The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Draymond Green Show - Game 4 Reaction

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

On his podcast after game 4, Draymond Green discusses the Golden State Warriors 126-125 win over the Sacramento Kings including the decision for him to come off the bench, great performances by Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney, De'Aaron Fox, Steph's timeout mistake at the end of the game, and Harrison Barnes's near-game winner. Then he discusses the other playoff series including Devin Booker and the Suns over the Clippers without Kawhi Leonard, the Knicks taking a 3-1 lead over the Cavaliers, Joel Embiid's injury for the 76ers, and more. Produced by: Jackson Safon #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The volume. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. We are fucking live on AMP after a huge Warriors win. Series Tide 2 to 2. Dub Nation is feeling good. I'm feeling good. For those of you who are tapped in, we will take some callers at the end of the show.

So stay tuned for that. But let's get into this game, man. Number one, it's 5 o'clock. It's light outside. That always feel good to finish the game. still have a day left to spend with your family, your friends, your loved ones. That's always beautiful. So I'm excited.

I feel great. Let's talk about it. The Warriors beat the Kings 126 to 125. After a great second half, a game we probably should have handled pretty easily towards the end of the game. We had a couple mishaps. Steph called the timeout, technical file. They make the shot.

De Aaron Fos hits a three, four-point swing. We're up one, 27 seconds to go. Before everybody jumps and say, oh, man, Steph shouldn't have done this. That's on me. After you outlet the ball, someone has to trail to play. You have to trail to play because if all else fails and the guy get trapped in that situation, he needs to be able to look back and just throw a simple outlet behind the play.

So that's on me. I'm always the trailer in those situations. And I did he do on up the floor as if the game was over running with my back turn? And we just can't leave him in that situation. Also on me, I am always the guy who's like, yo, we have no time outs left. And, you know, I didn't do that. And so everyone didn't know that we didn't have any time else left.

That's on me because I knew right away. As soon as we took the time out and challenged the call, I knew that was our last time out. We lost it. I should be telling everyone in the huddle, we don't have timeouts. Coming out of the huddle, guys, we don't have time out. So that's on me.

And then Steph had the ball with, you know, 27 seconds left in starting, and there's a three-second shot clock in game clock difference, and he shot it early. Also on me, because you just leave him kind of under pressure up there, And after you call that time out, which I've done before, you're a rattle. You're a little rattled and not rattled in a sense of like you're afraid,

but you're just thrown off because it's like a brain fart. And you're like, how in the hell did I do that? And so to move on from that play, like I actually kept telling stuff like, yo, we good, let's go. But I know he's a little in his head after that. So even to come relieve the pressure, get him the ball with a live dribble, and now he can, you know, handle the pressure and go, but and go do what he does.

But in that situation, I also didn't want to bring a second guy and he get trapped where he possibly turn the ball over. So you just kind of let him do what he do. And, you know, also had a wide open floater from the free throw line that he probably makes 80% of the time. So I'm also living with that shot. So before everybody jump on,

oh, Steph did this train, Steph did that thing. Steph had 32, 5, and 4. and helped us win this and led us to a win. So that's the train I'm rolling on, 5, 4, 11 from 3. That was huge. Clay also had a big game, 26 from Clay. JP had a big game with 22.

Loon did what Loon does, 14 boards, 6 assists. Yours truly, 12, 10, and 7 on 3 for 14 shooting with 7 mislayups. Let's talk about that. So I knew coming into this game, spots where I needed to be, you know, what would be open. I was very aware and it was there.

And I just missed the layup. So looking forward to making those next time. But in saying that, I felt great. It was great to be back out there on the floor with the guys. There was a critical moment there where JP took over the game. He got a layup. He got to the free throw line a few times. He had an N-1.

and they were trying to make a run and he just kept breaking their run. He obviously finished with 22 points, but forget the 22 points. To have those timely buckets and control the pace of the game when he was controlling the pace of the game and not allowing those guys to go on a run,

I thought it was huge, huge step by Jordan. He found something he liked in the defense and he got downhill. And it was absolutely beautiful to watch because it came at a time in the game where we really needed it. and to control the game like that, that's just steps in the right direction for Jordan.

And to know that he's doing that and he's taking those steps, that's only going to continue to help this team grow. De Aaron Fox, 38, 9, and 5, another great game and another great fourth quarter. You know, at this point, obviously you keep making adjustments on Fox, i.e., the one we made where we put me on Fox,

there and, you know, started, just switched the lineup, switch the look, gave him a different look. With a guy like that, he's an incredible player, man, and you just can't give him a study diet of anything eventually.

