After additional rest in Wednesday's season finale against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, Draymond Green is ready for the playoffs to start and looking forward to the scrutiny that comes with it.

“I'm looking forward to that scrutiny because it's great,” Green said in a Friday morning SportsCenter interview. “If you don't have scrutiny, if you don't have pressure, if you don't have spotlight, you're not doing something right. No one cares. So I'm looking forward to it.”

“It's been a great [regular season]. The scrutiny has kind of been there — it's up and down — but playoffs… it's a completely different level of everything. So I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's fun.‎”

Green faced plenty of scrutiny during last year's NBA playoffs, with more than one kicking incident and a suspension in Game 5 of the NBA Finals that turned the series around.

The Golden State Warriors forward also had 12 technical fouls this season, most of them due to his fiery nature and tendency to constantly argue with the officials.

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The First Team All-Defense forward knows just how important it is to keep his emotions in check while still providing the stellar defensive effort that has made him the frontrunner for the Defensive Player of the Year this season.

“‎I'm ready for it, though,” Green said. “I've learned from some of the things that have happened over the course of the last year for sure. Learned how to handle different things… ‎Obviously being suspended from Game 5 — just not putting myself in those positions, not accumulating flagrant fouls, [or] technical fouls, to even put the decision in someone else's hands.”

When talking about game-changing plays, the Saginaw native can be the Warriors' biggest energy jolt and also its most deflating self-inflecting wound.

“That's kind of the things I learned,” Green continued. “Knowing that in this playoffs run this year, there's probably going to be a coach to send a guy at me to try and send me off the rocker, or not letting people create a narrative around me of who they want to make me out to be.”

“I think that's one of the biggest things for me. It's just being who I am and knowing exactly who that is and being comfortable with who I am but not giving anyone any room to make me out to be what they want me to be.”

Draymond Green leads the NBA in steals this season with 2.03, while being dead-locked with Rudy Gobert for the best defensive rating (98.9) in the league. His line of 10.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 7.0 assists per game helped the Warriors to a 67-15 season.