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Post by Admin on Jun 9, 2022 23:03:46 GMT -5
Draymond Green’s worst-ever playoff game exposed the Warriors’ ugly truth
Draymond Green's terrible Game 3 puts the Warriors in another must-win situation.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) By Dieter Kurtenbach |
BOSTON — Draymond Green turned these NBA Finals with his intensity and physicality in Game 2.
And then he turned them again a few days later in Game 3. This time, for all the wrong reasons.
Green was not the sole reason the Warriors lost Game 3, but his performance — the worst of his illustrious playoff career — was glaring.
What else did you expect from a player whose career has been made by ostentation? His great is big and his bad is, too.
And on Wednesday night, that same attitude was anything but effective — it was destructive.
Another game like that in Game 4 Friday and the Warriors’ chances of winning a fourth title will be destroyed, too.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Because this series, with all of its fascinating performances and tactical wrinkles, can really be boiled down to one big — and on Wednesday — ugly truth:
The Warriors will live or die by the play of Green.
And seeing as how he has played this season, this postseason and now these Finals, that’s a dangerous proposition, as the Warriors need to win three of the next four games to claim the title.
The Warriors have never lost a playoff series under Steve Kerr when Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Green have all played in every game. It’s one of those stats that seems to be shoehorned, but when you consider how many playoff series that have played in, it’s stunning.
Curry had a poor defensive game Wednesday, but he has been marvelous on offense for three games.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Thompson’s early-series struggles melted away in Game 3 — his big performance gave the Warriors a chance to win on the road.
But Green has not held up his end of the bargain in two of this series’ three games. His play seems directly correlated with the Warriors winning and losing.
And worse yet, in all three games, he’s looked old.
Boston is young, strong, long and the more athletic team. What the Warriors have in their favor is Curry and a trove of experience.
If all things are equal, that experience should win out, with Green as the player who can most effectively weaponize it.
Green did that in Game 2. He was able to knock the young Celtics off their game with physicality and trash talk.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The Celtics waited until Game 3 to respond, but they were marvelous from the opening tip at TD Garden as “Shipping Out to Boston” blared.
And Green looked downright lost.
Even when the Warriors surged back in the third quarter, Green struggled.
He finished with two points, two turnovers, four rebounds, three assists and six fouls. He has five made field goals and 15 fouls in this series.
Of course, the box score rarely explains Green’s impact, good or bad.
No, the truly concerning part of the Green’s Game 3 was his poor defense.
Don’t blame the “[Blank] Draymond” chants at the TD Garden.
No, credit the Celtics for their adjustment.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The Celtics’ new offensive plan on Wednesday was to attack Curry as a primary defender, but more specifically to go at Green as the help defender.
The Celtics had seen in the first two games that Green was over-helping, attacking the ball handler in the mid-range instead of collapsing into the paint. That over-aggressiveness could result in forced turnovers, as we saw in Game 2, but Boston’s plan Wednesday counteracted that problem.
Boston’s perimeter ball-handlers weren’t looking for their own shot when they drove in Game 3. No, Curry made penetration easy after he picked up a soft early foul — his physicality in Game 2 helped him turn in a great defensive game but such bumping was not going to fly in Boston — and then, approaching the lane, with Green abandoning his mark, the Celtics’ ball handler — be that Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum or Marcus Smart — all kicked to the man left open on the perimeter or in the dunker’s spot.
That’s a defensive breakdown and the Celtics capitalized on them early and often.
The Celtics kept the ball moving for 40-something minutes in Game 3, and when they do that, with their half-court defense, they are something close to unbeatable.
In many ways, the Celtics beat the Dubs with Golden State’s template: They turned great defense into offense and capitalized on lopsided defenses in their half-court offense.
(Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
There are, of course, adjustments that the Warriors can make ahead of Game 4. This series isn’t over — unless of course Curry cannot play on Friday because of his foot injury, picked up late in the fourth quarter. (Curry said after Game 3 he expects to play in Game 4.)
But the Dubs stand no chance if the hub of their defense is lost.
