for a 123-114 win<\/a>.<\/p>\nCollectively, the Warriors didn\u2019t agree with Green being tossed so quickly. And they won\u2019t lean into the notion that the team is better without him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, hell nah. That ain\u2019t the formula,\u201d Jimmy Butler said. \u201cNo, no, no, no, no. We need Two-Three out there. When you\u2019re a man down, you got to pick up everything. It\u2019s generally hard to cover up what he does on both sides of the floor. \u2026It\u2019s so hard to do what he does. But it\u2019s a collective effort when he\u2019s not out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you this: You look at Draymond\u2019s career and he\u2019s on the plus side in a massive way over and over again,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr added.<\/p>\n
Nobody can take away Green\u2019s accomplishments in a Golden State jersey. He\u2019s a four-time champion, a future Hall of Famer, one of the most unique players in NBA history and only a handful of guys historically can be mentioned in the same breath as him defensively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The numbers, especially over the last month, also unveil a different picture of the current version of Green and the Warriors as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr used 11 players Saturday night, and only three had a negative plus\/minus. De\u2019Anthony Melton was a minus-3 in 25 minutes off the bench, but he stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, seven rebounds, three 3-pointers, two assists and two steals. Rookie Will Richard was a minus-1 over 18 minutes in reserve. Both were in the positive in the second half sans Green.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 12 minutes before his ejection, Green was a minus-15. Since Dec. 1, he has produced a positive plus\/minus twice in 11 games \u2013 once against the 12-win Charlotte Hornets, and once against the 10-win Brooklyn Nets. Overall, he now is a minus-65 in that month-long span.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Green, in his last seven games, has been ejected twice and left the bench early in another. He hasn\u2019t finished three of his last four home games at Chase Center. The Warriors responded to his ejection against the Phoenix Suns and were a plus-16 without him. They then outscored the Orlando Magic by 28 points after his incident with Kerr on the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wins for the Warriors followed both times, as well as Saturday night against the Jazz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The saving grace one night after a 37-point trouncing from the Oklahoma City Thunder was Steph Curry\u2019s 20-point third quarter, which also was without his running mate of the last 14 years. Curry went into the half with nine points on 2-of-7 shooting and then reeled off his latest vintage third-quarter flurry to the tune of 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting, 4 of 6 on threes and was a plus-11 in 11-plus minutes to give the Warriors a four-point lead going into the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fans were in for a treat during that stretch. Curry pulled off both his signature look-away 3-pointer with the ball in the air in the third quarter, as well as yet another triple nearly from the logo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trying to get him to pick between the two was like asking him to choose a favorite of his four children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re both great,\u201d Curry said, before repeating the same answer behind a smile. \u201cThey\u2019re both great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still serving a show on a nightly basis, Curry\u2019s longtime coach knows where the credit belongs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No plays need to be drawn up. Advice would be a laughing matter. Watch him let it fly and reap the rewards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn’t me, it wasn’t my play calls or anything. It was just Steph,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThat’s how good he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, everything felt right in the second half. The spirit, the energy, the level of competitive fight. You’re much more likely to make shots when you have that approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same spirit, energy, level of competitive fight and approach must be in conjunction with Green on the floor for the Warriors to ride the momentum they believe they\u2019re building right now. It\u2019s the only way to fight the narrative that matches the numbers, enjoying a win without this trend blossoming into something bigger.<\/p>\n
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 There\u2019s a trend surrounding the Warriors that\u2019s starting to become more noticeable than their fondness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,200,479,164,4025,4024,6,932,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-515685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-draymond-green","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-steph-curry","16":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115835861972725590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}