Warriors’ Draymond Green is considered one of the NBA’s smartest basketball players, but on Monday night against the San Antonio Spurs he was a few light years ahead of the competition.
It was a case of comings and goings in San Antonio, with lead changes everywhere. A three-point basket from Spurs guard Dejounte Murray – who scored 27 points, eight rebounds and eight steals – put the home team ahead 101-97 with 12.6 seconds to go. Dubs star Steph Curry (best game with 32 points) hit the triple a few seconds later to narrow the deficit to a single point. The Spurs hit two free throws and the Dubs recovered the ball in the attacking court with 103 to 100 to 8.7 seconds from the end.
Everyone knew where the warriors wanted to catch the ball, but the inbounds went instead to Green, an 18.9% three point pitcher this season. Green anticipated a San Antonio foul, a common tactic in a three-point game to keep the losing team from drawing with a basket. The Spurs, however, (wisely) had no interest in hacking Green when they could take a chance on him by launching a jumper that has about the same success rate as Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer registering a hit during a National League game .
The result: a line-drive nothing-beyond-the-table of almost half a court.
Ultimately, this is a funny and unfortunate move, not the reason why the Warriors lost. Green was almost always excellent. As coach Steve Kerr noted, the Golden State’s 20 sales were much more problematic. In addition, Kerr told reporters, “Spurs are generally not at fault in these situations. Probably my fault for not informing the team.”
So there it is. Green will have to overcome this and will almost certainly receive a deserved mockery from his teammates. But it doesn’t look like anyone in the organization is too upset – nor should they be.