Kurtenbach: Draymond Green’s virtuoso performance proved that the
Warriors are the NBA’s team to beat
Golden State Warriors 118, Phoenix Suns 96: Steph Curry scored 23, but
it was Draymond Green who led the Warriors to an impressive win over
their top rival this season.
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: December 4, 2021 at 10:17 a.m. | UPDATED: December 6, 2021 at
4:25 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/12/04/kurtenbach-draymond-greens-virtuoso-performance-proved-that-the-warriors-are-the-nbas-team-to-beat/

>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 3: Golden State Warriors’
Draymond Green enjoys the fourth quarter of a 118-6 victory over the
Phoenix Suns, Friday, Dec. 3, 2019, at Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

Draymond Green wasn’t very good the first time the Warriors and the Suns
played this week.

So Friday night at Chase Center, he was the best player on the court for
Golden State in one of the Dubs’ most impressive wins of this
exceptionally impressive season.

By now you should know that the box score cannot possibly encapsulate
everything that Green does to affect winning on the basketball court,
and Friday night’s 118-96 win was the perfect example — though the box
score numbers looked pretty good.

Green showed, once again, why the Warriors dominated the Western
Conference for half a decade and why they could again be the favorites
after a two-year playoff hiatus.

With him at the helm of the Warriors’ offense and defense, Golden State
is in the best hands. He’s too smart to make the same mistakes two games
in a row.

Put top-flight talent that kind of basketball intelligence and drive in
a seven-game series and you have the Warriors’ playoff record during the
Steve Kerr era.

Friday night was one of Green’s best games of the season. I said that
the box score didn’t matter, but he did end the contest two blocks away
from the vaunted five-by-five, which has only been done 22 times in NBA
history. Green last accomplished the feat in 2015.

Green had nine points, nine rebounds, nine assists, six steals, and
three blocks vs. the Suns.

Just as important, he had only two turnovers in the game and put the
clamps on Suns center DeAndre Ayton.

Green is simply the best defender in the NBA right now, bar none. And in
a season (though perhaps not last night’s game) where referees are
correcting past mistakes and giving defenders more leeway to actually,
you know, defend, having a player like Green who as a defensive anchor
should prove invaluable to the Dubs for the remainder of the season and,
especially, the beyond.

After all, that beyond is where Green does his best work.

Friday night’s Warriors-Suns game had a playoff feel, just as Tuesday’s
contest in Phoenix did. The two best teams in the NBA faced off for a
second time in a week — for the Warriors, it was back-to-back games
against the same elite opponent.

Here’s an unsavory truth about the NBA: Rarely do you see both teams
actually going hard at each other in a regular-season game. Even rarer
is both teams having bespoke defensive game plans for an opponent and a
contest. Sure, coaches and players talk about some keys on defense
before a game, but most of the time, those keys are thrown out the
window when the game starts. The vast majority of regular-season NBA
games are two teams playing their games, irrespective of the other team
on the court, and simply finding out who has more points at the end.

The Warriors and Suns didn’t play that kind of game on Tuesday or
Friday, though. No, there was pride on the line and both teams clearly
put in extra preparation and carried extra desire to win heading into
both contests.

This was, in a strange way (and to a degree, an unfair way, too, given
Phoenix had to play Detroit on Thursday in Arizona), a series — a
preview of a presumed Western Conference Finals.

And by now, you should also know that Green doesn’t make the same
mistakes twice in a series.

Let’s start with Green’s tremendous offensive performance:

On Tuesday, Green was passive on the offensive end of the court. He
didn’t control the tempo or pace of the game as the hub of the Warriors’
offense — he didn’t take the action to the Suns — so Chris Paul, his
point guard counterpart on Phoenix, was able to control the contest.
Paul took over the game late, ground down the pace of the contest until
it was a fine powder, and put the Suns in the best position to win,
which they did, even without star wing Devin Booker.

Green watched that game and adapted. From the jump on Friday, he was
pushing. He not only moved the ball in the half-court with extra gusto —
going full Kevin Love with a near full-court chest pass in the second
half — but he also took space when he did not have the ball.

[video]

Teams are always going to slag off Green — he’s not a shooter defenses
have to respect on the perimeter. But Green doesn’t have to stay on the
perimeter in the Warriors’ offense. It might not be a pick-and-roll
offense, but there are plenty of screens and — when operating at its
best — countless cuts.

So we saw Green cutting to the basket again and again and again on
Friday. He spent a great deal of time in the paint, where his
effectiveness as a passer was not affected.

The real key to Green’s great game and the Warriors’ win was that No. 23
played without hesitation on Friday. He was decisive in his passing —
even the bold attempts — and when he received the ball after one of
those cuts, he immediately found a pass or put the ball up.

Green finished the game 6-for-8 from the floor, including a big
3-pointers, but it was his aggression on offense that opened the game
for the Warriors. He was playing fast and the Warriors and Suns had no
choice but to follow.

[video]

The Dubs’ stars might be getting older, but Golden State still needs to
play as fast as possible. Yes, there’s the downside of turnovers, but
Green and Curry thrive in the chaos and the Warriors’ front office did a
marvelous job this past offseason finding high-basketball-IQ players who
can handle the fray.

But for the Warriors to play their best, Green has to be the
tempo-setter, the accelerator. He was just that on Friday.

And defensively, he turned in a masterpiece.

In the Warriors’ super-switching defense, the Dubs don’t exactly have
marks, but you could see the change in defensive emphasis between
Tuesday and Friday.

On Tuesday, Green spent less than half of the time he was on the court
guarding Ayton. The big man had his way with the Dubs in the contest,
particularly as a passer, but he scored six points against Green.

In fact, Green spent more than a quarter of his time on defense Tuesday
guarding Paul on the perimeter. Paul scored only once against him and
the Suns had a sub-100 offensive rating in those minutes.

But that’s not the best utilization of Green — no, he needs to be down
low, where he can both guard the big man (or men) and quarterback the
team’s defense.

Sure enough, on Friday, Green defended Ayton on more than half of the
possessions when both players were on the court. He only pitched onto
Paul for 30 seconds, total, in the game, per the NBA’s Second Spectrum
stats database.

The Suns couldn’t do a thing against him.

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Ayton was 2-for-6 from the floor with two turnovers, two stolen balls on
entry passes, and a blocked shot against when defended by Green Friday.
In all, Suns’ players went 2-for-12 from the floor when Draymond was
defending them.

There were a number of heroes from Friday’s game. Andrew Wiggins was
marvelous on both ends of the floor, and energy players Nemanja Bjelica,
Juan Toscano-Anderson, and Gary Payton II flipped the game in the second
half. This Steph Curry fellow had a good game, too.

But it was Green who once again set the tone for the Warriors on both
sides of the court. We saw playoff Draymond — smart, tenacious, driven —
in December. It was a spectacular sight.

It was also a reminder of why the Warriors are 100 percent for real.

We have spent so much time trying to pin what that little extra
something was that helped the Warriors dispatch so many teams throughout
their playoff runs during the dynastic years.

It’s pride — the fact that the Warriors’ best players, Curry, Klay
Thompson, and especially Green, will hold themselves to a higher
standard than anyone else in the building. They not only want to win,
they expect to win. This is why losses bring out the best in those
players in the next game.

That pride is why you can’t kill off the Dubs in a seven-game series
unless conditions are perfect.