Draymond Green believes he needs to “completely raise my play a couple more notches” after a poor shooting night in the Warriors‘ Game 1 loss, writes Mark Medina of NBA.com. Green made just 2-of-12 shots, giving him four points to go with three turnovers and six fouls. He also took the blame for the Celtics’ offensive outburst in the fourth quarter as they posted 40 points while turning a 12-point deficit into a 12-point victory.
Medina notes that Green has a history of bouncing back after bad outings, especially in the playoffs. His teammates expressed total confidence that will happen in Sunday night’s Game 2.
“No other scenario where I see playing out any differently than him coming out with great energy and focus,” Stephen Curry said. “He takes all that stuff personally in terms of his standard and what he knows he can do out there on the floor. When he doesn’t meet that, he’s usually pretty honest and accountable to himself to the team.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Golden State’s veterans are rallying around Jordan Poole, who had a disappointing performance in his first NBA Finals game, Medina adds. Poole was just 2-of-7 with four turnovers, and Curry suggested that it may have had something to do with being on such a big stage for the first time. “Maybe slow down just a little bit to see the pictures a little bit better,” he advised. “But he doesn’t have to change anything about the way he plays, the way he attacks or where he feels the most confident in terms of making an impact on the game. You just have to be able to bottle up those emotions.”
- Andre Iguodala has been a steadying influence on Poole throughout his breakout season, per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. Iguodala, who rejoined the Warriors prior to the start of the season, can offer Poole the experience of an 18-year NBA career and seven trips to the Finals.
- Gary Payton II told reporters after today’s practice that he’s not feeling any more pain in the left elbow that was fractured during the second-round series with Memphis, Johnson writes in a separate story. Payton sat out the series opener, but said he’ll be ready if coach Steve Kerr decides to use him in Game 2. “I’m available, ready to go, just waiting on the call,” Payton said.
Poole is not this great scorer. He is a product of the system. He needs to settle down and just trust the system. Take good shots and stop challenging the Celtic D. Warriors were a good D team during season. But Celtics are bigger and as athletic. I don’t think they have really seen that. West don’t play D. It’s always been that way.
Celtics went thru Nets, Bucks, Heat. They are primed and ready for this series. Won two gm7 on other teams court. Warriors better wake up. Tatum is not going to have a bad gm in gm2. They need to step up their team D and their depth. You can’t lose gm2. So all the pressure is on the Warriors.
Every team the Warriors has faced in post season has went after Poole on defense. Poole is a liability on defense. Payton or Moody should be playing over Poole with the lead.
Poole’s DPM -0.3 and a 110 Drtg hardly makes him a defensive liability.
Poole singlehandedly carried Warriors in several postseason games. Yes, he was off against Celtics in his FIRST Final game, but it’s not always easy to het in a rhythm when you dont have shot, minutes, etc. Kerr and the team needs to put Poole in a position yo succeed if they are to beat Celtics.
Poole needs to be on the court same time as Green because he tries to much dribbling and get stuck. He needs Green to be the floor general.
Keep believing all your own quotes Warriors, this will be a sweep if you do.
Not much chance of a sweep. Hopefully Kerr learned he can’t trust Poole and Iguodala as the backcourt together trying to keep a lead. GP II would likely have slowed Brown at least somewhat.
Curry can’t do it by himself. As for Poole, he not taking enough shots. Ignore 3pt%. It tends to get skewed by small samples. Look for 3PtAtt per 100 possessions and FT%. Poole excels in both categories.