Great guys, great players like that, when you give them a study diet of anything, they figure it out. And so I thought the adjustment to switch it up on him a little bit there was great by coach, and I thought it played dividends. Obviously Fox had it on that last play.

Me and Steph Switch, I went back to Trapp and he kicked it to Harrison Barnes, who missed the three. Number one, clutch player of the year, we know what Fox does in that situation. So most importantly, you can't let him be true there, which was my mindset. He got the ball. He's looking to make his move. Try to get the ball out of his hands because you don't just win Clush Player of the Year being average. Number one, you've been in those situations, you've been in enough of those situations

to show what you do in those situations. And he got an award that was well deserved, and so I know in that situation what he's trying to get to. And I came to help. Just as sure as I came to help, Steph reacted immediately, went and got a contest on Harrison's shot and Harrison missed. Harrison was ready to call us every B word and 304 word in the book. If he made that shot, as we all know, it was great to see him miss it. But even if he does make that shot in that situation, you have to make someone else beat you.

And so we did that and we were successful with that. Because we, like I said, you know what the outcome. Coming into this game, I came off the bench. I see that that was made a very big deal. I thought that was a very simple thing. We won the game. It looked great. You do the same thing.

I went to Coach Kerr after the game. And I went upstairs to his office and I spoke to him and he was excited as hell and I was excited. And I told him right then, I'm like, yo, coach, if I need to come off the bench, like, fine. Like, I'll come off the bench, no problem. And he's like, oh, I could almost call him by surprise. Like, he's like, oh, yeah, all right, yeah, we'll talk about it. All right, like it caught him by surprise. But I think that was important.

Number one, if you see something that you feel like worked, which obviously Loon worked, if you say you want to stay there, obviously I have the resume that I have. I've helped win four championships, seniority, all those things. The one thing that I didn't want to happen was like I come back and everybody's like, oh, this work. Well, Loon comes out to start line up.

That's bullshit. Like, that's bullshit. You're an awful fucking teammate. if that's what you think should happen. Like, if they're like, oh, well, we want to play for a guard, then great, very simple answer. Come off the floor. Looney just had 20 rebounds, nine assists,

dominated the game. You don't then go to him and say, hey, your reward is to come out of a start lineup. That's as a leader of a team, that's how you lose guys. And so I thought it was very important for me to go to coach and say, listen, I just watched this game. Here's a thing. I think one of the reasons coach was caught off guard

and thrown back or taken back is because he hadn't watched a film. And so when you watch the film, like when you're in these games, man, you're in it. Like, there's things that you can miss. When you go back and watch the film, you have a totally different perspective. Well, I watched the film live.

I didn't watch that game cheering because we made a shot or like any fan would do. I watched that game lock the hell in because I was trying to text things and be as involved in the game as I could possibly be. And so once the game ended, I had already watched the film. Coach hadn't watched the film yet I saw what worked.

And so it was very evident to me that you go to coach and you let him know that if you need to come off the bench, it's okay. That can be a sticky situation. Guy 11 years in, all-star, all of these things. And that can be a very sticky situation. I wanted to make sure it was as less sticky as it possibly can be.

Coach, if I need to come off the bench, great. Now, a lot of was made of, oh, man, it was Draymond decision. I don't make decisions. Coach Kerr and the coaching staff makes decisions. I just give suggestions. Those suggestions are very well heard because, again, a respect, and that's something that I appreciate. But I just made the suggestion.

Coach called me a day later and said, all right, this is what we're doing. But you haven't come off the bench in nine years. How are you in a playoff game? How are you going to feel about that? I said, well, coach, number one, who fucking cares? Who cares how I feel about that? Doesn't matter.

Feelings don't matter. You don't have time for feelings in the playoffs. You get caught in your feelings. You get caught on the boat to Cancun. So there's no time for feelings. That's number one, coach. Who cares how I feel? Number two, I feel great.

I'm fine. I'll be ready to go when it's time for me to go in. Now, coach, you know, something Steph and I talked about was what the rotations are going to be with me coming off the bench. Rotations are important when you get in these playoffs. It's a chess match between the coaches, what the rotations are going to be. So, yeah, coach, I think we need to figure out the rotations.

