Reaction to "s*****" loss to Timberwolves & LeBron's return to Lakers | Draymond Green Show

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I mean, I think we should get right into this episode. As you can see, I'm not really too excited about this episode. Um, coming off the heels of a shitty loss last night, uh, where we probably should have won that game pretty easily, and it just didn't happen that way. Obviously, I had a turnover late down the stretch that led to a 3, which ultimately ended up being the basket to give them the lead and eventually win the game. Just got to be better with the ball in that situation and understand who it is that's closing out to me. Kyle Anderson has very, very, very long arms. He's great in the passing lane. And so probably the old fake a pass to make a pass gets us there. In saying that, I'm not really one to make much of one play. And say that's why we lost the game because there are a ton of plays throughout the course of a game that I feel like even me personally could have done better that can change the outcome of a game. But you know, in a situation like that, it's very natural to feel like, "Oh man, I cost us the game with that play," or, "Oh man, someone else cost the game with a play that may happen at the end of a game." And the reality is, It's not quite the case, but as an athlete, you shoulder that burden. And so in saying that, pretty rough night. I also, you know, I think I took probably 3 or 4 elbows to the face last night, 2 or 3 elbows to the shoulder areas last night. So just a little beat up.

Yeah.

Which is more so why my energy is kind of bad. Like just hurt, neck tight. But in saying that, have a day to get ready for tomorrow, which is a very big game. The Pelicans, who's right also right in that logjam in the standings coming into Chase Center. They just came off the heels, they're on the heels of a great win against the Clippers a couple days ago in LA. And they won that one pretty handily, dominated the whole game. Brandon Ingram had his first career triple-double. CJ had a really good game. Trey Murphy, career-high in threes, had 10 threes. So it'll be a tough game. And you know Willie Green is gonna have those guys coming in ready to play. And you know, I think for us, you know, human nature, you're pissed off. You're pissed off about what happened last night. And you kind of want to get back out on the court as fast as you can. So that's kind of where my mindset is. It's just to get back to the drawing board, get back on the floor, correct the things that we know we can correct, correct the things that I personally know I can correct, and go out and get a win. I think we're still in pretty good position, although, you know, to get right up there, 4 seed, 5 seed is a very realistic thing. I think— you know, wasted opportunity last night. But in saying that, there's more opportunities and you gotta go take advantage of those that you're supposed to win, as I've said before, and take a couple of those that you're maybe not supposed to win. So that is the goal. And looking forward, I thought, you know, in last night's game, Timberwolves beat us 99 to 96. Having GP back, number one, just to see GP back out there on the floor with us was great. I think, you know, with that comes like rotations and, you know, figuring out the pieces and what rotations, what lineups is best together when adding GP back in the fold. And, you know, that'll take a few games to figure out. Always feels a little better. Always feels a little better when you can figure those things out in the wind. And quite frankly, like I said, we should have been doing that, but that's not the case. Just get back to the drawing board, continue to figure those things out. And you know, they'll all come together. I think for us, you know, winning 2 road games is huge. And then coming home and losing this one is a little frustrating, but I don't look at it like, oh man, like it's a setback. Like, no, we played well enough to win. Some unfortunate plays down the stretch, including my turnover that, you know, just didn't go our way and we weren't able to pull the game off. But I don't necessarily look at it as a setback. Like, oh man, we went out there and we didn't, we didn't do this