Draymond Green breaks down the Warriors' approach to a chaotic Western Conference playoff race where seeds 3-8 are bunched together. The focus isn't on landing a specific seed but winning every remaining game against Phoenix, the Spurs, Portland, and the Clippers. Green recalls the Warriors missing the playoffs with 46 wins in a past season, showing how tight the margin is.
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Let's move around the league a little bit. The 4-8 race in the West for the final spots in the West is crazy. Really, 3-8.
Right.
Have you ever seen a race this tight between those spots?
Man, it's crazy. You know, there have been races like this. I feel like some of it was last year or the year before, but this one right here is way different 'cause It's gonna be all about the matchups.
Mm-hmm.
It's all about the matchups. And this first round of matchups is anybody can be beat. Like the talent you get from, you know, 4 through 8, right? And what they're fighting for that 4 or 3 through 8, all of these teams have, have, have been in 3 at some point or 2 at some point of the season, right? Or 4 at some point of the season. So, You got a lot of teams that are deserving of home court advantage. You got a lot of teams that play well with home court advantage. You have a lot of teams that play better on the road versus certain teams. So this race is gonna be crazy because when the match, when the matchups turn out, then it's like you don't even have time to figure out, like I remember when we were fighting to get in the playoffs for We Believe,— it was all predicated on what Dallas did. So they can take a night off and say, oh, we'll lose this game because we want to play the Warriors. Right now, can't nobody— you can't position yourself and say, oh, I want to be 6 or 2 so I can get Houston, or I want to get a matchup with Minnesota. You can't afford to take no luxuries because you could fall to 9.
Mm-hmm. Yes, you can. Right.
Yes, you can be playing. And you may have to play your way in. So you want to be a part of that, that core 6. This last week of the season is gonna be some beautiful basketball to watch 'cause people gonna really be putting everything they have on the line.
I think this remind me of that year, I can't remember the exact year, I think maybe like, Mid-2000s when KG was in Minnesota, they were the 8 seed. And I think they won like maybe 48 games or something like that and was the 8 seed, right?
That's what happened to us when we didn't make it. Yeah.
And you know, like last year I think we won 46 games and ultimately didn't make the playoffs, you know? And so this reminds me of a year like that, you know, where— Right. —there'll probably be teams with equal amount. Like, it'll come down to tiebreakers.
Yes.
Highly likely.
Probably.
Season will come down to tiebreakers.
For sure.
And so it's crazy. But I was like, I was in the cold tub today, and I was looking at Houston's, the remaining of their schedule. They play at the Lakers, at the Clippers, home versus Denver for their last game. And I said, "Man, what do the NBA know that they got this schedule?" Like, how did this happen?
And they got a crack in that schedule.
It's crazy.
Like, you look at the 4 games we had, we just had where it was like Memphis. It was up.
Lakers, Denver, Houston. Like, how did they nail this? Us versus the Clippers the last game of the season.
Like, it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.
How it all worked out, man. But—
Storylines, baby.
Absolutely.
AD back storyline, game winner, fighting for the championship. For a play-in position, you know, like it's cracking right now. Basketball is cracking.
Yes it is. Shout out to the NBA.
You doing it again. Shout out to the NBA. What is the team thinking? You know, how are you looking at this week? What does this last week of the season mean to you?
Well, like, you know, obviously we are in prime position to not only get in the playoffs, but, we could, we could possibly be the 3rd or 4th seed, like possibly get a home court series to start the playoffs, which a week and a half ago wasn't even a realistic goal.
Facts.
But things happened. Memphis lost some games, Denver lost some games, Lakers lost a couple games, and, and you know, that's a realistic thing now. And so I think that's the focus. And the focus isn't like, we're not like, yo, let's get the 4, let's get the 3. We're just like, yo, let's win every game.
Right.
Like control what we can control. What we can control is winning every game. Right. And so that's the focus, man. Going into Phoenix, they coming off a long road trip. You know, they've lost quite a few in a row. You know, like we wanna, when a team is down, you gotta step on 'em. You know what I'm saying? You don't wanna give that team life. And so that's gotta be the goal there. The Spurs, that's gotta be the goal. Like you gotta, you supposed to, you gotta win the games that you supposed to win. We supposed to win that game. You gotta take care of business. You go to the Blazers, they playing a lot better basketball as of late, you know, but that's a game that we supposed to win. You just gotta go win the games you supposed to win. And then the Clippers.
It could wind up being y'all and the Clippers. I said that, remember I said that, the Clippers, it could wind up being y'all and the Clippers. So that could be a good snapshot of what you could see in the Western Conference Finals, the way both teams is playing, 1,000%.
And so, you know, we gotta, that's a game they coming into our place and a game that's gonna mean something for sure.
Right.
You know, and we gotta take care of business. So, I got 4 games that, you know, not easy games, but no game in the NBA is ever easy, but—
Power through.
4 games that we buckle down and go get.
Yeah, that's the goal. Power through. Power through. I'm gonna show up at that Clipper game for sure, for sure. I gotta be at that game. That's gonna be a super important game, especially the last one of the season. I'm looking forward. To that one. I will be in the building.
Then we could check Meski out.
Yes, let's get some Meski. Let's check Meski out. Celebrate the season.
