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Kendra Andrews, ESPN
SAN FRANCISCO — Blue Draymond won’t let golden empire warriors‘ season ends on Wednesday night. It is his goal to set the tone for his team.
Before Game 5 with Los Angeles Lakers, Warriors player development coach Jacob Rubin told Green his presence hasn’t been felt so far in the series the way it should. Not the way Rubin knew.
“That shows aggression on both ends of the floor. It’s speech so everyone on the floor can hear you. I felt a bit disrespectful when he said that,” Green said. “I know it’s my duty to go out on the pitch and set the bar for our boys. … The season is coming, back to the wall. You have to go out and give everything you have. yes. That’s my opinion.”
Green emerges as Golden State’s engine in Warriors’ win 121-106.
He finished with 20 on 7/11 shots, 10 bounces, and two steals. This is his second 20-point game after this season, along with the previous Game 5 King Sacramento in the first round. This is the first time since 2017, Green has as many games to score 20 points after the season. Before the knockout round, he hadn’t scored 20 points since Christmas Day 2019.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said: “I think you just expect that in a situation like this where you’re facing disqualification. “Draymond is one of the great opponents I’ve ever met. So you just expect him to bring it in. I didn’t say anything to him. He didn’t need any encouragement. from me, that’s for sure.”
The first play of the Green match was a defensive foul Anthony Davis – a sign of the aggression and physicality he played at that end of the floor. On his next possession, Green hit a 3-pointer to score the first point of the night for the Warriors. That tells them he will find a way to score.
“I think there’s an indicator somewhere… when [Green] score a certain number of points, we usually win,” Kerr said.
He was right: Golden State was 43-10 in the regular season and in the knockout stages when Green scored at least 20 points.
Kerr continued: “When he’s so aggressive, looking to attack, it definitely adds another dimension to our team. I like his approach to tonight’s game… . He said, ‘I’ll come.'”
Perhaps the most luxurious thing about Green’s assertiveness when attacking is removing some of the burden Stephen’s Currywho has faced the dense defenses of Los Angeles in all the series.
Curry finished with 27 points, but that’s a steady accumulation over 4 quarters. He never exploded in scoring, as he always did.
“Teams are interested in Steph and clay [Thompson], they’re really doing all they can, selling those guys out and trying to get them out of the game,” Green said. “We get paid a lot to do this, so you can’t just sit back and watch them. …You have to do something about it.”
Green also held the Lakers to a 6/15 shot in competition and held Davis with a 3/8 shot as his main defender.
It wasn’t just Green who took the weight off Curry and Thompson’s shoulders. Andrew Wiggins finished with 25 points on 10/18 shots, seven bounces and five assist lines.
With 9:32 in the fourth round, Wiggins chose LeBron James in central court. Wiggins conceded James in a split second before he could recover. He then remained glued to James the entire way as James drove to the roundabout.
James passed the ball to Davis from the bottom of the box, but as Davis moved forward to score, Green met him from above to save.
“This is the best game Wiggins has played since his return,” Kerr said of Wiggins, who back to court on April 15 for the Warriors’ first knockout game after a two-month absence due to family matters. “We ask him to defend a lot, and in any playoff series he will end up with the opponent’s best player. In this series it’s clearly LeBron. And thank God. , we have Wiggs because he can play all night.”
The fifth half was the third-highest-scoring playoff of Wiggins’ career, following his 27- and 26-point runs from last season.
Led by Wiggins, the Warriors finally began to hit the mark against the Lakers. He scored his 16 points in paint.
In games 1 through 4, the Warriors shot 19/52 (37%) on rides. In game 5, they won 9 out of 17 (53%). This is the first time they’ve shot at least 50% of the drive in a game in the series, according to ESPN’s Information & Statistics study.
Before Wednesday’s game, Wiggins was averaging 14.8 points per game in this series. Green is 6.8 average. But they knew they needed to do more to keep their season alive — and that didn’t change when they were forced to play Game 6.
“You just have to keep fighting and know that this team is going to come out and give us their best punch. You have to take that punch and hit back,” Green said. “If you hit back, they’ll punch again and you’ll have to hit back. If you do that, the game will turn your way.”
With a win in Game 5, the Warriors improved to 8-2 when eliminated at the hands of Kerr, including 7-0 against Western Conference opponents — the highest win rate of any team eliminated. since 2015.
When the series returns to Los Angeles, the Warriors will have to fight off being eliminated again to push the series to Game 7. And if they do, the Warriors are confident they can make it through the 3rd loss. -1 in the second game time in franchise history.
“We believe and believe in ourselves,” Green said. “[But the Lakers are] won’t give it to us. They will come out and play hard. They have great leaders there, incredible winners. … They won’t fold. We’ll go in there and get it.”
He continued: “Our work is not done yet. We are still facing disqualification and we will face disqualification for the rest of the series. So you must have same thought. With your back against the wall, you must go out to Fight.”
