Draymond’s main mission: unsettle LeBron
CLEVELAND — He is the guy you desperately want on your side. And he’s the guy, as an opponent, you desperately want to punch in the mouth.
Draymond Green brings that out in people. He chirps and rubs people the wrong way. But there is no denying his talent. One of the Warriors’ four All-Stars, Green does some of this, lots of that and it usually adds up to an effective game. He was terrific defensively Sunday in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. On offensive, he only took four shots, but his night included seven assists and eight rebounds.
But the main focus was making life uncomfortable for LeBron James.
“He’s already a great player, and then you give him the easy things and he’s just getting into a rhythm and he’s dialing everything up. At that point there is really nothing you can do,” Green said. “From the start of the game we played with more force. Over the course of the game, it helped us a lot.”
Especially with Green playing his normal maniacal style. Teammates love it.
“You see it all. He’s everywhere. He’s a Defensive Player of the Year for a reason,” said teammate Steph Curry, the offensive hero with 33 points. “He loves those challenges. Loves being in the fight every possession. He just finds ways not only if it’s a oneon-one match-up to get a stop, and plug holes on the defense all over the court.”
Andre Iguodala, who sat for the first two games of the Finals with a bone bruise in his left knee, hasn’t felt any pain recently and plans to play in the Finals, though his status for Game 3 is still uncertain, according to ESPN.
“I aim to play in Game 3,” Iguodala said after Game 2 in Oak- land, “but I’ve aimed to play in Game 2 and Game 3. We’ll just have to see.”
Curry moved into the top spot for the most career 3s in Finals history. He has 90. James has 85. Klay Thompson is in third with 58. ... With his 29 points, James (1,327) moved into second place on the all-time Finals scoring list, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,317). Jerry West (1,679) sits atop the list.