Reaction to Suns-Mavericks Game 7 blowout + Celtics beating Giannis & Bucks | Draymond Green Show

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. This is an exciting podcast as this is the first one we've done since clinching the second round and moving on to the conference finals. Extremely excited to be back in that position. It was a long 2 years of, and you know, actually the last 2 playoffs I've been kind of watching them like on vacation. And it's been great, it was cool, but I'd much rather be in this position. Like I got the rest of my life to watch basketball, playoff basketball from vacation. So, you know, this is, I think I have a much deeper appreciation for being in the conference finals this time than I did the previous times. You know, you kind of, in the midst of a 5-year run of every year going to the conference finals or every year going to the NBA Finals, you kind of just expect to get there and like you expect to win it. And you know, after 2 years of not being here and you know, experiencing that and then coming back, like it's just a totally different appreciation just for competing at this level. Like having, I saw something from Klay the other day where he said, I'm just like, Like, I like the pressure. You know, you love the opportunity to just compete at the highest level. And it's no higher level than the NBA playoffs and the conference finals and the finals. And so, man, I'm extremely excited to be in this position. And then as we know, as we now know, the Dallas Mavericks went into Phoenix and—

Draymond Green.

One. I actually expected the Dallas Mavericks to win this game. I also picked the Dallas Mavericks to win on the pod, as you all know. 40? That's tough. That's tough. I was shocked at the game plan going into the game for the Suns. And like they were still switching everything and Luka had been inviting those switches and he was calling, you know, start of the game, first play, he called DeAndre Ayton up and got him into the switch. He got to this little spin step back off the left foot, dirt. Yeah. And then the next play was a 3. And you just knew like, all right, you know, when you get to a Game 7, you already know, they know what we're trying to do, we know what they're trying to do. Who's gonna play harder? Who's gonna get the 50/50 balls? May the best man win. Who's gonna shoot best? Whose role player is gonna come up a little more? And Luka dominated the game early. And then the role players got going. They were actually missing shots early on. Jalen Brunson was missing early on. Dorian Finney-Smith was missing early on. Where the other guys started, actually got going, was when Spencer came into the game. Spencer came into the game, he really got it going, and then everyone else picked it up. And that was huge. Holding Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and DeAndre Ayton in the first half to 1 for 15 shooting, I think that's been one of the biggest improvements in the Dallas Mavericks team is their defense. And from the start of the season to now, they're a totally different team defensively. And I mean, as you can see, they held the Suns to 27 points in the first half. It's hard to find games in the NBA where a team has 27 points at the end of the first quarter. They had 27 at the end of the first half. I mean, that was an incredible display of dominance by Dallas. Incredible display. You know, you wanna point out like their defense was great and like 27 points, you wanna point out their offense was great and guys had it going. It was just an display of dominance. And Luka got going and the rest of the guys followed. And so, That I'm sure caught a lot of people off guard. Like I said, I thought they would win. Of course, I just didn't predict that they would win by 40, but the series outcome did not surprise me. It didn't surprise me. Celtics-Bucks, Jason Tatum. The way Jason Tatum took over game 6 was absolutely— Incredible. Amazing. And I'm just saying, I had people telling me, Draymond, you need to get off the podcast. Stop doing the podcast during the playoffs, blah, blah, blah. And what they weren't paying attention to was me saying, hey, that's not Marcus Smart's fault they lost that game. That's JT's fault they lost that game. And I'm putting that on the young fella. And what did the young fella do? He went and made it right. He went to Milwaukee and got 46-9. Make it right, JT. Make it right then. And shout out to the people that say, "Oh, Draymond, you shouldn't be doing a podcast. You should focus." I look forward to the day when they reach out, when they tell Elon Musk, and I'm sure they do. When they tell Elon Musk, "Tesla stock is doing bad. You better not focus on SpaceX at all." You know, no one does that. You know, no one was, you know, no one thinks Jack Dorsey was running Twitter and Square, two multi-billion dollar companies. No one says Jack Dorsey can't run two because the other one's having a bad day on the stock market. But yet they want me to not talk about Jayson Tatum and do this podcast and play basketball. Stop it. The podcast is not going anywhere. So for those out there that say, Oh, Draymond should stop doing the podcast. Welcome to the Draymond Green Show. It's not going anywhere. Jason Tatum was absolutely incredible. He got in foul trouble in this game, in this Game 7. But the way his imprint on the game from the very beginning on both ends of the floor, that once he went down with foul trouble, he had those guys rolling. He had them locked in, confident, and they kept it rolling. And Milwaukee was not able to take advantage of Jason Tatum picking up his 4th foul. And that's really where—

4th foul.

