Game 4 reaction: Warriors beat Kings, Steph's "timeout," Barnes miss at buzzer | Draymond Green Show

In this post‑game episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond breaks down the Warriors’ 126‑125 Game 4 win over the Sacramento Kings, dissecting key moments such as Steph Curry’s ill‑timed timeout, De’Aaron Fox’s clutch three, and Harrison Barnes’ missed shot. He offers a candid self‑assessment, admitting personal lapses (missing the outlet pass, not communicating the lack of timeouts, and defensive positioning) and explains his willingness to come off the bench, detailing his conversation with Coach Kerr about rotations and his leadership philosophy. Draymond emphasizes the importance of leading by example, staying emotion‑free in the playoffs, and maintaining physicality. He outlines the strategic focus for the upcoming Game 5 on the road, including stopping Keegan Murray and matching the Kings’ physicality. The episode also provides a rapid roundup of other NBA playoff series (Knicks, Suns, Heat, Sixers, Lakers) and features caller Q&A about battling Domantas Sabonis, rebounding, and game‑5 predictions. The tone is informal, candid, and confident, with moments of self‑critique and optimism.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show. We are fucking live on AMP after a huge Warriors win, series tied 2-2. 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 and 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. Yeah. 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 foul. They make the shot. De'Aaron Fox hits a 3, 4-point swing. We're up 1, 27 seconds to go. Before everybody jumps to say, "Oh man, Steph shouldn't have done this." That's on me. After you outlet the ball, someone has to trail the play. You have to trail the play because if all else fails and a 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 diddy-doo on up the floor as if the game was over, running with my back turned. 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 timeouts left. And you know, I didn't do that. And so everyone didn't know that we didn't have any timeouts left. That's on me because I knew right away, soon as we took the timeout and challenged the call, I knew that was our last timeout. We lost it. I should be telling everyone in the huddle, We don't have timeouts. Coming outta the huddle, guys, we don't have timeouts. So that's on me. And then Steph had the ball with, you know, 27 seconds left in starting and it's a 3-second shot clock and game clock difference. And he shot it early. Also on me because you just leave him kind of under pressure up there and— Yeah. After you call that timeout, which I've done before, you're rattled. You're a little rattled and not rattled in the 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 Steph 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, handle the pressure and go do what he does. But in that situation, I also didn't wanna bring a second guy and he get trapped. We possibly turn the ball over. So you just kind of let him do what he do. And 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, Steph had 32, 5, and 4. And helped us win this and led us to a win. So let's, that's the train I'm rolling on. 5 for 11 from 3. That was huge. Klay also had a big game, 26 from Klay. 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 missed layups. Let's talk about that. So I knew coming into this game, my 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 and-one and they were trying to make a run and he just kept breaking their run. He obviously finished with 22 points, but like 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 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 gonna continue to help this team grow. Uh, 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 to switch 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 steady diet of anything. Eventually, great guys, great players like that, when you give them a steady diet of anything, they figure it out. And so I thought the adjustment to switch it up on him a little bit there. It was great by coach and I thought it played dividends. Obviously Fox had it on that last play. Me and Steph switched, I went back to trap and he kicked it to Harrison Barnes who missed the 3. Number 1, clutch player of the year. We know what Fox does in that situation. So most importantly, you can't let him beat you there, which was my mindset. He got the ball, he's looking to make his move. Try to get the ball out his hands because you don't just win Clutch 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. 'Cause 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." Like it almost caught 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 wanna stay there, obviously I have the resume that I have. I've helped win 4 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 worked. Well, Loon comes out the starting lineup. 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 wanna play 4 guards. And great, very simple answer. Come off the floor. Looney just had 20 rebounds, 9 assists, dominated the game. You don't then go to him and say, "Hey, your reward is to come outta the starting 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 the thing." I think one of the reasons Coach was caught off guard and thrown back, or taken back is because he hadn't watched the 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, you know, any fan would do. I watched that game locked 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 you, 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 it was made of, oh man, it was Draymond's decision. I don't make decisions. Coach Kerr and the coaching staff makes decision. I just give suggestions. Those suggestions are, those suggestions are very well heard because again, of the 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 doing. But you haven't come off the bench in 9 years. How are you in a playoff game? How are you gonna 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. I don't, 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 outta the starting 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, and so, 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 gonna watch your energy when it's announced to the team. They're gonna watch how you're reacting than 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 my, I was upbeat, my demeanor, my aura, that I brought positive energy to the gym. But I thought that it was extremely important that my, that I led by example with my energy and, you know, getting involved with the game plan. And if I seen 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. Yeah. And winning championships. However you get there, however that's— I got benched in the NBA Finals last year during the game. Taken outta the game, benched, subbed in offense, defense. Think I care? Of course not. I don't care. Like, I wanna 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. I said, "Get up off the floor, bro." It's what it is, get up off the floor. And we went back and forth, we had a little jawing. 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 outta 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 gonna be Draymond forever. And ain't nothing changing that. Not a suspension, not a tech. It don't, 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. Yeah. It is what it is. I wouldn't say no hard feelings because 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. We're up 5 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. 'Cause 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 Fox get off a 3. And I have to force him to drive and make him play in the crowd in that situation. You're up 4, you have to force him inside the 3 and then get a contest, live with the results as long as you're not giving up a 3. I screwed that up. So now I gave up a 3. 