Success for the Dubs begins on that side of the court. Green — one of the greatest defenders in the history of the league — must be better there in Game 4. Do that and, like magic, the Warriors’ offense will improve, too.
And while Green isn’t an offensive asset, he cannot be such a glaring liability in the Warriors’ half-court sets, as he was Wednesday.
Credit to Green for this — he knew he played poorly in Game 3.
(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The Warriors forward said he played like excrement — translated from the local Boston dialect, of course.
“I just think I never found a rhythm, really on both ends of the floor,” he said. “Not enough force… I was soft. That’s what was most disappointing to me, for us.”
Kerr and Thompson expressed confidence that Green would bounce back.
“I have all the confidence in the world in Draymond Green,” Thompson said.
“He had a tough game but I trust Draymond as much as I trust anybody,” Kerr said. “He’s one of our best players, obviously, a championship player. We rely on him for his energy and his brain.
He’ll bounce back. He always does.”
And now, he must.
(Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
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Post by kivancb on Jun 10, 2022 2:41:36 GMT -5
Draymond will bounce back, that's for sure. Either that or he'll get bounced back like a ball AGAIN!
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Post by puddin on Jun 10, 2022 6:00:08 GMT -5
nytimes.com Celtics Gain NBA Finals Edge on Golden State With Physical Play Tania Ganguli 6-7 minutes
On Pro Basketball
Tough, Physical Play Giving Boston a Finals Edge on Golden State
The Celtics lead the N.B.A. finals, two games to one, in a series that has been defined by size and rebounds more than finesse and flash.
June 9, 2022
BOSTON — After Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals, Boston Celtics center Robert Williams attended his postgame news conference dressed in a T-shirt with the face of the bruising, Hall of Fame player Dennis Rodman printed on it.
It was fitting attire after a game in which the Celtics had banged into the Golden State Warriors and sent them skittering across the court, in which they wrested rebounds and loose balls away from them. At times, Golden State looked disheveled and tired when its players smacked into the bigger, more athletic, younger Celtics.
“We want to try to impose our will and size in this series,” Celtics Coach Ime Udoka said.
Game 3, on Wednesday night, was the first finals game in Boston since 2010, and the Celtics made a statement, playing with edge to earn a 2-1 series lead over Golden State with a 116-100 win. Boston will also host Game 4 on Friday night.
It has been a series marked by toughness: The team able to exhibit more of it has been able to win each of the first three games.
“If we were going to come out here and play, the last thing when we left that court we didn’t want to say we weren’t physical enough,” Celtics guard Marcus Smart said. “It worked out for us.”
Statistically, that physicality manifested itself in several ways Wednesday night.
It showed in the rebounding — Boston grabbed 16 more rebounds than Golden State. Williams had 10, as well as four of the Celtics’ seven blocks.
“There’s a play early in the fourth, I got by Grant Williams and thought I had daylight to get a shot up, and you underestimate how athletic he was and how much he could bother that shot,” Golden State guard Stephen Curry said.
Williams has been inconsistent this series because of a knee injury that has bothered him throughout the playoffs. Williams had surgery on his left knee in March, but aggravated it during the Celtics’ Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Milwaukee Bucks. On Wednesday, he felt good enough to give Boston a lift.
“They’ve been killing us on the glass this whole series,” Williams said. “Wanted to just put an emphasis on it.”
The Celtics’ physicality also showed in their ability to score inside. They outscored Golden State, 52-26, in the paint.
“It was just us being us, just continuing to drive the ball and try to find a great shot for our teammates and ourselves,” Smart said. “This Warrior team does a very good job of helping each other out on their defensive end. They’re going to make you have to make the right play every single time, and if you don’t, they’re going to make you pay.”
Although Golden State is known for an offense that can be mesmerizing to watch, it was impressive defensively during its dynastic run from 2015 to 2019. That returned this season — the only team with a better defensive rating than Golden State has been Boston.
In the finals, the Celtics have used their size to widen the gap between the two teams.
