Mike D’Antoni didn’t take too kindly to Draymond Green’s recent comments.
After the Rockets escaped Oracle Arena with a 122-121 victory on the season’s opening night, D’Antoni went into attack mode, calling out Green for comments he made about Houston’s lack of attention to detail on the defensive end of the floor.
“Somebody said we don’t take defense seriously. Well, obviously they don’t take it seriously either. We scored pretty good,” D’Antoni said “I think both teams take it seriously. We did play well, and it’s a big push for us. We want to be a good defensive team, but when you play against guys like that, you better be able to score the ball. And we were able to do both.”
D’Antoni qualified his statement by saying that he thinks both teams take defense seriously, but it’s clear he didn’t take kindly to the comments Green made on Monday.
Green told reporters, “I don’t know how seriously they (Houston) take defense with that comment. But I know they definitely added some good defensive players.”
The comment Green referenced was one that D’Antoni made last week, when he said that teams in the NBA aren’t going to be able to stop the Warriors. D’Antoni added that he didn’t think the Warriors would be able to stop the Rockets, so their matchup “should be fun.”
There weren’t too many stops in Tuesday night’s game as D’Antoni predicted. The Rockets won a high-scoring battle, dropping Golden State to 0-1 for the second consecutive season.