There is a magnificence in the chaos that is Draymond Green.
At times — probably too often — he leaves you questioning him.
“Can’t he just–? Does he really have to–?”
Nope. If he didn’t do what he does, he wouldn’t be who he is. He’s relentless, turbulent, borderline (or sometimes totally) unhinged. He was all of that on Tuesday, reigning over the second half in a blustery display alike the squalls that hit San Francisco earlier in the day.
Sometimes, you have to live on the knife’s edge that is Green’s volatility. It’s an easier proposition when you’ve won four championships with him.
Steve Kerr credited Green explicitly for the win.
Draymond willed us to victory tonight. I mean, just his intensity, his frustration early with the way we were playing, mad at the world, yelling at everybody: their bench, our bench, me, and frankly, we deserved it…
That’s what makes Draymond special. It’s not just the amazing basketball IQ, defense and playmaking, but it’s just his sheer will. He was the key tonight.
In the first half of a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a must win (at least to avoid the play-in tournament), Golden State was tepid at best.
They had nothing. No juice. If you were turning this game on with no context, you wouldn’t have had an inkling there were playoff stakes on the line. It felt like an early-season, clock-in, clock-out performance.
They’ve done this before. Lazy, ill-timed turnovers, slipshod defense and a general lack of attention to detail has plagued their first halves this season.
“That first half was as poor a half as we’ve played all year,” Steve Kerr said. “We weren’t engaged.”
With 3:44 left in the half and the Warriors trailing by nine, Green stepped in. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t.
But he absolutely gave Brandon Ingram a little extra love on a drive to the hoop. It resulted in a flagrant-1 for Green and some words from Ingram. Both Green and Ingram received technicals… to which Green responded in apoplectic fashion, yelling “How!” directed at the referees about a dozen times.
On the next possession, he drove through the chest of Herb Jones and drew a charge for his third foul of the game. He jawed with Ingram and clapped throughout an extended review by the referees.
He went back down on the other end, still clapping, and hiked up his shorts before an inbounds play. Jones, in hilarious, stoic fashion, informed him that he was being substituted for Jonathan Kuminga.
Green was furious with Steve Kerr.
Golden State proceeded to allow a nine-point New Orleans run and fall behind by 17 before Green clocked back in with about a minute to go.
All the while, Green was chirping from the sideline, visibly calling Ingram a word that starts with a “p” and ends with a “y.”
He made a point to mention the disposition of a team that talks trash up 20:
Kerr laughed about his decision to remove Green after the game.
He said he was worried about Green’s “extreme energy” — then chuckled after asking if that was an appropriate way to phrase it — that he’d pick up a fourth foul.
“He was mad about coming out,” Kerr said. “He was mad earlier about our body language in the huddle. He is who he is. He’s the ultimate competitor and the ultimate winner and like I said, he willed us.”
Kerr has as much experience as anyone in throwing blind belief behind his players. He said before the game that he errs on the side of allowing freedom to his players. That paid off in spades on Tuesday.
He knows how consistently betting on Draymond Green will cash.
“I’ve seen this movie before. We need his fire,” Kerr said. “We do some crazy stuff out there. We get sideways and we get too casual with the ball. And without Draymond’s fire, his energy, his competitiveness, this thing doesn’t tie together. He ties the skill together.”
And in the second half, Golden State awoke.
Donte DiVincenzo opened with a putback dunk followed by an and-one. Jordan Poole and Jonathan Kuminga got going. The roof almost came off after a Payton II steal led to a Poole score to close the third quarter — which started with Golden State down 17 — with a four-point deficit.
Throughout that period and into the fourth, Green was imperious on both ends.
New Orleans started to miss almost everything. Golden State went on a 16-4 run.
Ingram, who had been scoring at will inside the arc, was harangued. Their confidence evaporated. They scored just 14 points in the quarter aside from a few scores after the starters departed.
Green had 8 points, 6 rebounds, 13 assists, 2 steals and 4 turnovers. He had a game-high plus-minus of +26 (Kuminga, at +17, and Poole, at +16, were second and third, respectively).
It’s a testament to his performance that Curry, who had 39 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and 4 turnovers, isn’t the first one to credit. He was almost immaculate.
But he wasn’t getting much help.
Despite a concerted, successful effort by Curry to score and be more involved early, the Warriors were disjointed.
Green was the glue gun that congealed a mess into something cogent.
Even as he thrived, he was operating with a precipitous energy. After his fifth foul on a charge, Kerr and his staff opted not to challenge the call with 4:48 left. Kuminga came in for Green.
Green was, to put it lightly, displeased.
The 33-year-old absolutely laid into someone on the coaching staff before general manager Bob Myers talked to him.
What was Myers’ message? Green relayed it after the game:
“Listen. Alright, you proved your point. You may have been right but if you stay that way, guys are going to follow you. If you turn it around right now and get back in the huddle, guys will follow that.”
At the 3:52 mark, with the Warriors up 108-101, he re-entered and forced a bad miss from Ingram off the side of the backboard. The coach’s challenge that wasn’t used on the potential charge was used to ensure the Warriors kept the ball after that miss.
A Curry 3, then a Curry layup assisted by Green followed, and the lid finally did come off the building. It happened again when Klay Thompson hit one of those moon-range 3-pointers that literally had Kerr shake his head in awe.
This thing has worked for so long because all those pieces work together: Green, Curry, Thompson, Kerr, Myers.
Green made a point to credit Myers after the game:
“Y’all don’t always get to see Bob’s worth other than putting the team together,” Green said. “But he’s so important to everything we do. GM’s don’t keep a post of this team like Bob keeps a post of this team. Maybe two other GMs in the league right there would come down to the bench and say something. That’s also someone I have the utmost respect for. If Bob comes and tells me something, that’s bible for me. I’m going to listen to that.”
That statement belies the enormous basketball IQ that can sometimes be muddied by Green’s antics.
And he wasn’t able to get things in order in the first half, when it was a chaotic, ridiculous mess.
But by the fourth, the Warriors channeled one of those hammer-hits-nail (repeatedly) runs sparked by Green’s energy and executed, without hesitation, by Curry, Thompson and their young core.
It’s a win that ensures the Warriors are still very much in contention to avoid the play-in tournament. They’ll almost assuredly need to win at least three of their final five — and get some help — but their second-half recovery had all the hallmarks of a vintage Warriors win.