Draymond: ‘Now let’s get it’.
Green, Curry don’t feel need for extra motivation in playing Houston
OAKLAND >> After eliminating the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night and advancing to the NBA Western Conference finals against top-seeded Houston, Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were asked about their motivation against the next opponent.
“With the Rockets having all that talk and narrative of what they have been saying about you guys,” a reporter asked, “did you guys at all want them as much as
(they want) you, with them having said all that this season?”
Curry and Green looked and sounded exasperated.
“We don’t have to say nothing,” Curry said.
He then turned to Green, who
expressed his indifference with more fiery passion.
“We won two championships in three years. We don’t have to run around talking about how bad we want to play somebody,” Green said. “We want to win another championship and it don’t matter who is in the way of that. If you in the way of that, then you happen to be in the way. We’re not about to run around like, ‘Yeah, we want to play them in the conference finals.’ For what? It don’t matter to us who we play. However, we got them, all right? Now let’s get it. We get to it now. But it makes no sense for us to run around (saying), ‘We want them as bad as they want us.’ For what?”
Green made his point. But the Warriors‘ outspoken forward continued to elaborate with the kind of force that made him the first player in Warriors history to average a triple-double in a playoff series (14.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 10.0 assists against New Orleans in the Western Conference semifinals).
“That, honestly, don’t make much sense to me. We got a goal, and whoever is in the way of that goal, then we got to see you,” Green said. “You got to see us. All right, now they’re in the way. Perfect. But we ain’t running around talking about, ‘Man, I can’t wait,’ like we want them bad. No, we want a championship bad, another one. That’s the truth.”
That nearly two-minute monologue captured the Warriors’ season-long feelings about the Rockets. They respect that Houston acquired Chris Paul, PJ Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute last offseason to join James Harden in hopes of dethroning the defending champions. Yet, the Warriors believe they have a more talented roster with Curry, Green, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.
The Warriors are mindful the Rockets beat them in two of three regular-season matchups. But they don’t believe regular-season apathy and injuries on Oct. 17 and Jan. 20 have any correlation beginning Monday when Warriors plan to have a healthy roster and compete with playoff intensity.
So when Rockets center Clint Capela told ESPN that the Rockets are “better” than the Warriors in January, the Warriors maintained they hardly care about those comments in May.
“That’s all fine and dandy in January,” Green said. “But now, you got, you know, they got us, we got them. Got to go out there and play. We’ll see who’s better.”
The Warriors believe they are better because of their recent championship history (two NBA titles in three years), a proven roster (four All-Stars) and they became the second team in NBA history to reach the Western Conference finals four consecutive seasons. However, the Warriors are strikingly similar to Houston.
Both teams share the NBA’s best playoff record (8-2). While the Warriors (110) and the Rockets (109.5) posted nearly identical total points per game, the Warriors shoot 46.9 percent from the field while the Rockets shoot 44.6 percent. While the Rockets concede fewer points per game (100.1 to 101.6), the Warriors lead the NBA in defensive field-goal percentage (43 percent) while Houston fares 10th among 16 playoff teams (45.9 percent). The Warriors also finished second in the NBA in total rebounds (48.5), while Houston ranked seventh (43.8).
A similar story emerged on the Warriors’ and Rockets’ stars. Harden (28.5) has a slight edge over Durant (28.0) in points per game. Capela (12.2) fares slightly better over Green (11.5) in rebounds per contest. Green (9.0) has averaged more assists than Harden (7.4) and Paul (6.4), though that bodes higher than the numbers that Durant (5.0) and Curry (3.5) have posted.
Still, the Warriors sounded intrigued about starting a playoff series on the road for the first time since facing the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round in 2014. Green’s eyes lit up at the prospect of stealing a road game.
“I kind of forget that feeling. But we’re definitely looking forward to it,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for us. When you’re going on the road, the mindset is to go get one game. Hopefully you can do that in Game 1. But nonetheless, that is going to be our mindset.”