MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — During a team meeting the night before a win-or-go-home game for Golden State, Draymond Green had the floor.
The Warriors were in danger of wasting a 3-1 lead on Houston in the first round of the NBA playoffs, Green told them, because he lost his composure in a Game 6 loss at home.
The 12th-year defensive ace and opponent agitator then delivered his signature fire and a series-high 16 points — without blowing his top — in a blowout Game 7 win on the road to supplement superb performances by Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Buddy Hield that helped send Golden State into the second round to face Minnesota.
“People I trust the most, we had some heart-to-hearts after last game,” Green said after the 103-89 victory over the Rockets on Sunday. “My wife, one of my closest friends, Travis, my barber who's one of my closest friends, coach (Tom) Izzo. I pouted way too much last game, so I spent the last two days embarrassed at what I gave to the game, at what I gave to the world.”
Green's latest chance for redemption will come against Rudy Gobert and the Wolves, starting with Game 1 on Tuesday night. The Warriors are on the road again in this series, matching the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds in the mighty Western Conference after the well-rested Wolves bounced Luka Doncic, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
“They played their best basketball down the stretch and into the playoffs. They’re coming off of a really, really tough series, no doubt about it, but they showed what they’re made of in that series,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “They got us three times out of four this year, but we haven’t played them with the new-look roster. A lot of things to contemplate coming into this series. It’s definitely going to be a tough one for us.”
The Wolves give the Warriors plenty to ponder, too, starting with superstar guard Anthony Edwards.
“There’s a reason the Wolves are where they are now,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “They’ve put together a really good roster. Chris has done a fantastic job as coach, but they are where they are because Ant is a superstar. You have to have a guy like that to build a great team.”
Green vs. Gobert
Green, the four-time All-Star and four-time All-Defensive Team pick, always walks a fine line with how far to take his aggressive play. He hit Houston guard Jalen Green in the head and got a flagrant 1 foul in Game 6, one of those went-too-far moments.
The presence of Gobert will test Green in multiple ways in this series, starting on defense. The 7-foot-1 Gobert had 27 points and 24 rebounds in the Game 5 clincher against the undersized Lakers, and the Warriors can ill afford to allow such production around the rim. Gobert is a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year winner, an award that Green has won once.
Then there's the emotional factor. Green served a five-game suspension in November 2023 for putting Gobert in a headlock, a few weeks before receiving another suspension for hitting Jusuf Nurkic in the face against Phoenix. Green went to therapy for help with better controlling his temper.
“You've got to play basketball. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of physicality, some of it certainly on the edge of legality,” Finch said. “Certainly there’s going to be a lot of things said on the floor, or outside the game itself. We've got folks who play basketball. That’s what we've got to do.”
‘Meaningful basketball’
Both the Warriors and Wolves were furiously trying to avoid the play-in tournament down the stretch, and here they are with a spot in the Western Conference finals on the line. Golden State, which got a big boost from the acquisition of the six-time All-Star and clutch postseason performer Butler, finished one game below the cut but blew out Memphis to get the No. 7 seed.
“Steph talked about it: meaningful basketball,” Kerr said. “I say it all the time: 'All we want is a chance.' Every year you just want a chance. Jimmy came in here and gave us a chance. Our guys have done an incredible job flipping the season, advancing to this point. Now it’s up to us to go get it."
Playoff Jimmy
Kerr has constantly shuffled his rotations this season, never more critically than in Game 3 when the Warriors played without Butler due to a pelvic injury and still won, but he'd prefer not to have to navigate that again.
“He’s a perfect fit because he never turns it over, and we have been a high turnover team in the past," Kerr said. "We’ve always thrived when we’ve had guys next to Steph and Draymond who can stabilize the game, whether it was Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, David West, those type players, and Jimmy gives us that. So when the game needs to be settled down he settles it down. He’s got incredible confidence that I think fuels the rest of the guys. They believe in him but they also feel his belief in them."
Boos for Butler
None of the Wolves, coaches or players, were around for Butler's eventual 74 games with Minnesota from 2017-18. He helped the Wolves make the playoffs after a 14-year absence and became a pariah five months later by demanding a trade. Butler will surely be booed, even louder than Green, when he takes the floor at Target Center.
“There’s going to be a lot of buzz," guard Mike Conley said. "That’s what people want to see.”
__
McCauley reported from San Francisco.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Dave Campbell And Janie Mccauley, The Associated Press
