Stephen Curry had a cold hand, scoring just nine points on 3-of-17 shooting, but the Warriors took team basketball to the extreme, scoring 45 goals and assisting from teammates 39 times, and finally defeated the Heat 115-108 to continue to secure the league's first place with a record of 29 wins and 7 losses.
"Hum Ha Two" performed well today, With Andrew Wiggins contributing 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists on 8-of-13 shooting, and Jordan Poole scoring 32 points off the bench. But the most critical reason why the Warriors are able to overcome the enemy in this game is Draymond Green, who scored only 5 points on 2-of-5 shooting.
It's Green's comeback battle, as he missed the last two games because of triggering a health-safety agreement, including Sunday's Warriors away win over the Jazz. But in the post-game interview of that game, Jazz coach Quinn Snyder specifically mentioned Green, who fully affirmed Green's value to the Warriors, and even believed that he was qualified to enter the MVP discussion.
"Even though his stats don't look like an MVP, in terms of the way he influences the game – whether it's his passing, or his defence – you know what we think of Rudy 's [Gobert's] overall contribution, and so does Draymond. He's just contributing in his own way. ”
"Coupled with the leadership he's shown, and the way he communicates, I really feel like he's an extremely good player. He's proven it long ago, but if you look at their game this season, he's really stand out! ”
Green has always been an extremely confident player, so of course he accepted all the compliments. Before today's match against the Heat, he thanked The Coach for his affirmation and said: "I agree with him, he sees the essence of the game. As he put it, 'He's not deliberately chasing data, he's just going to win the game in his own way.' I don't think there's a more perfect explanation than that. ”
After a few hours, Green explained in action what it meant to win the game his own way.
In today's game, Curry felt cold, losing all 5 shots in the first 5 shots until the second quarter lasted more than 4 minutes before completing his first shot. During that time, however, the Warriors maintained their lead, with a point difference of 12 points on the court. Among them, Green's offensive and defensive ends have played a key role.
The Warriors scored 33 points in the first quarter today, with Wiggins and Poole combining 26 points, but one of the more noteworthy stats is that the 12 goals the Warriors hit in the first quarter were all assisted by teammates. Green alone delivered 6 assists.
Throughout the first half, Green didn't score a single point, but he delivered 10 assists without any turnovers. According to statistics, the half-time assist double and 0 turnovers have only appeared once in Green's previous career, that is, October 30, 2018, when Green was beside Curry, as well as Durant and Thompson.
In addition to revitalizing the team with assists, the 5 points Green scored throughout the game also appeared in the critical stage. At the beginning of the third quarter, the Heat stubbornly chased the score under butler's leadership and once achieved a rebound. Green, who did not score a single point in the entire first half, shot at a critical moment, first stealing a quick attack during a half-turn, and then receiving a pass from Curry and hitting the top three points of the arc. These 5-point shots directly help the Warriors re-open the score and firmly grasp the situation back into their own hands.
The Warriors went into the final half with a nine-point advantage, but then the waves came back, and the Heat seized Curry's opportunity to rest and narrow the point gap to just four points.
In a life-and-death situation, Green defended — he first cut off Caleb Martin's breakthrough layup, then chased him beyond the three-point line, covered Taylor Hiro's three-point shot, and less than a minute later, jumped in place under the basket, and pressed the strong blow of Heat center Jurt Ceven in a short period of 1 minute and 12 seconds, he completed three consecutive blocks, successfully defending the opponent's attack from guard to forward to center in almost every position!
Among these 3 blocks, the front hat Yurt Severn is the most uplifting, but the three-point shot that covers Hiero through half the field is actually more reflective of Green's defensive value - Green's defense may not be as impressive as Gobert's, but in terms of defensive coverage and versatility, he is indeed a historical T0 level.
In fact, a shot like the one that chased the big hat Hiro from outside the three-point line was staged once in the first half by PJ Tucker.
In this game, Green grabbed a total of 8 rebounds, delivered 13 assists, completed 1 steal and 4 blocks. In the past 10 years, only two players have played like this, one of them Paul Gasol (March 8, 2016) and the other is Green himself (February 28, 2016). That's what Snyder and Green said earlier: win the game your way.
So far this season, Green has missed a total of four games, the Warriors 2-2, and in the 32 games he played, the Warriors have won 27 and lost 5.
"I'm not going to stack data and give myself the opportunity to compete with Stephen, Kevin Durant or Giannis for MVP. I wouldn't do that. But I think in the way I influence the game, what I do on the pitch, the effect I have on the win, is enough to say it all. Green's words were loud and clear.
Long before Durant joined, the Warriors already had the big three, but when people mention this team, the most often mentioned is the "Splash Brothers". This season, the Warriors king returned, and everyone was praising Curry's MVP performance and looking forward to Thompson's return, but people should not forget that Green is also indispensable to this team.
Speaking of which, the last time Green was named an All-Star was in 2018, when he was only 27 years old. Now that he has passed, the MVP still has no hope, but with the Warriors' outstanding performance this season and the important role he has played in this team, returning to the All-Star should be an affirmation of his due.