On Draymond Green putting out fires for Steph Curry to start them

Warriors survive three games in four nights against quality West teams.

To end the first quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers — the first of a back-to-back road-home gauntlet against the Lakers and the Denver Nuggets — Draymond Green executed a series of defensive maneuvers that may have helped his case as this season’s Defensive Player of the Year, among other defensive gems against the Lakers.

With Austin Reaves handling the ball, the aim was for him to get Quinten Post in the action, with the knowledge that the Warriors were willing to switch everything — including Post — on the ball. Post as an on-ball defender on the perimeter has been a mixed bag, but Steve Kerr was gathering valuable data in terms of Post’s viability as a switch big. As such, the coverage that was being played called for Post to switch onto Reaves, if and when Post’s man was brought up to set a screen on the ball. Post faced similar situations against Luka Dončić and learned hard lessons about defending one-on-one.

With that fact in mind, Draymond Green expected Reaves to summon Post’s man up for a screen to coax the switch. Green — known for freelancing and calling audibles that may not subscribe to the current coverage rule — saw what Reaves and the Lakers were trying to do. As such, watch Green direct things on the floor:

Green pre-switches with Post before Post’s man (Dorian Finney-Smith) can set the screen. Trying to avoid Green as much as possible, Reaves then calls for Gabe Vincent to screen for him — but Green also pre-switches with Jonathan Kuminga. In a last-ditch effort, Reaves tries to run “Touch” action with Vincent — and for his efforts, Reaves ends up in front of Green, who contests the final shot of the quarter in lieu of Post or Kuminga, which was the best possible outcome the Warriors could’ve hoped for at that moment.

Green had other noteworthy defensive moments against the Lakers, including sending away a Reaves drive — boldly helping off the strong-side corner in the process (although Jared Vanderbilt occupying that space helped in that regard):

And notching a clutch strip on Dončić that effectively sealed the game for the Warriors (seemingly, at the moment):

In order to provide context behind Green’s candidacy for DPOY, a combination of on/off metrics and advanced metrics must be looked at. Defense is empirically tough to measure using the numbers alone; box-score stats can be misleading, on/off numbers can be noisy, and advanced metrics can be difficult to understand, let alone attempt to reconcile with eye-test methods. But let’s try our best to put everything into one clear picture.

Cleaning The Glass, which eliminates garbage time from their calculation of stats, has the Warriors holding opponents to 2.7 points per 100 possessions fewer when Green is on the floor (111.1 defensive rating on, 113.8 defensive rating off). The following is a list of Green’s advanced defensive metrics:

• D-EPM: +2.5

• D-LEBRON: +2.4 (first among qualifying players in terms of minutes played)

• D-DPM: +3.4

Suffice to say, one doesn’t need to possess in-depth understanding of the metrics above to realize the legitimacy of Green’s candidacy. While Evan Mobley, Ivica Zubac, or Dyson Daniels winning it would be understandable, talks of Green “sneaking” his way into the discussion and not deserving to be in the conversation are, for lack of a better term, utter hogwash.

Green more than deserves to be a candidate for what will be his second DPOY award — a wild thing to think about, given that he is arguably this generation’s greatest defender. His versatility on that end of the floor knows no bounds, with his ability to guard the smallest of guards to the biggest of centers nearly unmatched, all while wearing multiple defensive hats: as a point-of-attack defender, a roamer, a gap/nail defender, or a rim protector.

Additionally, the mistake most casual observers make when it comes to evaluating Green’s defense is zeroing in on only one aspect — particularly, individual matchups. Even the greatest and most elite defenders, past and present, have fallen victim to elite offensive scorers and focal points; Green is no different. However, Green’s true value on defense isn’t measured by how much he limits his matchups; rather, it’s how disruptive he can be to an opposing team’s offensive scheme, especially when the situation calls for it and when the team needs him to be clutch.

Much like he was clutch as the last line of defense against Dončić above, he was equally clutch as the last line of defense against Russell Westbrook during the Warriors’ 118-104 win over the Nuggets. When Brandin Podziemski makes an ill-advised inbound pass that Westbrook easily picks off, Green runs back to not only stop Westbrook in his tracks — he forces the turnover, thus preventing what would have been a numbers advantage for the Nuggets:

Green’s firebrand demeanor and attitude — volatile in the sense that it can burn him and his team as easily as it can opponents — is ironic, in that he often acts as the Warriors’ proverbial firefighter, one who puts fires out before they can spread uncontrollably, as demonstrated by his stops against Reaves, Dončić, and Westbrook. That often makes room for Steph Curry to step in and transform into a proverbial basketball arsonist — one who starts fires and forces opponents to scramble in an effort to put them out. The Nuggets, however, could not stem the spread of Curry’s wildfire.

Much like the Lakers before them, the Nuggets tried all kinds of coverages against Curry. Switching Michael Porter Jr. — disruptive if only through the use of his 6’10” frame and 7-foot wingspan — gave Curry little trouble, even if he was forced into high degree of difficulty shots:

Forcing Nikola Jokić into the action through having his man set the screen for Curry was also on the menu. While the Nuggets defended Curry pick-and-rolls effectively in the first quarter, it was only a matter of time till the Nuggets had difficulty being put in rotation — having to defend 3 vs. 4 on the backline — as a consequence of putting Jokić up to the level of the screen, effectively having two defenders on the ball, and Curry making the pass to the short roll.

On a staple Warriors set called “Dive Roll” — during which an initial screen forces the switch onto Porter, followed by a second screen to bring Jokić into the action — the Nuggets opt not to switch Jokić onto Curry, instead having him step up to the level of the screen with Porter staying on Curry:

In response, Curry threads the pocket pass to Kevon Looney in the short roll. Christian Braun rotates to obstruct Looney’s path, but Looney simply uses his size advantage to get the ball in the hoop:

On another staple Warriors set called “Quick Touch” (the set through which they continuously coaxed Dončić to switch onto Curry the night before), Curry was the recipient of a “ghosted” Podziemski screen. Once again, Curry attracts two defenders to him around the ghosted screen — one that allows Podziemski to slip into space beyond the arc. The Nuggets — who shifted Jokić away from the action by having him “guard” Jimmy Butler — were spread too thin to rotate and close out toward Podziemski, who calmly drills the three:

Even when the Nuggets seemingly had Curry contained through Jokić screen-level step-ups, they fell victim to the natural inattention commonplace among teams who think they’ve successfully stopped Curry from doing something with the ball:

At times, the counter to Jokić’s screen-level step-ups was simply a matter of Curry being faster to turn the corner on Jokić. Even when he doesn’t make his shot attempts after blowing by Jokić, drawing Jokić up disallowed him to be in position to haul in the defensive rebound — making Looney’s job on the offensive boards easier:

Curry’s 36-point night on 71.1% True Shooting was the cherry on top of a three-game gauntlet against the Memphis Grizzlies, Lakers, and Nuggets — a test that the Warriors passed with flying colors. In those three games, Curry averaged:

• 41.7 points

• 5.0 rebounds

• 6.3 assists

All while shooting 53.3% on twos, 50% on threes, 96% on free throws, and 71.8% True Shooting.

Curry has been torching opponents with spryness that hasn’t been seen in a while — all while being 37-years old, considered significantly ancient in basketball years. He’s been starting wildfires that have been too hot for opponents to handle, and lighting the fire underneath his own team that has instilled a sense of urgency and pride that wasn’t present throughout the middle part of this season. Next to him, Green has been putting out fires on defense while being his usual fiery self. Suffice to say, this isn’t a combination teams would want to face in the playoffs.