Draymond Green: Warriors Got ‘Punked’ in Game 3 of the NBA Finals

According to Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors were “punked” by the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, a 120-90 shellacking at Quicken Loans Arena.

Green and the Dubs hold a 2-1 series lead—the defending champs are 13-1 this season following a loss—and have plenty of confidence heading into Game 4 tonight.

The fiery and talkative forward thinks effort and aggression outweigh strategy and lineups in this matchup for the championship.

Per the Mercury News:

These are the NBA Finals and, on Wednesday, the Warriors got blasted by a team they’re pretty sure shouldn’t be doing that to the Warriors. […] Which led to (Steve) Kerr immediately declaring that the Warriors played “soft” in the 30-point loss to Cleveland, and when I asked Green about that on Thursday, there was an emphatic echo.

 

“I think we were extremely soft,” Green said before the Warriors’ practice at Quicken Loans Arena. “We got bullied, punked, any other word that you can find for it. That’s pretty much what it was. And that’s why the game went the way it went. And everybody in that locker room knew we got punked. Ain’t too much to say.”

 

The Warriors are furious with themselves for the timid way they played Game 3 because — unlike the blowouts they absorbed in Oklahoma City last round — they do not believe Cleveland should’ve outclassed them like that. […] “We’ve got to be tougher,” Green said. “If we want to come out and play tough, we’ll win Game 4. We’ll go back home with a 3-1 lead. We want to come out and play soft like we did last night, we’ll be in a dogfight.”