Draymond Green: ‘We Are Playing Like a Team That’s Not Desperate’

It’s fairly obvious when watching the NBA Finals that LeBron James’ plucky and undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers have so far been the more desperate squad.

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green acknowledged as much Wednesday, and with his team in danger of falling into a 3-1 series hole, Green says the Dubs can no longer afford to play with such complacency.

Green has been dealing with back spasms since taking a hard fall in Game 2—he’s missed 13 of 17 shot attempts the past two games and four of his five 3-pointers—but he’ll suit up in Game 4 Thursday night.

Per Yahoo! Sports:

“They are playing like a team desperate and needs something,” Green said before Wednesday’s practice. “And we are playing like a team that’s not desperate and got something.” […] The Warriors won Game 1 of the NBA Finals 108-100 over the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers entered the series without two injured starters in Kevin Love and Anderson Varejao and lost a third for the season in Kyrie Irving in the Finals opener. The Warriors became even bigger favorites after Irving got hurt.

 

So what do the Warriors need to become? […] “A more spirited team,” Green said. “I’m not saying we’re going to come in and make every shot. Who knows? Shots may fall, they may not. But I’m willing to bet that if our intensity level is higher the shots go in. If you cut a little harder the shots fall. If you attack the rim a little harder that shot will go down. […] I think everything we do to our intensity level whether it’s our shooting, whether it’s a turnover, whatever it is. I think if we raise our intensity level it erases more than 50 percent of the problems that we have. I look forward to doing that.”

 

“Who got a 50-50′ ball? Who dove on the floor? [Cleveland’s Matthew] Dellavedova. Who dove on the floor for the other loose ball? Dellavedova,” Green said. “Who dove on the floor? [Cleveland’s] Mike Miller. That’s three loose balls. That’s possibly six more points, maybe nine. Maybe you take away a couple baskets from them. […] So those are the things that change. It ain’t all double-teaming LeBron (James) and him scoring 40. They still scored 96 points. They haven’t scored over 100 this entire series. There isn’t much more strategy you can put in. It’s the little things. Keeping Tristan Thompson off the offensive boards. I don’t even know how many offensive rebounds they had last night [in Game 3]. I would guess 15. Maybe more. Let’s suppose instead of 15, they get seven. Those are the little things we need to get cleaned up and all the sudden you’re winning ballgames. Not double-teaming LeBron stopping him from getting 40 and they score 96 points.”

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