OAKLAND–With three minutes remaining in the first half on Monday night, the Golden State Warriors couldn’t hit their mark.
Steph Curry had yet to hit a three-pointer, Klay Thompson had yet to knock down a deep shot and Kevin Durant was also 0-for from beyond the arc. As a team, the Warriors were 0-for-10 from three-point range.
Except for Draymond Green.
The Warriors’ high-energy forward hit three first half three-pointers to help Golden State keep pace with Miami, and once the rest of his teammates did catch fire, the rest was history. Green and Co. cruised to a 97-80 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday night, and after the game, his coach and his peers highlighted the importance of Green’s ability to impact the game from beyond the arc.
“Draymond has been putting a lot of work in with his shot and I think he’s been on a nice little run,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “He made a couple in Denver I think and he had a good road trip shooting the ball. I like when Draymond is selective with his threes. I want him shooting them and it seems like when they come out of the flow of the offense, now all of a sudden he’s feeling it and he makes a couple of others that you don’t expect him to make. But the key is for him to get in the flow of the game.”
Green nailed three three-pointers in the Warriors’ blowout victory in Denver on Saturday night, and he came out firing on Monday night against a Heat team that couldn’t keep center Hassan Whiteside in the game down the stretch. The Warriors’ ability to stretch the floor was critical after a slow start on the offensive end, and Curry said finding ways to get Green in rhythm changes the dynamic of the team’s offense.
“When we’re moving the ball, a good amount of the time he’s finding himself open for those threes and those rhythm threes, that’s the one that he really likes,” Curry said. “A couple swings and penetration and something like that, he’s catching in rhythm and knocking them down and it’s always nice to see his first one go down. But that kind of is a product of our offense. So many threats out there including Draymond playmaking and whatnot that you have to give something up and those possessions that end with a Draymond three are a big boost for us because we know more than likely it was a solid possession getting everybody involved and you like to see him getting hyped up too, a little pep in his step.”
Durant helped the Warriors take control of the game late in the second quarter when the team embarked on a 16-3 run to take a 13-point halftime lead. The Warriors’ 7-foot wunderkind wasn’t shooting the ball well, but he did take the ball to the hoop and draw fouls that created other opportunities. It was those takes that aided the early playmaking of Green, who Durant credited with putting in extra work after practice to hone his shot.
“It’s pretty simple, when he’s making shots, he’s a totally, totally different player,” Durant said. “4-for-6 from the three, when he’s knocking down that shot, he makes us unstoppable as far as spreading the floor and having so many options out there. He’s been putting in extra work, I’ve seen him after practices after shootarounds putting in extra work. He’s a workhorse man. That’s what’s going to keep him in this good rhythm and good groove and hopefully he continues this.”
After the game, Green was pleased with his efforts on both ends of the floor, and admitted that improving his range and consistency from beyond the arc was a primary focus of his over the summer. While much of the tinkering he made to his game came after the NBA Finals ended, Green said his shooting is a work in progress every day.
“I put a lot of work in this summer with my guy Travis Walton and obviously you expect to get results and show eventually, so just kind of keep shooting,” Green said. “I have been getting in with Q (Bruce Fraser) a lot and Q has just kind of talked to me about my rhythm which has helped me quite a bit and also he’s just given me some different things to do. Sometimes you do the same things over and over again and it gets repetitive and he’s brought some different drills and different things to make it fun.”
