Draymond Green’s slump lasted what, a week? After ripping into himself for being a detriment to the Warriors, Green now looks awfully close to the best version of himself.
At the very least, he’s still got more than enough left in the tank to bring the Warriors back from the brink in what Steve Kerr termed the “biggest game of the year.” He has energized this team and bullied them — in the most positive sense — into playing defense-oriented and aggressive again.
There room to debate the last time he was truly at the peak of his powers — and his shooting and offensive output is nowhere near where it was in the pre-Durant years — but it’s been a long time since the Warriors had something to compete for, and Green has always been a player who plays his hardest when there is a tangible significance to the situation.
To be exact, the Warriors haven’t been a playoff team in 1,025 days. The last time they were in the playoffs, the dynasty imploded in a decade-punctuating pair of catastrophes.
Their long overdue return to the playoffs is officially upon us, as of their 111-107 Saturday night win over the Jazz, and there’s little chance they’d be back here were it not for Green.
Before his L5-S1 disc injury in his back, the Warriors looked like they were on a war path for the Finals. That was even before they had Klay Thompson back in the lineup.
But without Green, Golden State treaded water, hovering around .500 in his stead. They’re battling to hold onto the No. 3 seed.
He wasn’t quite himself after returning, until Wednesday, when he put in an outstanding performance in a heartbreaking 107-103 loss to the Suns. Kerr had been yearning for defensive improvement, and Green spurred that effort in a game he and Kerr both agreed he “got his legs back.”
While a fourth-straight loss was still a fourth-straight loss, there was an evident shift in Green and in the tenor of the Warriors’s style. The effort was back. It was physical, aggressive, fast-paced and confident.
That relentlessness was there, indicating that even if they trailed by 20, they’d keep chugging.
That is exactly what happened on Saturday night, as the Warriors escaped a 21-point deficit. While the Jazz chuckled to themselves by ignoring Golden State’s shooters, Green took hold of the situation, driving the ball at Rudy Gobert — who rapidly inverted from Warriors headache to Warriors asset — with an offensive confidence towards the basket he hasn’t often shown this season.
He sparked an 18-0 run that sent the Chase Center into a rapturous state, which stunted the Jazz, who looked completely lost at that point.
In every run that the Warriors make, there is Green. Whether he’s the spark or the fuel to turn it into a long-burning flame, he’s always there.
After the comeback, just about everyone pointed to him as the reason Golden State had energy to wake itself from its stupor.
Jordan Poole singled out a timeout in which Green encouraged the group.
“Draymond timeout. Draymond’s timeout helped us,” Poole said. “We just told ourselves coming out of that, we got to guard, we got to buckle down. Crucial part of the game and this is the moment where we need to win the game and it really resonated positively with everybody on the sideline and we were able to really pick that up. It was a major boost.”
Both Gary Payton II and Kerr pointed to Green, too. And bear in mind, this was a game in which Klay Thompson and Poole combined for 67 points.
What’s incredible about watching Green in games like this is how he plays every moment like it’s the most important moment of his career. It looked just about the same watching him at Michigan State and in all those years the Warriors lived in the Finals.
It’s not exactly poise, because there was a pretty substantial portion of the game when the Warriors were getting walloped by Utah and losing their composure by yelling at the referees.
When he’s at his best, he’s a juggernaut of energy and expression, yelling at pretty much everyone. At one point he went ballistic at Steve Kerr, discernibly to express his displeasure at one of a handful of suspect calls, using him as an outlet to avoid a technical and also because he knew Kerr could take it.
You see Green border on recklessness, but as long as he doesn’t actually get tossed from the game, you know he’s going to turn it into something positive.
The stats bely that he had a positive game, with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, a block and a +20 net rating, but his impact is often poorly represented by stats.
Kerr put it best. He’s the rising tide that lifts all ships.
“I just saw incredible passion and competition from Draymond,” Kerr said. “If you don’t know who Draymond is and you ask any of his teammates or coaches, ‘How do you describe him as a player?’ First thing that you say is competitive and passion.”
“All the other stuff, you know, he’s a great defender, he’s a passer he’s a [dribble hand-off] guy. He reads the game, but the main thing with Draymond is that he’s just a winner. He’s been a winner his entire life; high school, college, NBA, he just wins. He’s like the rising tide that lifts all ships. I mean, it’s true. When he’s out there, his emotion, his energy and his passion, his brain, it lifts up our entire team.”
There are endless metaphors and adjectives to describe Green’s impact. The fact is that in year 10, at age 31, he is still the engine of the Warriors. He is the immutable force you have to neutralize to attack their identity.
He’s still the player opposing fans love to hate the most because he wins in ways that aren’t easy to quantify. A decade in, he’s still the most effective agitator and motivator in this league.