The turning point of the Warriors’ 106-104 win on Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers was Draymond Green’s defense. It wasn’t just his highlight reel blocks, either.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Green made the decision to pickup 76ers point guard T.J. McConnell using full court pressure. Green’s presence put the 24-year-old guard in a tizzy and Philadelphia struggled get off shots — let alone score the basketball.
Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater broke down the game-changing strategy Wednesday evening with Ray Woodson on KNBR.
“Apparently Draymond went up and said, ‘Hey, guard (Dario) Saric for a second. I’m going to pressure McConnell full court for these next few possessions,’” Slater said. “He went and picked up Philly’s point guard full court. You can’t do that against every team. You do that against John Wall, he’s sprinting right by Draymond and it’s a bad situation.
“Draymond knows personnel. He knows how to get in teams’ heads. And I just think McConnell, who is very much a fringe NBA talent, it just seemed to kind of swallow Philly. It obviously got the crowd going. It changed everyone’s defensive intensity in that game. Because it wasn’t just Draymond down the stretch — he made the highlight plays, a couple blocks, the foul late that was smart. But it was the entire team. It’s very strange to say them surviving Philadelphia at home is encouraging. And it’s not overall encouraging, but the fourth quarter itself that they at least could find the gear, was at least mildly (encouraging).”