NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. WARRIORS

June 4, 2022

Draymond Green

Golden State Warriors

Practice Day

Q. What did you see over the past couple of days? You wanted to look at some film. They got a lot of threes, they had a lot of assists on a lot of buckets. What's the answer to what Boston had?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think we have to play with more force on the defensive end. I think there were times in the game when they didn't feel us, when you're playing against a great team at this level at this point in the season, they have to feel you every possession.

There were times they didn't, and then once you get into a rhythm, due to them not feeling our pressure, then it's tough to stop. It's easy to go back and look at the shots in the fourth quarter and be like, man, they started hitting, but the reality is some guys got comfortable early in that game, and once you get a guy comfortable, it's hard to break that rhythm.

So we just have to make sure they feel us every possession.

Q. Over the years you've always been self-accountable whenever you feel like you're not playing up to your standards. I was wondering why you think that's important, and what's that done for you after that next game?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think accountability in life is important in anything, not just basketball. As a leader, one thing I hate is leaders who, when everything is good, it's all them. They're doing it all. They're making everything happen. And when stuff hits the fan, it's everybody else's fault.

As I've said before, we call those frontrunners, and we don't do that. We take it on the chin. That's what I've always been taught my entire life, and for me, I understand that ultimately, if I play well, we win. And if I don't, we still can, but if I do, we win. So that falls on me.

Like I said, you have to accept your role in things and have some accountability, or none of this works. Nobody's accountable -- if I can't hold myself accountable, I can't hold Jordan Poole accountable. I can't hold anyone else, for that matter, accountable if I can't look in the mirror and hold myself accountable.

Q. You tweeted some of this stuff that you've been hearing, some of the noise out there. I'm just curious, after a loss like that, what is it like to be on Twitter, and at this point in your career, obviously, three championships, I'm sure it doesn't affect you that much, but what does go through your mind when you hear all that stuff?

DRAYMOND GREEN: To be honest with you, I don't really read my Twitter, so I was just saying stuff that I know people would say. I don't really read people's tweets. If I'm going to tweet, sometimes you may go to Twitter and see a couple things, but I didn't read anything. I just know how people are. I know what trolls do, and those are the things that they would say.

It's like, oh, man, you tweeted. You should be watching film for 24 hours. Or like, you know, you tweeted, you should be in the gym shooting for 24 hours because that's incredible for your body, like people just -- but that's what happens. You give people a voice and a platform to speak, and they really don't know what they're talking about. So, like in their mind, it's like you should be in the gym shooting 24 hours. Then where would my legs be to shoot in 24 hours? It don't work that way.

So I was just kind of poking fun at the trolls because I knew what they would say, not so much that I saw what they were saying. But they're pretty -- same response, seen them all. Just you're going to get the same stuff over and over. It's no different than -- I mean, they'll say that in Game 3 of the season, let alone Game 1 of the Finals.

You know, it's cool, but I don't really see it.

Q. You talked a little bit earlier about just when you play well, you guys typically win. When you look at this Celtics series and you look at the things that you bring to the table -- because you bring a multitude of things to the table. What are some of the things you have to amplify with your game to be successful and position the Warriors, to put them in the best position to win?

DRAYMOND GREEN: At this point in the year, you have to amplify everything. Defense has to be better. You've got to play defense to the best of your ability. You have to shoot the ball well. You've got to not turn the ball over, not make mental mistakes, like you've got to tie it all together. It's not just one specific thing. You have to -- the great ones raise their level of play at this stage.

So I just -- it's not that it's one particular thing for me because I would never judge myself -- like, oh, man, I played great defense, I had a great game, but what about everything else I'm supposed to do? I shot the ball well. That was great. It's a multitude of things. It's not just one thing to where I'm going to ever judge myself off of.

Now, I think there are some people that may judge themselves off one category, and understandably so, if that's what you bring to a team, but that's not the case for me. So it's the overall package and just completely raising my level of play a couple more notches.

Q. You guys faced the Celtics when they were near their bottom back in December. You caught them again when they were peaking in March, and now you have them here. I'm wondering if you remember anything about the way they were playing in December and kind of how much different they are from that team right now.

DRAYMOND GREEN: I think they're just more sure. I think their lineups are more solidified. They know what they're going to. They're just more sure of themselves. You know, they've had time to put it all together.

You see them in December, it's a new coach, a couple new guys on the team. They made some trades. Derrick White is a huge piece of that. He came in on the trade. Theis, who's been huge for them all playoffs, came in on the trade.

So they made some adjustments to their roster, but most importantly, I think they just found an identity as a team. In December everyone's still looking, unless you're a team that you won a championship, you're coming back, and you kind of know what it takes, you know who you are. But for the most part, in December everybody's still trying to find their identity, as we were.

So I think the big difference is now they know who they are, they know what they're trying to get to, they know what makes them successful.

Q. Draymond, I remember back in Vegas during the Olympic run you guys lost a couple games and the sky was falling. Then you go to Tokyo and you lose the first game, and the sky was falling. Why does noise still exist? You guys even said Thursday night -- yes, it was an important game, and being down 0-1 is obviously not optimal, but why does noise exist after one game, do you think?

DRAYMOND GREEN: It's the world we live in -- clickbait headlines, who can get the most views, who can say the most outlandish thing. That's just the world we live in. That's what makes this sport what it is, though. That's what makes the revenue in this what they are. It's all a part of the territory.

I think ultimately for us, you have to be able to block the noise out because the noise is going to be there. And it's so wishy-washy. We come out and win tomorrow, everything's back to normal. The Warriors are fine. They're going to go on the road. You know they can win a playoff game on the road.

It's so wishy-washy, so you can't ride that wave. You can't get caught up in who's saying what because the reality is, if you spend your time worried about that or trying to keep up with that, it's just wasted time. Like then you're an emotional wreck because it's just a roller coaster. It switches from day to day.

So there will always be noise, but there's only noise when you're great. There's only noise when someone wants to hear that noise. Nobody's talking about some of these teams that's at home that didn't make the playoffs; there is no noise. No one cares. So I think the noise is -- you know, as irritating as it can be at times for guys, it's ultimately what you want because that means you're in the position doing things where someone cares, where it creates noise. There's always noise trying to be created, but if that guy, that team doesn't matter, then it's all for nothing.

So ultimately, I think it's kind of a compliment.

Q. Draymond, you have so much responsibility defensively, especially on Tatum as a help guy. Is it easy to get so wrapped up in that that you forget to be aggressive offensively and you just kind of, not go through the motions, but you're not in an aggressive mindset on that end of the floor?

DRAYMOND GREEN: That's my role ultimately. It's not a matter of getting caught up in it. That's what I'm always going to do. I think -- you know, I came out much more aggressive than most times, and I just didn't make shots. A few of those shots go in, again, it's a totally different tune. Oh, man, he came out aggressive. He shot 12 shots, blah, blah, blah.

I'm not sure -- I don't think there's many games where I shot 12 shots or more. So the notion of being aggressive would be a thing if you go 2-for-12, but if I was 6-for-12, everybody say, oh, man, he came out more aggressive, and that's the Draymond the Warriors need. The fact that you're 2-for-12, it's just like, oh, you weren't aggressive.

I think I came out aggressive enough. I'll come out with that same aggression and just continue to shoot, and they'll fall. But Thursday they didn't go in, and that happens sometimes.