Who needs Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins? Definitely the Golden State Warriors, but the defending champions nevertheless earned a hard-fought victory without them on Wednesday.

The woefully short-handed Warriors beat the Utah Jazz 112-107 at Chase Center, getting their third straight win since returning home from a disastrous six-game road trip. The victory moves Golden State to 18-18 on the season, including a league-best 15-2 at home.

Just like most of their wins in San Francisco, defense is where the Warriors made their biggest mark against the Jazz—with Draymond Green's fingerprints all over his team's standout play on that side of the ball.

https://streamable.com/9yrt4f

Green finished with six points, nine rebounds, five assists and three blocks, numbers that hardly do his impact justice. What does? The pair of highlight-reel blocks at the rim in the game's last two minutes that helped Golden State complete its comeback.

“It's inspiring watching Draymond patrol the paint and kind of patrol everything, because guys will get penetration and then he's there playing cat and mouse,” Steve Kerr said on the postgame podium. “He's just got the longest arms and the most incredible sense of what the ball handler's going to do, whether he's gonna pass or shoot. He's so quick off the floor he sort of makes the offensive guy think twice, and then as he makes that decision Draymond's already waiting for him, because he's one step ahead.

“I thought he just anchored things,” Kerr continued, “and then we just had guys fighting, scrapping out there all around the play, getting to loose balls, rebounds. It was really fun to watch.”

The Warriors held the Jazz to 40.7% shooting and just two fast break points. Their 104.6 defensive rating at home tops the league, per Cleaning the Glass, and is a wild -14.8 points stingier than their mark away from the friendly confines of Chase Center, which ranks 29th.

Green may not be the defender he was a few years ago. Even a half step slower and couple inches less vertically explosive, though, he's still arguably the most impactful defensive player in basketball—and Green's all-time feel and understanding on that end of the floor is the biggest reason why.