Going into the series…actually even before the ECF was over, in the scenario boston won…I wasnt sure if Poole should necessarily play in this matchup, and I also would probably not start Looney against their 2 big lineup. I figured Kerr wouldnt do the same things Spo did, but he kind of did in game 1 (Poole is a very similar player to Herro, by the way)
Horford has an obvious advantage over Draymond (which he has always had), but I would start Draymond at the 5 and i think there are actually a few different options to move into that starting lineup. That I’m not necessarily sure who it should be though between Otto Porter, Iguodala, Kuminga, and even JTA (although I would obviously lean 1 of the other 3)…
Another possibility I could see considering against the Horford/Rob Williams lineup, if you’re keeping Draymond at the 4, is maybe Bjelica, but I’m not as sure about that, depending on what kind of shape he is in, as well as how well Williams is moving. I would also consider him off the bench, especially if I started Porter and dont have Pooles shooting off the bench, but that depends on health of Iguodala and Payton, and I would consider Moody off the bench instead of Poole, depending on who Boston ends up playing in their rotation, to try to get enough shooting around those bench defenders, especially if not going with Bjelica…although if you have more minutes for Steph and Klay that’s not as obviously necessary, since they’re just the shooters around those defenders anyway
I’d also probably have to look at just how well Boston shot the ball, and feel decently about that not being as sustainable with their current rotation
White has been playing incredibly since Hendrix was born. I expected a great game from Horford but White’s play really had an impact. As did the Celtics starters getting called for 0 pfs in the 1st half despite their “physical EC defense”. Smart’s flop vs Curry followed by the LONG continuation to give him 3 fouls and Tatum 2 ftas at the end of the 1st half was a key psychologically.
But if the Celtics shoot 9-12 from three and 6-10 from two in the 4th Q again, this series will essentially be over.
G Williams has been solid the whole playoffs. He is Celtics Dra imo. Does a little bit of everything. And always seems to be in on crucial plays. White also has been money. Both play smart and play D. Celtics are a high IQ team. I don’t think I really gave them enough credit for that. They as a unit absolutely believe in playing both ways. That’s a mark of a great team.
Draynond killed the Warriors. It was a “bad shooting night”’it was that he was shooting. He took 4 three point shots! There’s a reason he’s wide open on those. He’s not a shooter and if he takes anything other than gimme layup he’s hurting the Warriors chances of winning
In game 2 you have Payton back so use him. When White comes in put in Payton over Poole. Payton is way far superior on defense that he makes White look like a back up player. Warriors need to not try and pus Poole into a defensive liability on the court. Every team this post season focused on Poole bad defense.
Green has been effective all year, but all of a sudden he wanted to change his style of play and become a scorer. Dont understand if it was his own doing or the coaching staff intent. He underperformed against Mavs and terrible game #1 against Celtics. Additionally, he’s too preoccupied with his offcourt business. Focus, dont get cocky, dont be selfish. Only think team first, and win at all cost.
Green had that one good offensive game against Mavs and it got to his head. He was probably trying to go for triple double, etc. So idiotic for to have taken that many shots in the first half. He was also kind of responsible for Poole’s poor game because he took so many shots. Green should never look for or create shots for himself. Just let the offense come.
Draymond’s issues the last couple of years is he sometimes doesnt look at the rim enough, and telegraphs things, so it’s actually a good thing for him to be more willing to take shots in certain situations, and I’m sure that has been something they’ve tried to get him to do. He hurt them just last year with multiple situations where him not looking at the rim cost them games, including both play in games at the end, in similar ways, even though he played legendary floor games in those games, in my opinion
The Celtics ran the game of their life and several players had CAREER days… and it was only a 12-point win. With that incredible fourth quarter they pulled it out, but what happened the first three quarters?
The warriors were up the entire game, but then the Celtics picked up the intensity and the Warriors didn’t. Very simple. But you folks actually think that’s going to happen again?
Everybody here and on a couple other articles are giving the championship to the Celtics and some even hint at a sweep. That’s ludicrous. Everyone is mesmerised by the shiny object of the very last quarter and not considering there’s three more wins necessary.
Let’s bring this back to reality. There is no way no how the Warriors don’t take down the Celtics in this championship series. Not happening.
That Boston intensity will be matched and a ring will not slip from the Warriors grasp this year. Next year could be a different story but this year is Golden state’s year. Warriors in 6 ish.
Everybody?
Most :)
It’s the typical social media type exaggeration and sensationalism, as well as just random hate towards anything and everything…while I havent watched the games, I briefly caught both the half time show and post game, which was brutal, but literally Allen Iverson’s friend Stephen A Smith hypocritically talked trash about GS in the first half, praising the celtics, and said the opposite about each team in the post game. These people are clowns :)
I can’t watch those halftime shows where one guy is yelling. Not disrespecting the man because he’s on TV and made it this far doing what he does and creating a personality, but I’m someone not entertained by it.
