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The Golden State Warriors pulled off yet another sweep, keeping pace with their Eastern Conference rivals, the Cleveland Cavaliers — but the individual merits of Draymond Green during the series against the Utah Jazz didn't go unnoticed by many.
At one point or another, Green guarded just about every player the Jazz trotted out there, but his main focus was to contain their 7-foot-1 glass-cleaner, Rudy Gobert.
Despite giving up a whopping six inches in the matchup, Green was the tougher, more aggressive force and was able to keep Gobert at bay for most of the series — an act for which he was thoroughly commended.
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“You’ve got the best defender in the league, and you can’t pick on him, even though he’s 6-4, 6-3 maybe,” teammate Kevin Durant took a slight dig in a nod to Green’s penchant for challenging much taller players, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “But playing the center position, you still can’t pick on him. You can’t throw the ball in the post and expect to get a basket. You’re not going to go at him in pick-and-rolls. He can switch out. That’s what starts our defensive intensity. It all starts with him, and we kind of fall in line after that.”
Green's defensive quarterbacking and manipulation of defensive switches has been nothing but masterful, as the Jazz haven't been able to expose any weakness, aside from a few mild Joe Johnson post-ups on the smaller Stephen Curry.
The Saginaw native was also praised by acting head coach Mike Brown, who's seeing the benefits of his versatility first hand.
“Draymond was terrific,” Brown said clinching the series win. “Yes, he had a triple-double, and that should definitely be celebrated because that was hard-earned tonight.
“But Draymond was terrific when Utah made a run and we kind of dropped out shoulders a little bit, and we were slow getting the ball out of bounds and bringing the ball up the floor, Draymond’s pace was unbelievable. He forced our entire team to keep pushing the ball, no matter what the score was, no matter what type of run Utah went on, no matter if it was a made or missed basket.”