well or we didn't do that well or we got totally away from what's been working for us. I don't think that was the case here. I just think, you know, they made some plays down the stretch, we didn't make plays down the stretch and that's what it boils down to in this league sometimes is that you just gotta make those winning plays down the stretch. And I thought for the most part we did a good job. But like I said, it's a couple plays. That if you could take back, you would. And one big one being my turnover. So that's where we are with the dubs. You know, it's important that we close out this homestand very well. I think, you know, it'll be really, really, really, you know, we got two more games on this homestand. We got New Orleans and then we got San Antonio on Friday. Two very winnable games. You win those two games, you're going on the road against Denver, who's a team that we know is playing Not their best basketball of the season, although they had a really big win over Milwaukee a couple days ago. But we also know what that team is capable of. And I think it'll be a good test for us, you know, to go in there and try to get a win. And I have no doubt in my mind that we can do that. But before we get ahead of ourselves, it's important that we take care of these two games at home first. We are currently in 6th place in the West, which, which if the season ended today allows us to avoid the playing game and we would meet Sacramento in the first round of the playoffs. Quite frankly, I'm not upset if the standings shook out how they did today and we met Sacramento in the first round. Not because I think Sacramento is a weak team, because the travel is so much easier. If you think about our road to winning the championship last year, It started with Denver, which is a 2-hour flight into the altitude, which makes everything tough. I'm not sure for those out there who've actually trained in altitude or have worked in altitude or had to, you know, play in altitude, it's totally different beast. Totally different beast. So that was the start of our playoff run. And then from there we went to Memphis, which is a 4.5— 4.5-hour flight. Almost 5-hour flight for a second round contest seems a bit much, quite frankly, which is why I think that, which is another, a much larger topic is like realigning these conferences. Like the fact that the Memphis Grizzlies is in the Western Conference geographically just makes zero sense. Obviously they came from Vancouver and it made a ton more sense in Vancouver, but geographically Memphis Grizzlies is an Eastern Conference team. Like, they're— we had a back-to-back in Memphis and Atlanta. It was a 45-minute flight. That is the only place we can fly and get to in 45 minutes in the Western Conference. Yeah. It's Sacramento and we don't fly, we bus. So the fact that that is a Western Conference team is a whole nother story. But, and back to what I was saying, our second round was a 4-hour, a 4.5, 4-hour 45-minute flight to Memphis and back. Then it was a 4-hour flight to Dallas and back, the conference finals. And then a dreadful 6-hour and 15-minute flight to Boston and back and back again, back again. I said all of that to say, the reason why I said Zach is simply just because of the travel. Like that's a lot on your body. And if we could bus ride an hour and 10 minutes up the way, like I just think that's much better for us. Now Zach is playing well and— Yeah. Very good team. But just from the travel, at the end of the day, I don't really care who we play in the playoffs. I think we can win and I think we've proven that. So I don't necessarily look at it like, oh, this matchup is better. I'll get onto all that. I'm strictly talking about the location, the travel and what and how that plays out and how that affects you as you go on as well. Like fatigue plays a part in this as well. You think about winning an NBA championship, you play an extra 2 months. You can cut down on some of that travel, who knows where it may pay off in the end. So that's why I like that. Also not mad at a 4 or 5 if we were able to get there and the Clippers are there. Short flight, 55-minute flight to LA. That's not all bad either. Phoenix, hour and 25, 30-minute flight. That's not all bad either. So—

Yeah.