The Celtics won Game 1, 120-108, and showed Golden State’s players they would need to be more physical if they meant to compete.
Golden State trailed early in Game 2 as well, and that was the crux of the halftime conversation. The players knew that the only way to match Boston was to match its intensity, despite being smaller at most positions. With that in mind, Golden State outscored Boston, 41-14, in that third quarter and won, 107-88.
“There wasn’t a whole lot of strategic change,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said after Game 2. “You know, a couple tweaks here and there. The preparation was mostly about our intensity and physicality.”
In Game 3, the Celtics reclaimed that edge.
“We had to,” Smart said of the physicality with which Boston dominated Golden State. “Game 2, they brought the heat to us. For us, that left a bad taste in our mouth because what we hang our hat on is effort on the defensive end and being a physical team.”
Golden State was not able to match it, not for long enough anyway.
Golden State has outscored Boston by 43 points in the third quarter this series, and took a lead in Game 3, 83-82, on a 3-pointer by Curry. That basket had followed a quick stretch of 7 points without Boston gaining possession. Curry was fouled shooting a 3-pointer, and since the foul was flagrant, Golden State got the ball back and scored another 3.
But as the quarter closed, Golden State’s grip on the game slipped.
“Take the hits, keep fighting,” Williams said was the message in the huddle after the third quarter. “Obviously, they’re a great team that goes on runs, a lot of runs, but just withstanding the hit.”
Golden State couldn’t get through the defense, nor could it stop the Celtics from grabbing second chances. Hustle plays typically went to Boston.
At one point in the fourth quarter, several players tangled over a loose ball, and Smart came up with it before Draymond Green pushed him. It was Green’s sixth foul, and the crowd jeered at him after having spent the evening chanting curses at him.
Golden State’s Klay Thompson complained about fans swearing with “children in the crowd.”
“Real classy. Good job, Boston,” he said.
Green said the chants didn’t bother him. What bothered him more, he said, was that he played “soft.” He was a catalyst for Golden State’s more physical play in Game 2, but he was ineffective in Game 3.
He said his final foul came when he was trying to get players off Curry, whom he heard screaming at the bottom of a pile. Curry stayed in the game but said afterward that he had pain in one of his feet.
It is among the many bruises Golden State will have to manage after a Game 3 loss that challenged its toughness. The Celtics shoved over Golden State’s beautiful brand of basketball, leaving Curry and his teammates searching for ways to get back up.
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Post by quagmire on Jun 10, 2022 11:57:20 GMT -5
Boston is, and always has been, a blue collar, working class, lunch box carrying town! The C's need to continue to impose their will on the Warriors. Go C's!!!!
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Post by kdp59 on Jun 10, 2022 12:06:22 GMT -5
The NBA has announced its officiating crew for Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Finals.
Led by chief James Capers, the three-person crew also features veteran NBA officials, Kane Fitzgerald and Eric Lewis
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It's sad that we need to look at this, but after game two we know it's a fact.
Anyone have any intel on these three at all?
straight shooters , do they let players get away with crap (cough , Draymond, cough), etc?
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 12:43:03 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 14:05:31 GMT -5
NBA’s Game 4 referees include one with recent controversial Warriors call
Kane Fitzgerald is on officiating crew for Warriors-Grizzlies NBA Finals Game 4
By Michael Nowels | mnowels@bayareanewsgroup.com |
Draymond Green (23) fouls Memphis Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke (15) Green was ejected from the game after the foul. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
Friday night’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals isn’t technically a must-win for the Warriors, but it’s pretty close.
As they know well, only one team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, and that would be their deficit to the Celtics if they lose tonight.
So every marginal advantage for either team is critical to Golden State. One such margin is officiating.
The Game 4 officiating group includes veteran official James Capers as the crew chief with Kane Fitzgerald and Eric Lewis alongside him. Scott Foster, who headed up the Game 3 crew, will man the replay center.