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 Sac 2-2 on Wednesday, looking to get a road win. It's very important. We gotta win 1 or 2 on the road. Whether it's game 5, you prefer it be game 5 so there is no game 7, but you get 4 opportunities to win 1 on the road. No one said which one it had to be. You just have to get 1. So be looking forward to that. And you know, I think, 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 of keeping Keegan Murray outta 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 gonna 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 get game 5. Before we get out of here, obviously, you know, we'll take some questions, but just a couple updates. Knicks take a 3-1 lead over the Cavaliers. Cavaliers have been really struggling to score the basketball in this series. Tom Thibodeau defense, it's always been beautiful thing to watch. And as a defensive guy, I can always appreciate, like one thing you gonna know is Tom Thibodeau 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 whoo, I hope the NYPD have 10,000 officers ready to work the streets of New York if the Knicks close this series out. 'Cause whoo. 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 y'all ready and maybe need to call in the National Guard that day because them Knicks fans gonna go crazy if they win that series. The Suns took a 3-1 lead over the Clippers without Kawhi, number one, I'm not gonna say shout out to Russell Westbrook 'cause 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 to 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 Kawhi. 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 Kawhi and PG, you just don't have enough. And it's unfortunate to see Kawhi 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 gonna 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 5. You always wanna see guys have the opportunity to play on the biggest stage. He was dominating that series. But D-Book has been dominating. 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 4, 3-1, game 3, the game where he had 45, one of the most, and like 7 assists or whatever he had. One of the most impressive, what, the most impressive thing about that game He had zero turnovers. You know how much you gotta have the ball? Zero turnovers? You were precise with every decision? D-Book playing some great basketball and I hope you all see the growth. The Heat are up 2-1. No Giannis in the last two games. And Jimmy's doing what Jimmy does this time of year. Send my love. 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. And so you see this patella 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 wanna 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 has done what they needed to do. They got an opportunity to go up 3-1 at home. I expect Giannis probably will play. If he doesn't play, I mean, If Giannis doesn't play this game, I expect he'll probably need a surgery or something because Giannis, we all, Giannis play hard in All-Star games, man. So, I, you know, fingers crossed, all is good with Giannis. And then as we know, the Sixers closed out the series versus the Nets with no Embiid. 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? I said, listen, let's not do the MB's hurt thing and like already dim the series from what it is. Yes, we hope Joel 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 95%. No one's 90% healthy. At best, maybe 85. At this point in the 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 Joel back out there, MVP. You wanna 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 this long ass season and then getting to the end, being healthy, that's a part of it. We lost an NBA Finals because we didn't make it to the end. KD got hurt, Klay got hurt, that is a part of it. But guess what? Nobody wanna 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 that Joe can 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 gonna 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 off to a very fast start and the Grizzlies were playing uphill the entire game. And Lakers are doing what some expected. They're up 2-1, gotta 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 not so good game in game 2. He had a huge game 3, was aggressive as hell. And that's a tough Anthony, tough, excuse me, 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 Grizzlies will tie it up 2-2. Draymond Green had a really big game and you applaud it, but it's gonna be very important that he also get other guys involved going into that next game and unlock his guys. So we'll see what happens there. But before we get out of here, like I said, I'm gonna toss it to Jackson so we can get a couple questions from the callers. Jackson, who you got for me?
We're gonna take a couple questions. Folks in the, in the AMP app, hop in. I will accept a few callers. It's gonna be just like last time, limiting to just a question, and then I'm gonna, gonna boot you. But we appreciate anyone who wants to hop in. All right, we got our first caller. @ChettyDavis. Invite is sent. Accept the invite and don't forget to unmute your mic.
Draymond Green, 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 like, 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 he, 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 with 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 I, you know, I love it. Draymond Green.
Perfect. Next one, we're gonna go at Prince from NY. Let's— maybe we'll get some Knicks talk. Let's see what we got here. At Prince from NY, accept the invite, join the call. Don't forget to unmute your mic.
Hey, what's up, Draymond Green?
What's up, Prince?
Yes. Uh, what's up? Uh, what'd you think, uh, you guys could have like 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 the basketball. They really rebounded the 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 3 to Fox. You have to get him inside the 3-point line or make him just take a heave because he's so hell-bent on getting the 3 off. But I kind of backed up a little bit and tried to use my length. I can't give that up. I think if I don't give that 3 up, we close the game out pretty well, even in spite of the timeout.
At Woozy. Invite sent. Don't forget to join the call and unmute your mic.
Get a little woozy.
How was good, Draymond?
What's going on?
So now the series is tied. How do you think things will go down with the, I guess they call it the pivotal Game 5? Do you think it'll go 7 if Sac wins or do you think you guys will close it out in Game 6 if you guys win?
I mean, I have no intentions on playing a 7-game. So I think 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 road win. You never, you know, you never want to get too far ahead of yourself and start talking about game 6 and or 7. So you just take it one game at a time and we're going to take this one and try to go, you know, take game 5 on their home floor. You know, that's the most important thing in the series right now. And then if you go take game 5, you definitely don't want to have to go win again there. And so you wanna try to do all you can to close it out in 6, 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 5. 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. Make sure y'all tap into that and let's hope and make sure we do all that we can to make sure when we back it's 3-2. It will be 3-2. 3-2 in Dub's 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 just tapping in, this will be up on all the platforms pretty soon. Till next time, peace. What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward.
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