When I look at the standings, you know, if we're somewhere in there, great. But like I said, we definitely wanna avoid the play-in, and right now we are. LeBron returned to the Lakers, and he said he went to see the LeBron James of feet. I think that is absolutely hilarious. Pat yourself on the back, why don't you, Bron? He's pretty much saying, I went to see the best guy in the world for feet. I think that's great that LeBron is back ahead of schedule. Obviously the league is always better with its stars. The league is always a better place with LeBron James active. In his first return, came off the bench. I also thought was hilarious that he still did the powder toss. Those are flexes. Like the LeBron James defeat, the powder toss, him coming off the bench. Like them like the ultimate like flexes. And I can respect a good flex. So in saying that, like I said, the Lakers lost their first game back. What does that do to their chances in the West? They're still right there. They're still right there in the play-in game. You know, a lot of teams don't want to see the Lakers in the play-in game, but they're still right there. They can still, they have. Yeah. The easiest schedule headed into the playoffs remaining of any team. They lost to the Chicago Bulls last night at home and their next game will be in Chicago versus the Chicago Bulls. Now let's talk about this a little bit. Patrick Beverley, when he was traded, said right away that his only goal was to make sure that the Lakers did not make the playoffs. They went into LA yesterday and smacked the Lakers. Would that stop the Lakers from ultimately getting in the playoffs? I don't know. It would help a lot in his case if they can win the game in Chicago coming up. But I thought that was hilarious. I didn't get a chance to watch the full game because I was preparing for our game nap and than get preparing to leave and head in as we had a 5:30 game. But I would've loved to watch that game because I know Pat Bev was in full character, like picking with people. I saw him doing the one clip where he's saying they stink. I actually, I watched him, I watched live him driving to the paint looking for a passing angle, didn't have one, spin back and shoot the, baby jump hook slash floater over Bron and then say he's too small. Hilarious. Hilarious. Number one, I'm not really sure that was the move he was going to. And just to say somebody's too small, it's not really the move you were going to. I just think it's funny in itself. And saying that, he backed it all up. Like they went in, they won the game. And they're right there. They're on the verge of doing what Patrick Beverley said he wants to do now and saying that, like I said, they don't have total control over that, but they could put a huge damper in it with a win in Chicago. I think in looking at, I think I was told that Chicago Bulls are 10-5 since Patrick Beverley has been playing. And quite frankly, I think that's the perfect situation for Patrick Beverley to be in as he's proven over and over again where you have a team kind of on the cusp and he come in, plays with high energy, get guys going and get that team into the playoffs. Very fitting situation in Chicago, back at home. The antics yesterday I thought were absolutely hilarious. And I think it makes for good basketball. I think it makes for good TV. I think it makes for good commentary. So I'm here for it. I'm here for it.. And you know, we'll see how this next game plays out. It's important games for the Bulls as they can move up in their play-in standings. And obviously it's important, important game for the Lakers as you don't want to lose two back-to-back at this point in the season, especially with where they are in the standings. So we'll see how that plays out. And moving on to the least important basketball going on in the world right now, that is the NCAA tournament. I'm not I'm not sure who's excited about watching this tournament anymore. Quite frankly, I have not watched an NCAA tournament game since last weekend and Michigan State lost because why? Like, who wants to see these teams play? Quite frankly, I don't. It'll, like, I'm just not excited about it. Like, all the teams that we thought we were gonna be watching, we're not. And it sucks. And the Cinderella stuff and all of that is great, but like you wanna see the guys play you wanna see play, and you wanna see the coaches go against each other that you wanna see, and like all of that stuff, and we're just not getting that. Also very frustrated because it seems as if Michigan State could have walked to a Final Four and possibly a championship, and we blew it. And so I'm pretty pissed off. I'm not, I haven't looked at my bracket and 2 weeks because who cares? It's awful. I'm over it. It's ridiculous. And saying that, congratulations to Miami, San Diego State, UConn, and Florida Atlantic University on making the Final Four. As someone who's played in the Final Fours, I know how incredible that feeling is. And it's great. If I had to cheer for one of these teams, I'm cheering for the U. Why am I cheering for the U? Shout out to Coach Larry Nega. Coach Larry Nega. Coach Larry Nega. Is absolutely amazing. When guys are in Miami, which you know is a very frequented, visited place for anyone, but especially athletes in the summertime, he opens their gym up to us, allows us to work out. And I can't thank Coach Larranega enough. So I am 100% rooting for the U, Miami Hurricanes. Hope those fellas go out there and get it done. I would love to see Coach Larranaga, all the years that he's put into this business, to get his first championship. I think it's very overdue. I think it's very fitting. And I think they arguably have the best team left. Now UConn is really good and they're getting to it. But though, in my opinion, those are the two best teams left in the field. And I would love to walk into the U this summer, whenever I'm in Miami, going down there for a workout and see a big national championship sign. So— Yeah. Coach Larranega, good luck to you and your guys. Jack McClendon, the legend. See, he been rooting for his Canes, so definitely wanna see them get that done. Until next time, that's a wrap from the Draymond Green Show. Peace.

What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green.

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