Fitzgerald was the crew chief for Game 1 of the Warriors’ Western Conference semifinal series with the Memphis Grizzlies, when Draymond Green was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul on Brandon Clarke. Green hit Clarke across the face, then grabbed Clarke’s jersey while he was in the air, sending Clarke to the floor.
It was called a Flagrant 2 on the floor and confirmed by the NBA’s replay center.
But Fitzgerald has been the lead official in two Warriors wins since then: Game 6 against Memphis, when they closed out the series, and Game 2 of the Western Conference finals against Dallas.
Green has racked up four technical fouls in the playoffs, including one in Sunday’s Game 2 win over the Celtics, so he is three away from an automatic suspension with as many as four games remaining in the series.
The Warriors are 26-20 all-time in Fitzgerald-officiated regular-season games. They’re 49-51 with Capers officiating, going back to his first season in 1995-96, and 35-28 in games called by Lewis.
PS: Curry Status > “I’m going to play. That’s all I know right now,” Curry said. “It’s just a pain tolerance thing that you’ve got to deal with. Obviously, at this point in the series, if you are good enough to play, play.”
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 14:26:22 GMT -5
What's going on here?
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 14:35:16 GMT -5
Green on his son hearing Celtics fans’ vulgar chants: ‘I’m actually happy he saw that’
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
By Nick O'Malley | nomalley@masslive.com
Actress Hazel Renee was not happy with Boston Celtics fans as they rained down boos and chants of “(Expletive) you, Draymond!” at her husband, Draymond Green during Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Finals with their children in attendance.
But during the most recent episode of his podcast, the outspoken Golden State Warriors star said the chants were “no big deal” for him.
While Green was on the court, Renee was in the stands with their 1-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Green noted that their 7-year-old child wasn’t at the game, since she had school.
Green noted that their youngest daughter was too young to grasp what the fans were chanting. As for his son, D.J., Green said he was actually happy his son got to experience that.
“I think, for me, and for him to see that, I’m actually happy he saw that,” Green said. “Because for the rest of his life, we will have the opportunity to talk about, ‘You remember when I went through X, Y and Z? You were five. And you remember those people were saying this and that?’ It’s OK. You can get through it. Ain’t no big deal.”
Green mentioned that his son has said that he wants to become a coach someday. The Warriors star said that going through that experience at a young age and seeing how his father handled it could help him out down the road.
“Maybe that’s you one day that they’re yelling at you like that,” Green said of his son. “But you’ve seen your dad go through it. We’re OK. We walked out of there smiling with our head held high, me chasing him down the hallway and having a good time, and that’s how we’re gonna walk out of there on Friday.”
Admin Comment: There it is! Dre hopped on the Irving bus and played the "Race Card." Now I want to see him get 3 more "T's" and a suspension as he prefers to deflect his own failures onto a fan base pissed at him for not being black but abusing our players w/o retribution from the NBA Police (Refs) ... Fans are compensating for the NBA Refs failure, nothing more Dre. Grow a pair!
With that said, Green is a proponent of being able to dish it as well as take it. So he finished off the discussion with one parting shot for fans at TD Garden.
“(Expletive) Draymond! (Expletive) Draymond!” Green said, echoing Boston fans, before finishing with his retort. “(Expletive) you, too.”
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Post by elvissurfs on Jun 10, 2022 18:12:30 GMT -5
Well, my feeling on this series obviously was that the more experienced Warriors were on a mission to prove they can win without Durant, having finally got the band back together after two years of injuries...
Now, however, I am thinking that it is out with the old and in with the new...I am thinking that the Warriors have never seen anything like we bring which is a youthful solid D with no weak spots...no more Kyrie, or Kemba...and we just seem to put together enough points in a team effort to make us tough to beat...Curry looks like he is tired of carrying the team on his back, and needs Clay to step up bigtime...
Go Celtics!...
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Post by hedleylamarr on Jun 10, 2022 18:20:32 GMT -5
Go Celtics
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Post by elvissurfs on Jun 10, 2022 18:38:45 GMT -5
Hedley, did you see the Depp/Beck song I posted earlier about Hedey Lamar?...I imagine that Mel Brooke's Hedley Lamarr was a spoof on her name... A haunting tribute song about her...