I haven’t watch the games? You must be working a lot? This is pretty good basketball here both teams are amazing. Celtics brought the intensity in game 1 and closed it out with Incredible shooting. As a basketball fan it was joy to watch do I was hurting inside with the loss.
Game two both teams intensity was off the charts. Not a lot of good Warrior shooting aside from some Curry and Poole, but intense game and great defensefrom both sides.
I have been having a hard time watching anything the last 2 or so years. A lot of it due to health reasons, and more eye issues, which makes it difficult for me to focus on the things I look for watching games, but also a lot b/c of everything that surrounds the game, like the media garbage and trash commentary, and stuff like that. I’ve also admittedly had some burnout from all the stuff I’ve done over the years, and the last several years before this I watched an actual insane amount of basketball, including summer league and everything, and all the analysis I do and stuff like that. Same with baseball (for the first time ever in my life, there are players I dont know much about, including minor leaguers), although theres other stuff effecting that. My sleep schedule has also been jokingly awful
I put my entire life into this stuff, and I’ve just been going through a lot, and seeing these people having a platform, and talking about things that have no basis in reality, while I’m dealing with this also really takes a lot out of me.
I am going to try to catch up on the games I want to see after I complete my draft analysis, which I was supposed to start prepping for last week, but health stuff has got in the way of that. I’ll probably finally watch the last 2 Heat series (besides the games I was at), some of the GS-Memphis series, and the finals, and maybe a couple of the GS-Dallas games to see Luka against that roster…
Part of it is also being at a point where a lot of this stuff happens on paper, or I can see it in my mind pretty well, outside of certain circumstances you obviously have to see play out, so I still have a strong idea what happens. The burnout was just really strong. This year was weird though b/c I thought I finally reset after last year. I watched the first like 70 summer league games, and this year instead of keeping everything in my head, I decided to write things down, and list all the players I felt stood out to me for the reasons I look for, and then I had a technical issue with my computer and lost the entire list, and it totally deflated me on everything, and it just never recovered. I also have an uncle who relies on me for betting, who is extremely frustrating to deal with, and he never pays me out, so that kind of also effected everything for me.
Hopefully I should be good for this upcoming season, but I have a lot of eye stuff going on that could effect that. I am going to try to get back though
Sounds like you’re going through a lot !! Well I enjoy what you write here on this site and try to give you thumbs up often.
Sorry to hear about your health issues, sounds like way more even than I already knew about the knees and stuff. I feel for you. I’m still out here running with the young guys at LA Fatness, having a load of fun.
Keep your head up, keep up the good work. People will be difficult to deal with for the rest of our lives, family or not. We just roll with the punches.
Sorry you lost all your info with computer problems. Have to shake it off I guess, even though it’s very tough. I’ll put some prayers up to the big fella with your permission regarding your health and other things.
I appreciate it. Ya, I’ve had a lot more injuries that have been pretty debilitating. Actually just got out of a cast. I broke my ankle in multiple places being on the court for like 45 seconds. Then it wasnt healing, but hopefully should be good soon. I just wish that was the only issue. Luckily my spine issue has been mostly ok, and besides the ankle, the injury situation hasnt been too bad at least super lately, but my eye issues got a lot worse, and I’ve had a bunch of new health problems as well. Probably side effects from medication I’ve needed throughout my life catching up to me. I’m hoping that stuff improves soon as I start finally figuring out what the issues actually are, but I’m probably going to need another cornea transplant around the beginning of the season. I was able to hold it off most of this year, but once I get some other stuff more under control, I cant avoid it anymore. Now that I’m older too, the recovery process is definitely more difficult
The other stuff is just more mental
The computer stuff was my own fault lol, but it was still really deflating. Normally I just remember it in my head, but I relied too much on the list before I lost it, and basically figures I’d have to learn the pl layers as I go, or if not, maybe eventually see some G-league stuff or this next year
But again, thanks. I enjoy your perspective as well. And I’m trying to keep in mind that all we can really do is somehow keep moving forward
That’s quite a list and may I say, we would never know it if you didn’t mention it. You’re never down or pessimistic or hanging your head so to speak, in your commentary. Always good vibe, good analysis, even-keeled, and never derogatory. Love it.
I appreciate it