LOS ANGELES – Before the NBA trade deadline last week, Los Angeles Lakers guard Danny Green was reportedly part of trade discussions involving the New York Knicks. The Lakers were exploring their options on the trade market, with Kyle Kuzma and Green at the center of the deal with the Knicks (Green likely would have been flipped elsewhere).
However, the Lakers ended up standing pat as the deadline came, leaving Kuzma and Green both in Los Angeles for the rest of the season. Despite almost being dealt for Marcus Morris, who ultimately was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Green put on a defensive showcase on Monday night against the visiting Phoenix Suns.
Anthony Davis sang Green's praises after the team made easy work of the Suns, which featured the veteran guard putting the clamps on Suns star Devin Booker.
“Danny is a great defensive player,” Davis said. “To be able to contain a guy like Devin, who has been playing very well, speaks to the type of defensive player Danny is. One thing about him is that he's always going to take the challenge, no matter who it is. He always wants the challenge of guarding the best perimeter guy. He takes pride in trying to lock those guys up.”
Green didn't have the most impressive stat line on Monday, going 2-for-7 from the floor and finishing with five points, one rebound, one assist, one steal, and a block. However, his defense on Booker was all anyone could talk about after the game.
“That’s what I like about our team,” Frank Vogel said. “We have good matchups for different types of offensive threats. Sometimes it’s Avery getting under somebody’s chin, sometimes it’s a bigger body in Danny. He really did an outstanding job on Devin tonight. Just keeping the body in front of Devin and making everything difficult. We know we have a lot of different defenders that have different skill sets and different matchups that we can throw at certain guys, and tonight it was on Danny.”
Booker, who is currently 10th in the NBA in scoring at 26.4 points per game, had perhaps one of his worst performances to date against the Lakers. The Kentucky product went 2-for-11 from the floor and finished with 10 points on the night.
“It's never an easy challenge or project to do,” Green said of guarding Booker. “He's a very good player. Night in and night out, he scores a high clip and shoots it very efficiently. You can try to limit his touches and his rhythm shots, and hopefully, he doesn't get it going early. It wasn't just me, but a collective effort. JaVale is great at protecting the rim, and he made sure that he didn't get anything easy at the basket or in the paint. We just all tried to make sure he didn't get good looks behind the arc.”
With Green putting the clamps on Booker, the Lakers were able to cruise to a 25-point win over the division rival Suns. Los Angeles will have one more game before the much-needed NBA All-Star break this weekend. The Lakers will take on the Denver Nuggets on the road before the festivities get underway in Chicago.
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