But as far as my feelings and how I feel about it, I don't care. Who cares if I even do care? And lastly, what's the other option, coach? Like, Loon shouldn't be the one coming out of a star lineup if that's the case. He's like, yeah, you're right. All right, well, I'll let you know. And then he called me back and he, oh, I'm sorry, I'm backtracking a little bit.

And then, you know, we had our conversation and he's like, all right, and I can still hear a little skepticism in his voice. But then that's where you lead. You lead by example, right? Like, they're going to watch your energy when it's announced to the team. They're going to watch how you're reacting when they say first unit and you go to the sideline while we're walking through stuff and you're not in the first unit. Those are all things that they are going to look at. So I wanted to make sure that I was upbeat, my demeanor, my aura, that I brought positive energy to the gym.

But I thought that it was extremely important that I led by example with my energy and, you know, getting involved with the game plan. something while we're walking through to step out there and make those things. Because, again, all of those things matters. And so that was it. We went with it. We won the game. Big question is, do you keep coming off the bench? I don't know.

I started the second half. But what I will tell you is I don't care. Most important thing to me and to guys that has played here, which is why we've won championships is winning and winning championships. However you get there, however that's not, I got benching in the NBA finals last year during the game. Taken out of the game, bench, sub-dem offense defense. Think I care?

Of course, not. I don't care. Like, I want to win. Whatever that is is what it is. And you don't get so big on yourself that you're now bigger than that. The moment you do kiss your team goodbye, that's it. I don't want that to be me. I returned to the game and in true Draymond fashion received a tech.

About a minute or two of being in the game, if that long. Fox and I were going back and forth. He was standing up for his guy telling me it was BS. Get up off the floor, bro. Like, it's what it is. Get up off the floor. And we went back and forth. We had a little join, quite frankly,

If I'm being honest, in that moment, I'm like, all right, we got one tech. Cool. As long as he's still talking, I'm still talking. Because guess what? If we get another double tech, we're both thrown out of the game. I think my team can survive, my absence better than the Kings can survive. Fox's exit or an absence. My goal wasn't to get him ejected because, quite frankly, I wasn't trying to get myself ejected.

But I'm also not backing down or ducking no smoke. Ever. And I'm also going to be Draymond forever. And ain't nothing changing that. Not a suspension, not a tech. It don't change that. So I love, you know, when guys step up for their guys and stand up for it, I'll always respect that. So it is what it is. I wouldn't say no hard feelings because it's a playoff series. It's a playoff series. All feelings are hard. And that just is what it is. But I respect that and it is what it is. another question was what was going through my mind when Steph called the timeout. I just stood there like this.

Like, no timeouts. But, like, I went straight to him like, yo, it's cool. We move on. Like, we have five points at the time. Like, we move on. It's no big deal. What's going through my mind is trying to make sure he's good mentally. Because we still need to close out this game.

We can't dwell on that. It is what it is. Now, where I made a huge mistake is I let five. Fox, get off a three. And I have to force him to drive and make him playing a crowd in that situation. You're up for you have to force him inside the three and then get a contest, live with the results as long as you're not giving up a three. I screwed that up.

So now I gave up a three. I should have stayed behind Steph Curry. I also should have let everybody know we didn't have timeouts. So then, you know, you saw Bob Myers come talk to me after the game. What were we talking about? We were talking about how I can be better in that situation to make sure that doesn't happen again. And, you know, I take that on the chin and I'll be better. As one of our floor generals, I have to be up on top of those things and can't allow that to happen.

So I have to be better there. And that's that. You know, so now, you know, we go to sack two to two on Wednesday, looking to get a road win. It's very important. We got to win one or two on the road. Whether it's game five, you prefer to be game five. so there's no game seven, but you get four opportunities to win one on the road. No one said which one it had to be.

You just have to get one. So be looking forward to that. And, you know, I think it's important that we go out and play with the same physicality, but take it even up other levels as it has to be higher when you go on the road. I also think we need to do a better job. But keeping Keegan Murray out of the series, he had a huge game last night. I mean, last night, excuse me, a huge game today. And we had done a good job on him.

We let him get loose. So now you have to try to stop that. He's going to roll in, going home, super confident. We have to do what we can to try to neutralize him again. But he was great. And I'm sure that was exciting for them. So some of the keys for us. And yeah, looking forward to going to game five.

Before we get out of here, obviously you know we'll take some questions, but just a couple updates. Nicks take a 3-1 lead over the Cavaliers. Cavaliers have been really struggling to score to basketball in this series. Tom Tibado defense. It's always been a beautiful thing to watch. And as a defensive guy, I can always appreciate it. One thing you're going to know is Tom Tibado coach team is going to defend.

