Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Not a fan favorite, Green still earning points with teammates
The routine has become standard, as has the response from 76ers fans.
As the starting lineup is announced at the Wells Fargo Center, it will begin with James Harden, who will be loudly cheered. Next will be Tyrese Maxey, the rising star, and with that the screams will intensify.
The intros will conclude with Joel Embiid, whose reception will top them all. Just before that, Tobias Harris will receive a thunderclap of approval.
Then, there is the in-between starter, the one cleverly buffered by the star-attraction adoration. That announcement … “From North Carolina, Danny Green!” … will elicit a different response. That one will be littered with booing and other expressions of disgust.
For many reasons, the second-year Sixer is widely considered a party-crasher, or, at best, a place-holder until Daryl Morey can find a fifth starter with the skill to be a strong All-Star candidate. On some levels, it is understandable. But to Doc Rivers, it’s a puzzle.
“He understands who he is,” the coach said. “And we understand who he is.”
Green is a stand-still shooter with three world championship rings who is near the end of his career. Last year, he was fairly popular as a regular starter, a player with a skill set different from the failed Bully Ball experiment of a year prior. With Seth Curry, he nicely complemented Ben Simmons in a three-ply backcourt, providing enough accurate shooting to muffle the point guard’s legendary deficiency.
But then came the second round of the playoffs and Rivers’ curious decision to trust him defensively on Trae Young. That Game 1 disaster set the tone for the rest of the series, which ended with Simmons being booed for his inability to make a foul shot. Though Green had a calf strain and only played three games in that round, he did himself no public good by later going podcasting and criticizing the fans for heckling Simmons.
Even that short-sighted act might have been
forgotten had Green produced in the ensuing regular season. Instead, he would prove inconsistent, shooting well enough to maintain presentable stats yet too often mixing in a critical-time air-ball. And at 34, he was no longer a useful defender. So that toxic blend of age, poor defense and horribly timed missed shots was enough to erode any remaining popularity.
For Green, though, there would be one escape route: In a critical game, he could produce. He could be the three-point shooter he was earlier in his career, tempting defenders to pull away from Embiid and Harden. He could be the Danny Green who helped the Spurs, Raptors and Lakers win championships. He could, as he did Friday, shoot 7-for-9, all on threepointers and score 21 points in a 99-79 victory over the Miami Heat to keep the Sixers from dipping into an 0-3 hole in a best-of-seven.
“It felt good to be able to help my team and do my job,” said Green, who joined Curry and Allen Iverson as the only Sixers with at least seven triples in a postseason game. “That’s it. I’m not in any way, shape, or form satisfied. We are not taking any deep breaths or exhaling.”
The one-at-a-time policy is a sports standard, established well before even Moses Malone made it triply clear how many victories it takes to win an NBA series. But Green’s three championships do give it some added value.
“Danny played well in Game 6 in Toronto,” Rivers said. “Listen, he’s been on winning teams. There is nothing Danny hasn’t seen or faced.”
Among the challenges Green faced this season was the loss of his starting job. Confident that he had enough scorers, Rivers was comfortable supplementing Embiid, Harden, Maxey and Harris with Matisse Thybulle. But when Thybulle did not meet Canadian COVID vaccination mandates and was ineligible to play in Toronto during the first round, Rivers sought lineup stability. So very late in the season, understanding the likelihood of a first-round series against the Raptors, he replaced Thybulle with Green, who has been effective enough to keep it that way.
“We laugh that he is never going too fast, because he can’t,” Rivers said. “So actually he is just a very calming force for us. He understands who he is, and we understand who he is.
“We didn’t have his presence last year (late) in that Hawks series. And we needed that.”
The Sixers are no longer a young team, but Green is the only one on the roster ever to have won a championship.
“We still have a lot of what we call ‘younguns,’” Rivers said. “Having his experience is good for us.”
That could translate into pre-game appreciation just before Game 4, Sunday night at 8. Or not. Either way, it won’t affect Green’s attitude.
“We know we have to win another game so we have to stay locked in and focused, taking it one game at a time,” he said. “Hopefully, we can keep that momentum and have another decent shooting night.”