourself."

This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Hugo Gonzalez on the difference between EuroLeague, NBA Playoffs