And they've been stifling the Cavs' offense. and they're sitting there with a 3-1 lead. And who, I hope that NYPD have 10,000 officers ready to work the streets of New York if the Knicks closed this series out. Because, whew, do y'all remember what they did when they won a playoff game and they shut the streets down? They win a series? Man, watch out New York City.

So NYPD, I hope you all ready and maybe need to call in the National Guard that day because them Knicks fans are going to go crazy if they win them. that series. The Sons took a 3-1 lead over the Clippers without Kauai. Number one, I'm not going to say shout out the Russell Westbrook, because I'm so fucking tired of people disrespecting Russ. Like, shout out Russ, he played good. Like, Russell Westbrook is an MVP.

Russell Westbrook is a perennial all-star. Russell Westbrook is a legend and a Hall of Famer. So I'm not about to do the whole shout out the Russ for going through and persevering. Like, that's whack. That's whack. Stop disrespecting that man. like he not him and who he is. But Russ is having an incredible series.

He's giving them chances in these games, even without Kauai. They're playing Marcus Morris more because they need another guy that can create his own shot. That's been looking good for them. But ultimately, without Kauai and PG, you just don't have enough. And it's unfortunate to see Kauai going through what he's going through, man. You just never really wish that on anyone. And, you know, everyone always questions him and say, this, say that. He played 42 minutes and then couldn't play again. So for everyone who

questioned like, oh, he didn't play back to backs. Like, that shit's real. We're competitors, man. You don't get to this level by, oh, I'm cool. I'm just sit out. Like, you don't become who guys become with that mindset. Like, it's real. And you get so much complaining about it. And so I wish Kawhi well. Hope he's back out there for game five. You always want to see guys had an opportunity to play on the biggest stage. He was dominating that series. But D. Book has been dominated. D. Book is doing what, continuing to grow into the guy. And he's been the guy for a long time, but there are steps and levels of being the guy. And he continues to grow, man. He had, I know, game four, three, one.

Game three, the game where he had 45, one of the most, and like seven assists or whatever he had. One of the most impressive, the most impressive thing about that game, he has zero turnovers. You know how much you got out of ball? Zero turnovers? You were precise with every decision. DeBook playing some great basketball, and I hope you all see the growth. The heat are up two to one. No yonis in the last two games.

And Jimmy's doing what Jimmy does this time of year. Send my love, a lot of love, to Victor Oladipo, man. a guy who continues to battle no matter what he's faced with. And quite frankly, you go through stuff like that, man. You lose the love for the game. So you see this, Patela injury, and I'm like, man, he's probably done. But then you tap back into who Victor Oladipo is and why he became who he's become. Continues to fight.

I expect to see him again. But I send my love to Vic. speedy recovery, man. You never want to see that, especially, like I said, a guy who's battled through so much. So I send my love. It's unfortunate.

It's very unfortunate. But the heat is done what they needed to do. They got an opportunity to go up three to one at home. I expect Janus probably will play. If he doesn't play, I mean, if Janus doesn't play this game, I expect he'll probably need a surgery or something because Janus, we all, Janus play hard in All-Star games, man.

So I, you know, fingers crossed. All is good with Janus. And then as we know, the Sixers closed out the series versus the Nets with no M.B. One of my friends asked me yesterday, like, yo, can, MB's hurt now. So can they give still Boston a run for their money? listen, let's not do the MB's hurt thing and like already dim the serious from what it is. Yes, we hope Joelle can play.

We hope he's as healthy as he can be, but let's understand something. No one's 100% healthy. No one's 85%. No one's 90% healthy. At best, maybe 85 at this point in a year. Injuries are a part of it. And so before we start lessening what someone else is doing, let's not do. that. We do all hope to see Joelle back out there, MVP, you want to see him get that

opportunity, but let's not start minimizing another team and what they do because of injuries. That's why injuries are a part of it, making it through as long-ass season and then getting to the end being helped. That's a part of it. We lost an NBA finals because we didn't make it to the end. Katie got hurt, Clay got hurt. That is a part of it. But guess what? Nobody want to hear that. Oh, y'all lost because now, who cares? They won.

