SAN FRANCISCO – dramond green turned off his television with minutes remaining in the Warriors’ easy Game 3 victory over the Kings Last Thursday, he left his house, fought arena traffic and arrived at Chase Center with only one thing on his mind.
“Where is Steph?” he yelled at a staff member as he stuck his head into the Warriors’ locker room about 20 minutes after the final buzzer. Draymond quickly found Curry in the training room, reeling from the landslide victory. And then the two leaders of this team put their heads together and immediately started planning for Game 4.
Draymond had an idea after watching the game: Why change something from the starting lineup that rocked the Kings in Game 3 with Draymond suspended? Why force someone else to sit on the bench to make room for him in Game 4?
And he wanted so badly to put it all on top of Curry. (Beyond the strategy talk, Draymond was also looking forward to celebrating Curry’s great performance in Game 3.) The result: Steve Kerr, who thought the same way, did not start Draymond in Game 4 on Sunday and, at times, alternated Draymond with kevon looneythat kept more shooters on the floor, just like in Game 3, and the Warriors held on to beat the Kings, 126-125, to even the series, 2-2.
Looney played well, which is zero surprise. jordan poole, who would have been dropped from the starting lineup if Draymond were brought back in, played well. And Draymond started the second half alongside Looney (and with Poole sitting out), which is when the Warriors took control of this game. Although the Warriors almost gave it back in the last minute with an all-time error when Curry called a timeout after the Warriors spent them all (Kerr took the blame for not telling his players about the timeout count), this win was exactly what the Warriors needed to put the Kings on their heels heading into Wednesday’s Game 5 in Sacramento.
And here’s why he’s an instant piece of Warriors lore: Draymond volunteered for a bench seat followed André Iguodala agreeing to lose his starting job at the start of the Kerr era, Curry agreeing to come off the bench for the first four games of the season. denver series last year when he was coming back from injury and Looney yo-yoed out of the lineup throughout his career.
That’s how the Warriors have always done things in this era. Find out what is the best thing you can do to win the next game. Then do it. And the informal Curry-Draymond summit was another example of how they fix things when they absolutely have to.
“That’s nothing new,” Curry told me after his post-game press conference for the strategy session. “We always have those kinds of conversations. In the playoffs, it’s a little more fun because you’re trying to figure out the chess pieces for a certain series. But going back to the Memphis barbecue place in 2015 (before) Game 4, we always have those conversations.”
Curry is, of course, referring to his legendary mind-clearing dinner at the Blues City Cafe with Draymond, David Lee and Festus Ezeli right after the Warriors lost Game 3 to the grizzlies and lost the series 2-1. After that, the Warriors swept the next three games and won the first title of this era.
No one knows how the Warriors will fare in the rest of this series or the rest of the postseason, but if Curry is evoking the Blues City legend, something big happened when he and Draymond met after Game 3. Something that was significant to Draymond and Curry, so it’s important to every part of the Warriors universe.
There was so much going on: Draymond’s battle with the league office, the Warriors going down 2-0 and then trailing home in Game 3, and the realization that a loss in this series could be the beginning of the end for this series. dynasty. cluster. So Draymond had to go back to the arena to meet Curry. The two future Hall of Famers had to keep this going.
“I don’t think a decision was made at that point, but he seemed relatively excited by what he saw in terms of adjustments that we were going to be able to make tonight,” Curry said. “I think suppressing that energy was hard on him; I know he missed being out there. But he also gave her a different point of view within the series that he helped.”
After Draymond and Curry decided it was probably a good idea, Draymond went to Kerr’s office that night and told him it would be okay if Kerr wanted to keep Draymond out of the starting lineup on Sunday. Kerr agreed. And the move was made.
“I just thought it was the right thing to do, and Steph thought it was the right thing to do,” Draymond said Sunday. “I mean, I think number 1, that’s what we’ve always been. You’ve got guys on this team that are strictly about winning and about the team, and if you’re a guy that’s not like that, you stick out like a sore thumb because that’s been the culture here.
“So for me, it was very easy. We won (Game 3) quite easily. You’re going to walk in the door like, ‘Folks, I’m back, here’s my spot. No, that’s… it doesn’t work like that. You do what’s best for the team, and you know, with me just sitting there and watching that game, I thought it was for the best, and I thought it was clear as day, and I thought I could see it from a mile away. Literally a mile away.”
What was Kerr thinking when Draymond made the suggestion?
“I wasn’t surprised because I know deep down Draymond just wants to win,” Kerr said. “For all the emotion and passion of him and the things he gets into with the league or the opponent or the refs, it all comes from a place of competitive desire. He is one of the great competitors that I have been with. He is one of the smartest players I’ve ever had.
“I wasn’t surprised because he recognized the same thing I did, which made it a lot easier. The fact that he came along and suggested it makes it so much easier, and then we go from there. … We always collaborate. The decisions we make are in collaboration with our key players. … Steph came off the bench: four games last year against Denver. (Andrew Wiggins) came off the bench in Game 1. You do what you have to do, and I thought Draymond had a great second half, he really got going.”
In the second half, Draymond was also assigned guard duty. De’Aaron Fox, who has been the Kings’ best player by far in this series. After scoring 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting in the first half, Fox was only 5-of-15 shooting in the second half. Draymond didn’t totally stop Fox, but no one is going to do that. It was just a different look, Kerr said, and he knew Draymond would love the challenge.
Now the Warriors have to decide how to handle this for Game 5 and beyond. It seems very likely that Kerr will put Draymond back in the starting lineup for the rest of the postseason, but the Warriors are 0-2 in this series with Draymond in the starting lineup and now 2-0 with Poole in that spot for start games. . (Of course, both losses were in Sacramento and both wins were at Chase Center.)
I guess Draymond and Looney will start together in Game 5, with Poole on the bench, but there could be quick substitutions if things start off badly for the Warriors.
Kerr, naturally, didn’t say what he’s going to do in Game 5. And Draymond said he’d be fine with whatever Kerr decides; he added that he played 31 minutes (with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists) in the Game. 4, anyway.
“If that’s what the coach thinks and that’s what works, absolutely,” Draymond said. “I would have to go see the movie and see how all of those things go throughout this game. But if it’s okay, it’s okay and I don’t care. He plays the same number of minutes that I normally play and it doesn’t really matter. That’s my way of thinking.”
Along those lines, Draymond was also whistled for a technical foul in the first quarter (along with Fox) for a bit of barking just 55 seconds after first checking in. That was his first action since he was ejected in Game 2 for a Flagrant 2 foul and then suspended, when the league made sure to point out his “history of unsportsmanlike acts.”
Was the fast technical foul a message to all who were watching? Okay, yes.
“I’m still here. … Still here, and no coach is taking me out of my spot,” Draymond said. “You know, Fox felt the need to defend his guy. I respect him. I respect him 100 percent. But I’m still here, and nothing changes me. It’s been like this for 33 years. I pray I can be like this for 33 more, and it won’t just be basketball. That comes to an end. But I am who I am, and everything else is what it is.”
And if Draymond ever has to miss a game again, which he’s already said will almost certainly happen, he’ll watch closely. He will run to talk to Curry and others after he is done. Then he will say what he thinks. He will come up with a strategy. He could include him starting the next game. Maybe not. And usually he will be smart. Usually it will be exactly what Steve Kerr will do. And most of the time, the Warriors will win.
The traditional knowledge program: Go to the Tim Kawakami podcast page at Apple, Spotify and the athletic application.
(Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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