Why Draymond Green was the Warriors’ unsung hero of Game 6
Channel: BuzzIT
Date: 27/05/2018

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Why Draymond Green was the Warriors’ unsung hero of Game 6


Draymond Green set a defensive tone for the Warriors in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals on the opening possession of the contest — one that would prove vital to the Warriors forcing a Game 7.

After the Rockets won the opening tip of Game 6, James Harden ran the Rockets’ play — their only play, it seems, in this series with the Warriors — a high pick-and-get-out-of-the-way that brings about in a mismatched isolation set for the presumptive NBA MVP.

As Harden squared up Stephen Curry for the umpteenth time in this series, Rockets center Clint Capela moved to the corner while Green, his primary defender, didn’t chase him.

Instead, the Warriors’ forward remained in the lane, waiting for Harden to do what he has done so many times in this series: drive past Curry and get to the hoop.

Green made sure to meet him there.

The Warriors’ forward blocked five shots in Golden State’s Game 6 win, the first coming on that Harden drive. And while the Rockets jumped out to a 17-point lead on the Warriors Saturday, that block was a harbinger of things to come for Golden State.

Because not only did Green make an outstanding defensive play, the Warriors pushed the ball in transition the other way.

The effort to push pace didn’t result in points on the first play — Stephen Curry missed a 3-pointer following the block — but the Warriors told everyone what their gameplan was in Game 6.

They wanted their defense to lead to offense — we’ve heard Steve Kerr and his players say that so often over the last four years it’s almost become a punchline — but it was on the menu Saturday.

Despite the slow start, the Warriors took Game 6 115-86, and lost in the stories of Klay Thompson’s massive night, Curry’s return to the point of the Warriors’ offense, Chris Paul’s injury, and an eagerly anticipated Game 7, was Green’s outstanding performance in Saturday’s contest.

Simply put, Green was immense, and that — just as much as the Splash Brothers’ big night and Paul’s absence — brought about Monday’s winner-take-all contest.

Green posted the 21st 5-by-4 game in NBA playoff history Saturday — one point and one steal away from the first ever 5-by-5 game in the league’s playoff history. It was a testament to his defensive industry and his offensive acumen.
The Warriors made it a priority to push the pace in Game 6 — if for nothing else than to inject energy into a once-stagnant attack — but that’s hard to do that when you’re starting offensive possessions with an inbounds pass. No, Golden State needed to get stops and create turnovers against the Rockets in Game 6, and that meant that Green had to be in the middle of it all — in the fray — a  place he prefers to be but was drawn away from often in the first five games of the series.

Few in the NBA can read a play on-the-fly the way Green can — he’s a step or two ahead of everyone when he’s on defense, sometimes including, it seems, the ballhandler —but that doesn’t matter if you’re standing close to a spot-up shooter while the play is happening near the hoop.

So it was important Green be given liberty to roam on the defensive end Game 6 — to be in the fray. He was granted that — and to be honest, Mike D’Antoni helped plenty — and the results were obvious.

Add in the fact that Green was often the Warriors’ primary ballhandler in transition operations — he can move the ball up the floor — and you have a player whose impact in the contest can’t be properly reflected on a box score — even a box score that’s excellent.

On Saturday, Green was aggressive in abandoning Capela and challenging any shot that was near the rim. Per the NBA’s tracking stats, Green contested 17 shots on Sunday, holding his primary marks to a combined 38 percent shooting. The Rockets turned the ball over 21 times in Game 6.

“We’d like to get off to a better start. But we like — we like our formula. We like our defense against these guys, and we feel confident that we can carry this through to Game 7 on the road and continue to make things as difficult as possible on Houston without fouling,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

And once Green made a play to disrupt the Rockets’ offense, he pushed the ball the other way, creating space and manufacturing offensive rhythm. The Warriors were only credited with 16 fast-break points, but the secondary points the Golden State scored when the ball slowed down a bit off of a transition opportunity aren’t included in that number.