So let's not do that before we get ahead of ourselves, but we are hoping and keeping our fingers crossed their joke and go. And the last but not least, the Lakers versus the Grizzlies. I thought the funniest thing in the world was that everybody thought LeBron was going to go out there and shoot 30 shots and try to get 50 points. You clearly don't know who LeBron James is if you thought that. That's number one. number two, Lakers got up to a very fast start.

And the Grizzies were playing uphill the entire game. And Lakers are doing what some expected. They're up two to one. Got to close out at home and try to take a 3-1 lead. But they're playing as good as basketball as they've played and what everyone expected the way they closed out the year once they made the trade. Anthony Davis had a huge game after having a, a not so good game in game two.

He had a huge game three. He was aggressive as hell. And that's a tough, an aggressive Anthony Davis can be very tough to deal with. So looking forward to seeing that next game, seeing if the Lakers take a 3-1 lead or if the Grizzies will tie it up two to two. John Moran had a really big game.

And you applaud it, but it's going to be very important that he also get other guys involved going into that next game and unlock his guy. So we'll see what happens there. But before we get out of here, like I said, I'm going to toss it to Jackson so we can get a couple questions from the callers. Jackson, who you got for me? We're going to take a couple questions. Folks in the in the AMP app hop in. I will accept a few callers. It's going to be just like last time limiting to just a question and then I'm going to boot you. but we appreciate anyone who wants to hop in.

All right, we got our first caller at Chetty Davis. Invite is sent, accept the invite, and don't forget to unmute your mic. Drey, my question is, how is it going up against Sabonis? To me, his style is similar to yours. So how is it going up against him in such an intense series? I mean, number one, he's very physical. He looks for contact.

He's seeking contact. And so, number one, you have to brace yourself for his contact. And then, you know, he's a playmaker. They play a very similar style to us with him as the primary playmaker. And for me, it's just really meeting that force for force, meeting his contact, meeting his pressure, trying to make those passing angles on him tough. So he just can't get other guys involved. But overall, you know, I like a physical series.

I like a physical matchup. So, you know, I love it. Perfect. Next one, we're going to go at Prince from NY. Maybe we'll get some Nick's talk. Let's see what we got here. At Prince from NYU, accept the invite. Join the call. Don't forget to unmute your mic. Hey, what's up, Draymond? What's up?

What's up? What do you think you guys could have done better today to make the game, like, to seal the game up? I thought early on, I thought it was different at different times of the game. I thought early on what we could have done better was rebound to basketball. They really rebounded to basketball well there in the first half, and we didn't rebound so well offensively or defensively. So I thought we could have rebounded the ball better. And then late, you know, I think we were pretty good. Obviously, we had the timeout thing and all of that.

I personally, you know, even with the timeout, I can't give up a three to Fox. You have to get them inside the three-point line or make them just take a heave because he's so hell-bent on getting the three off. But I kind of backed up a little bit and tried to use my lane. I can't give that up. I think if I don't give that three-up, we close the game out pretty well, even in spite of the time-out. At Woozy, invite said. Don't forget to join the call and unmute your mic. Get a little woozy.

How was good, Ramon? What's going on? The series is tied. How do you think things will go down with the, I guess they called the Pivotal Game 5? Do you think it would go seven if sack wins or do you think you guys will close it out in game six if you guys win? I mean, I have no intentions on playing a seven game. So I, you know, I think we definitely need to go take care of home court. You never want to get too ahead of yourself, though, and say, I mean, excuse me, not take care of home court.

We took care of home court. but go get a roll win. You never want to get too far ahead of your stuff and start talking about game six and or seven. So you just take it one game at a time, and we're going to take this one and try to go take game five on their home floor. You know, that's the most important thing in the series right now.

And then if you go take game five, you definitely don't want to have to go win again there. And so you want to try to do all you can to close it out in six. But understanding that if that don't happen, you still got another game. But it's one game at a time for us. So the most important game right now is game five.

And I think, you know, we go exceed their level of physicality. And, you know, take care of the ball, do all the things that we know takes to win games at this level. I think we'll be fine. Thanks, everyone for calling in. Thanks, everyone for hopping in the chat. We will be back on Amazon app at some point later either this week or in the next week. As always, subscribe to the show everywhere else. We will be back Thursday morning.

Definitely back Thursday morning to make sure you all tap into that and let's hope and make sure we do all that we can to make sure when we back is three to two. It will be three to three, two and does favor. That's a wrap from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. For all our listeners out there, if you want to hear this again or you're just tapping in, this will be up on all the platforms pretty soon. Until next time, peace.