Green takes charge, ready to make defenders pay
OAKLAND » For a player who admittedly has become indecisive, Draymond Green suddenly took control.
The Warriors forward is only two days removed from the team’s Christmas Day loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. In that game, Green posted four points while shooting 2 of 7 from the field and missed all three of his 3-point attempts. His point total was matched by his turnovers (four) and eclipsed by his fouls (six), rebounds (five) and assists (five). So with his body language and words, Green displayed defiance regarding any concern that he could remain passive and ineffective with his shot, playmaking and intensity.
“My defender is going to have to pay. I’m not about to trip about something that happened in Game 32,” Green said after morning shootaround Thursday. “These games are going to be more important down the stretch in the playoffs. That’s when I play my best basketball. My defender is going to have to pay.” How so? “Whatever action I’m in, I’m going to start lighting them up,” Green said. “That don’t mean just scoring by the way. I ain’t really been doing me. I haven’t been playmaking like I can. I haven’t been scoring when I got the opportunities. I haven’t rebounded like I can. I haven’t been defending like I can. So I think everybody is looking at the
scoring. I don’t look at that. Yeah, I have to be more aggressive on the offensive end. But I have to be just me all around. But I haven’t been that.”
The Warriors (23-12) enter Thursday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers (19-15) at Oracle Arena with Green averaging 7.1 points while shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 22.4 percent from 3-point range along with 7.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 3.1 turnovers.
The Warriors have often maintained Green’s value goes beyond any scoring contributions. After all, Green considered it “one of my best games of my career” when he finished with two points while shooting 0 of 8 from the field and 0 of 2 from 3-point range in an overtime win to Oklahoma City in the 2015-16 season. His other statistics in that game: 14 rebounds, 14 assists, four blocks, six steals, four fouls and three turnovers. Incidentally, Green infamously yelled at Warriors coach Steve Kerr in the locker room at halftime for not letting him shoot as much as he wanted.
Still, the Warriors want Green at least to be a shooting threat and he has posted his lowest scoring and shooting numbers since his rookie NBA season (2012- 13). Green has averaged slightly fewer assists than in his previous three NBA seasons. Green still leads the Warriors with a 102.5 defensive rating, the number of points allowed per 100 possessions when he is on the floor). But the Warriors have ranked 15th out of 30 NBA teams in total defensive ranking (108.8).
“I can sit here and make a ton of reasons. But at the end of the day, not one of them really matters. It’s about playing better,” Green said. “We’re blessed to play this game for a living. It’s my job to play better. It’s my obligation to this team to play better. It’s my obligation to myself to play better. No reason really matters. What matters is what to come.”
Some within the Warriors also believe it has mattered that Green missed three exhibition games with a sore left knee as well as 13 games with a sprained right toe. Last season, Green admitted not feeling fully engaged in the regular season. He shot down both concerns pertaining to this season, though.
“I feel amazing ( physically). Mentally, too,” Green said. “That’s what is most important. I feel incredible.”
Therefore, Green anticipated that will translate on the court soon, possibly as early as against Portland.
“Sooner rather than later, they’re going to have to pay. They’re going to have to switch their (stuff) up,” Green said. “That’s fine. We’ll come up with some counters with our coaching staff and all that. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be on us as players to make them pay. We will.”
Green made the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Clippers pay for leaving him open at the 3-point line in back-to-back home games. Against the Mavericks, Green had 14 points while shooting 6 of 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from beyond the arc along with 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Against the Clippers, Green posted 14 points while going 4 of 12 from the field, 2 of 5 on 3-pointers along with six assists, four rebounds, five assists and five fouls. Green often traded barbs with the opponent’s bench after making each shot.
“It’s more psychological that I want to talk (trash) with them when I hit the shot. If anything, it’s that,” Green said. “I’m about to talk (trash) to these people. It’s that more than anything. I just wanted to talk so crazy, so bad.”
But against the Lakers, Green was angry at himself for being hesitant.
“You have a lot better of a chance of making them if you don’t hesitate,” he said. “It’s about making being decisive and quick decisions. If that’s going into a (dribble handoff), do it right away.”
• Despite shooting a career-low 33.7 percent from 3-point range, Klay Thompson says he isn’t fretting over his shooting woes.
“I don’t think it’s a shooting slump,” Thompson said. “I really don’t. Like I said, I don’t care.”
Thompson’s latest comments come as he’s playing through one of the worst stretches of his career. In Tuesday’s 127-101 loss to the Lakers, Thompson made just 2-of-7 shots, finishing with five points. Over his past five games, Thompson is 4 for 22 from 3-point range. This season he’s shooting a career-low 33 percent from 3-point range. However, if you take away his recordsetting 14 3-pointer night against Chicago earlier this season, Thompson is shooting just 31 percent on the year. Still, Thompson says he isn’t flustered.
“I’d rather have it fall come playoff time than in December,” Thompson said. “Just because I’ve had a few bad games in a row, I’m not going to worry about not shooting the ball well. I’m one of the best shooters to ever play, so I don’t really care what people say.”
• Kerr said that DeMarcus Cousins’ full- court scrimmage on Wednesday went fine. But Kerr offered no details on Cousins’ progress with his rehabbing his left Achilles tendon.
“The curtain was down for a reason,” Kerr said.