Pushing the pace:
“When Utah made a run and we kind of dropped our shoulders a little bit and were slow to bring the ball up the floor, Draymond’s pace was unbelievable. He forced our entire team to keep pushing the ball.” Mike Brown
Draymond Green gets his coaches’ message loud and clear.
SALT LAKE CITY — Draymond Green spoke by telephone to Steve Kerr between Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference semifinals and Kerr had a specific message for him.
“He told me that in the first quarter of Game 3, we pushed the pace and then we stopped,” Green said after Golden State’s 121-95 victory completed a sweep of the series. “So he told me I needed to come out and really push the pace and push the tempo.”
Warriors acting head coach Mike Brown reiterated that, signaling Green throughout the game to push, push, push.
“We just wanted to get them on their heels and then we get into the flow,” Green said.
So for all the other things Green does on the floor — he recorded a triple-double Monday night — pace-pusher is one of the most important. Going into the series with the Jazz, the difference in the two teams’ preferred tempo and rhythm was expected to be a difference maker.
“Draymond was terrific,” Brown said. “Yes he had a triple-double. When Utah made a run and we kind of dropped our shoulders a little bit and were slow to bring the ball up the floor, Draymond’s pace was
unbelievable. He forced our entire team to keep pushing the ball.”
The team relied on Green to help it bolt to an early lead, helping take the crowd out of the game and demoralizing the Jazz at times.
While he was doing that, he was also all over the floor.
In the first quarter, after playing nine minutes, Green had six rebounds, four assists and seven points, clearly on the way to a triple-double, the first for him in the 2017 playoffs.
Late in the game, he was one assist shy of the triple-double mark. He said he wasn’t aware of it.
“I wasn’t,” he said. “I went back in the game; I don’t know why I went back in the game.”
He got the triple-double, the third in his playoff career, on an assist to Klay Thompson.
“I try not to pay attention,” Green said.
Green finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
Green seemed motivated by a fan in the seats behind the Warriors’ bench. Every time he hit a three — he was 3-for-5 from long range — he looked back at that fan.
“He told me shoot it and I’ll shoot us out of the series,” Green said. “I don’t know if he keeps stats very well. He’s not very smart.”
Maybe not. Though Green was 0-for-3 from beyond the arc Saturday, he finished the Utah series 10-for-21.
Green enjoyed the interaction.
“Absolutely, I like messing with fans,” he said. “It’s fun.”