DOCTOR DRAY’
Green’s emergence helps Warriors cure ‘soft’ play
OAKLAND, Calif. — Yes, the Warriors of coach Steve (Pants on Fire) Kerr went small in Game 4 and the NBA universe realized the importance of Andre Iguodala, the ex-Sixer who until this season had started every game of his professional life.
And yes, there seemed to be a much too up-close-and-personal view of LeBron James who, in case you missed it along with other world developments like the end of the Ice Age, bloodied his head on a camera during a fall.
But another development Thursday may have been just as important, equally as intriguing in the NBA Finals now even at 2-2 with Game 5 Sunday at Oracle Arena. That would be Golden State’s Draymond Green playing like, well, Draymond Green.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team, and he stepped up when we needed him the most,” Golden State Splash Brother Klay Thompson said. Green knew it was time. “I ’ ve been killing myself mentally, and it’s been killing me physically. My punch hasn’t been there. That drive that’s made me who I am in this league as a player, it wasn’t there,” said Green, a secondteam All-NBA defender. “That’s who I’ve been for this team. I’ve been that spirit, that guy who brings the toughness to the floor. That is the department that I lead this team in. So if there’s nobody to lead the team, then it’s not there.”
Green described himself and the Warriors through three games in a way any NBA player would pick a fight over if someone else used the term — “soft.”
“I said we’ve been soft, and it’s all my fault,” Green said. “I knew in order to do that I had to get out of my own head. I had to be more aggressive and just fight.” So it’s all even going to Round 5 Through the first three games, Green offensively was garbage, shooting 7- of- 31, scoring 29 points. That will not get it done if the Warriors are to defeat LeBron James and a Bunch of Other Guys. Green said he used the off day before Game 4 to work on his shot. That work led to confidence. That confidence led to a 6-of-11 shooting night and 17 points.
“I just wasn’t feeling confident at all. I knew,” Green said, “I had to be more confident.”
He refused to leave the gym until he felt like Splash Brother 3 — or at least Draymond Green, whose impending restricted free agency (yeah, like the Warriors will let him go) will have teams fantasizing.
“Coach Kerr gave us 30 minutes to shoot if you wanted,” Green said. “I took an hour. And I wasn’t leaving until I felt comfortable. I shot a lot of pull-ups, mid-range jump shots, floaters and threes. I just shot until I felt comfortable.”
Make no mistake. He wasn’t just running around like “World B. Green.” He played the way he always does. Teammates followed suit and the Warriors beat a stitched-up James and the gassed Cavs, 103-82, in Cleveland. The difference?
“Our intensity level. We really picked up our intensity level. We contested shots. We got on loose balls, and we rebounded,” Green said. “We battled.”
They played l i ke he does. They changed i t from a tea party to a “street fight.” And they saw the Cavs grow exhausted.
“That’s one thing we’ve been preaching the whole series, is that we wanted to wear them down. They’re playing seven guys, sometimes eight,” Green said. “And LeBron is having to shoulder a lot of the load.”
Some would suggest more than a lot.
“It’s just a street fight,” Green said. “Nobody’s doing anything dirty, but they’re battling and we’re battling, and that’s why this series is so exciting.”
Going small, in addition to getting Iguodala on James, and James on Iguodala, changed the tempo of the game, maybe changed the outlook of the Finals. Playing up-tempo, Green said, was huge.
“We needed to put them on their heels. This entire series it’s been them as the enforcers, them as the aggressors, and us on our heels. We needed to reverse that.”