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 18:49:13 GMT -5
The opponent posts one strategy to counter C's length & athleticism: (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) By Dieter Kurtenbach |
The Warriors should start Jonathan Kuminga in Game 4
Rookie Jonathan Kuminga provides the Warriors a rim-runner to counter Boston's interior dominance.
There is an obvious move for the Warriors to make heading into Game 4 on Friday: Counter youth with youth. Specifically, play Jonathan Kuminga. In fact, I would start him. The 19-year-old wing would be the best athlete on the court for either team were he to play meaningful minutes in this series. He’s only played seven — all with the game in hand — in these Finals, but there are multiple opportunities to get him into Game 4. But the best option would be the earliest one: Kuminga starts instead of Kevon Looney. Now, the Warriors’ starting center has been absolutely fantastic in this series and postseason, and the Warriors should be playing him more — he sat out the entire fourth quarter of Game 3 to Golden State’s detriment — but while he sets brilliant picks, he’s limited on the roll. And the Warriors have to run pick-and-roll on every offensive possession in Game 4. Kuminga is hardly the pick-setter Looney is, but he’s effective. And he’s the only effective rim-runner for the Warriors. Golden State has been dominated in the paint in Games 1 and 3 — the two games that Boston center Robert Williams has looked healthy. The Time Lord protects the hoop from the shot-clock down, such is his length and leaping ability when his balky knee cooperates. As such, the Warriors are petrified of going into the paint when he’s on the floor. You can’t win a title if you can’t go to the basket. All of those criticisms of “jump-shooting teams” have that right. Want to set a tone that this series has changed early? Run Kuminga – Curry pick-and-roll for the first three plays of the game and see if the young high-flyer can put Williams on a poster.
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Post by hedleylamarr on Jun 10, 2022 18:52:04 GMT -5
Did you see the Depp/Beck song I posted earlier about Hedey Lamar?...I imagine that Mel Brooke's Hedley Lamarr was a spoof on her name... A haunting tribute song about her... It is a take off on her name. She was actually very upset about it and tried to sue Mel. Mel got around it by telling the judge his movie takes place in 1874, before she was born......case dismissed. LOL
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 19:05:04 GMT -5
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Post by hedleylamarr on Jun 10, 2022 19:17:05 GMT -5
TimeLord is a key for us. I agree.
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 19:20:05 GMT -5
This just in:
Is anyone really surprised? Just hope he feels as good as he did Wed!
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 19:24:32 GMT -5
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Post by elvissurfs on Jun 10, 2022 19:33:54 GMT -5
Did you see the Depp/Beck song I posted earlier about Hedey Lamar?...I imagine that Mel Brooke's Hedley Lamarr was a spoof on her name... A haunting tribute song about her... It is a take off on her name. She was actually very upset about it and tried to sue Mel. Mel got around it by telling the judge his movie takes place in 1874, before she was born......case dismissed. LOL That does not make any sense at all...I have a feeling that this is inaccurate...though that is part of her story, not getting the respect she deserved as an inventor as well...can't be pretty and smart at the same time...not allowed in the white man's world...
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 19:48:00 GMT -5
No Looney to start ... it won't be Kuminga either but Otto Porter Jr
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 19:49:52 GMT -5
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Post by cole on Jun 10, 2022 19:57:54 GMT -5
Let's go Celtics!
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 20:12:21 GMT -5
Q1:
Warriors lineup change (Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Otto Porter Jr.)
Celtics lineup change (Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III, Jaylen Brown)
Smart starts the scoring with a finger roll layup
Curry fouls JT (PF1 for Curry)
JT a 3
Curry rejected by Rob!
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 20:13:05 GMT -5
Rob a putback of the corner 3 missed by Al JT a corner 3 ... 11-4 C's
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Post by Admin on Jun 10, 2022 20:16:29 GMT -5
Lots of 3's ... GS 0-5 so far
White In / Al Out
Looney In / Porter Out
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