Kurtenbach: ‘The best defender I’ve ever seen’ — Draymond Green flipped his Game 4, the Warriors-Rockets series

SAN FRANCISCO Draymond Green went directly to the camera and put his face mere inches from the lens He craved to tell the world that he was still its best defender As if there was any question of that after he played picture-perfect defense on Houston center Alperen eng n s last-second isolation shot to seal a Warriors win and a - first-round series lead Green might not be the NBA s Defensive Participant of the Year he won something called the Hustle Participant of the Year instead but he s still the finest defender of this generation There are four rings on his fingers to prove it And after Monday s win it s not nearly as far-fetched as it once was to think he could add one for the thumb this June Yet there were the Rockets trying him in the biggest moment of this slugfest of a playoff series Down one with seconds to play they had the time to draw up any play in the book Instead they decided to go directly at Green Related Articles Warriors win Battle over Rockets as Butler comes up big late in return Jimmy Butler injury update Warriors star to play in Battle vs Rockets Warriors Steph Curry recognized as NBA s best teammate Steph Curry s Warriors have Rockets lost in space Warriors-Rockets What Houston s Udoka says requirements to be fixed in Match Why him Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski reported after the encounter Because they desired to lose I suppose It worked out as you d imagine as it has for countless teams before these Rockets He s the best defender I ve ever seen in my life He rises to the occasion Warriors coach Steve Kerr reported On top of being a great defender he s an incredible competitor We ve seen it I ve seen it for years Contest on the line Draymond making a stop It s like having Steph Curry take the shot At years old this wasn t a banner season for Green His offense sputtered and his DPOY candidacy was just a late push after the Jimmy Butler exchange and a hope that his reputation and underfilled cabinet of personal accolades would allow him to win an award with no clear front-runner He ultimately finished third in award voting Everyone knows there will be a day when Green does not have it anymore a day when he s a step too slow and his super genius basketball brain can t make up for it And you can almost forgive the Rockets for thinking Monday was that day given Green s woeful first minutes of play on Monday But the final five minutes narrated a different story That was winning time And if Green is anything he s a winner Golden State Warriors Draymond Green fights for the ball against Houston Rockets Fred VanVleet and Houston Rockets Dillon Brooks in the second half of Contest of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs meeting at the Chase Center in San Francisco Calif on Monday April Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Related Articles Warriors win Meeting over Rockets as Butler comes up big late in return Warriors-Rockets scuffle Draymond Brooks Curry T d up during Tournament Jimmy Butler injury update Warriors star to play in Match vs Rockets How to watch Warriors-Rockets Event Warriors Steph Curry recognized as NBA s best teammate It was beyond brash that the Rockets attacked him of all people on that final play Even as the set developed you could sense in the arena that Houston knew it had made a mistake This was not Trayce Jackson-Davis or Gary Payton II whom eng n had been cooking while Green sat on the bench with foul trouble No it was the man who is still undefeated in battles of brashness And because Green won again the Warriors are one win away with three games to get it from eliminating the Rockets for a fifth time in five tries since Monday s match was the duality of Green in a nutshell Had the Dubs lost Encounter he would have been the reason and not just because of a different outcome on the final play But he s also the reason the Dubs won You have to take the bad with the good with Green Somehow the good almost consistently comes out on top Amazingly that was the matter on Monday Green is the Warriors tone-setter but he was downright unraveling in Meeting Rockets pest Dillion Brooks had the Dubs enforcer where he wished him emotionally fighting proxy battles and failing to lock in on the court The Warriors didn t have much focus as a club because Green s was all over the place And if Monday s match was just a regular-season matchup Green would have already taken a shower and drank a glass of wine by the start of the second half He picked up a deserved technical foul in a skirmish with Brooks with seven minutes to play in the second quarter only to commit a flagrant foul a little more than four minutes later when Tari Easton stripped him of the ball and Green retaliated by tackling him While two technicals or two flagrant fouls will eject you from a match a combination of one each keeps you in it Who knew Well maybe the refs It left Green eligible to keep playing the meeting but carrying four personal fouls before halftime It took him less than four minutes into the second half to pick up his fifth He effectively ejected himself Pair that with an offensive night where he made the Warriors first two shots and didn t make another basket the rest of the competition an evening where he looked unconfident with the ball in his hands and perhaps it was a blessing for the Warriors that Green had to sit until the final of the fourth quarter even as eng n was cooking smaller competition Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry and Houston Rockets Dillon Brooks scuffle in the second quarter of Meeting of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs competition at the Chase Center in San Francisco Calif on Monday April Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Related Articles Warriors win Tournament over Rockets as Butler comes up big late in return Jimmy Butler injury update Warriors star to play in Contest vs Rockets Warriors Steph Curry recognized as NBA s best teammate Steph Curry s Warriors have Rockets lost in space Warriors-Rockets What Houston s Udoka says requirements to be fixed in Meeting What a mess it all was The series looked destined to go to - ahead as it shifted to every-other-day action You would have been justified in picking the Rocket from that point onwards But Green did what he so often does during disastrous games he uncovered a way to make up for his own sins Upon returning to the contest in the fourth quarter he at once made three stops using textbook technique for each contest Then he secured three big-time grown-man rebounds on three possessions following that And when his number of all numbers was called for the final defensive play he stonewalled the Rockets one All-Star Again he did all of it while being one foul away from disqualification Kerr called it phenomenal You can t play the championship worrying Green reported I ll just go sit down if I m just going to go out there and be cautious I inevitably walk that line That s who I am Habitual line stepper Draymond constantly walks the line He invariably teeters on that line He s an emotional force a physical force He just can t cross the line He knows that He s just done a great job of playing through the frustration Kerr explained The last two games his fourth-quarter defense keyed everything That s the difference between great playoff performers and the rest That s the lesson these young Rockets are yet to learn a lesson there s no guarantee they will ever understand Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry hugs Golden State Warriors Draymond Green after their - win over the Houston Rockets for Challenge of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs event at the Chase Center in San Francisco Calif on Monday April Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group The NBA Playoffs might as well be a different sport than regular-season basketball The refs let far more go including Green s first-half transgressions And the final half of the fourth quarter of a tight playoff tournament That s an entirely different match than that It s as much a battle of wills and smarts as strength or skill That s Green s time to shine And while it hasn t consistently been perfect his track record even if it seems like ancient history to certain of his own teammates speaks for itself There s a four-time Defensive Performer of the Year whose association takes him off the court for their biggest crunch-time defensive possessions There s another whose organization has already been swept who would have almost certainly fouled out within minutes of re-entering a competition like Monday s Meanwhile Green s defense likely won the Warriors a playoff series Green didn t deserve the DPOY award this year That s ok He s playing for a much more essential prize this summer And the Warriors are one step closer to it after Monday