The Celtics won the game. Because if you're Milwaukee, you really have to capitalize on Jason Tatum picking up that foul. And they did not, because not only did it take their best offensive player off the floor, but it took one of their better defenders off the floor as well. And they just weren't able to capitalize on it. And as this series, I mean, really all series long, but especially as the series progressed, you realize how much the Milwaukee Bucks was missing Chris Middleton. And that's, you know, Chris Middleton, Giannis averages the most points, obviously. But Chris Middleton is their number one option when it comes to scoring, when it comes to running sets, when it comes to all those things, when it comes to time to get a bucket. Chris Middleton is their number one option on the offensive end. And so for them to be missing him against such a great defense like Boston, kudos and congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks for even taking that series 7. But the absence of Chris was just too, too big to overcome. And they felt that. And obviously we're watching the Celtics move on. Not saying that the Celtics couldn't have moved on if Chris Middleton wasn't, was there, but the Bucks definitely felt that. And I thought it was pretty impressive for both teams to go on the road and win 2 games. Yeah. That's just tough to do in any playoffs. And for both of those teams to do that, I thought that was impressive. Marcus Smart continues to play well. Al Horford continues to play well. But Grant Williams, I know the analytic guys were, I mean, I know they were in heaven watching Grant Williams play today. At one point Grant Williams was 7 for 15 from 3. He was, no, I'm sorry. At one point he was 6 for 15 from 3. I think he had 21 points. And for an analytical guy, that is heaven. That's heaven. That's like, we got this guy to take 15 threes. He has 21 points. Those analytics are off the chart. Now Grant Williams continued to shoot that thing and he continued to shoot that thing well. And he finished with a playoff career high 27 points. That is the difference between home and away. That's the difference. Your role players at home as opposed on the road. Grant Williams didn't play very well in Milwaukee, but at home, come out firing, loose, nothing to lose, crowd on your side, and Grant Williams got it going. Grant Williams made himself a lot of money in that game right there. Now obviously he has another year and you know, the business of basketball, but Grant, the way he shot the basketball the way he defends, the size that he has, like he shot the ball all season long very well. So I'm not taking anything away from that. But when you go on that stage in Game 7 to get to the Eastern Conference Finals and you do that, that means a little more. And Grant Williams showed up in a major, major way for the Celtics. Jalen Brown, the way Jalen Brown was attacking from the very beginning of the game, putting those guys on his heels. Also another reason, another way you see— Draymond Green. That they miss Chris Middleton because as opposed to that being Grayson Allen who had no chance, that's Chris Middleton who does have a chance, who's a good defender. And so again, you see the loss of Chris Middleton and how that was just, it was too much for the Bucks to overcome. You got the Heat-Celtics coming up in the Eastern Conference Finals. That's gonna be a tough matchup. I'm taking the Celtics. The reason I'm taking the Celtics is because Jason Tatum's gonna be Jason Tatum. Jaylen Brown's gonna be Jaylen Brown. And their defense is gonna be their defense. And I think Milwaukee, I mean, I think Miami, who depends on Tyler Herro to score a lot, I think Tyler Herro will have some trouble against all of Boston's length. Jimmy Butler will do what Jimmy Butler does. But I think the way they depend on Tyler Herro scoring, and how much length. I think Tyler Herro, Tyler Herro definitely has some good games in this series. I'm not saying they're gonna completely take him outta the series. He's a good player, but I think over the course of a 7-game series, that length is going to bother him and they really depend on that scoring. PJ Tucker in this series and Miami having PJ Tucker this year does help and, and, and, and could possibly change that series. Also another thing that changes that series is will Kyle Lowry be available or not? I think that's a really big deal when you're facing a good team, a good defense, because Kyle Lowry can help manipulate the defense. And so that's gonna be a big deal as well. But ultimately, I got the Bucks winning that one and ultimately moving on to the NBA Finals to play the Dubs. Jackson, before we get outta here, given my picks, my thoughts, I know you're happy your Boston Celtics is going to the Eastern Conference Finals. That is a big part of this podcast that we have not discussed in the energy is Jackson been sitting here smiling on this screen this entire press conference because the Celtics won. But Jackson, I don't know, you got something to say about the Celtics, man.

Hey, I'm just happy we won. I'm just happy we won and I'm hoping that in whatever it is, 10 days, 12 days, something like that, that we're staring down the barrel of a Celtics-Warriors Finals.

That sounds great, man. I'm looking forward to that. Hey, hey, my, uh, JT, remember I told y'all how Jackson was just talking about y'all in the last pod and how upset the fans get and now he can't stop smiling?

Yeah.

Looking at the finals. You see how these fans be, man? Uh, Jackson, you got a couple mailbag questions for us before we get out of here?

I do. This was not an officially submitted mailbag question to the Draymond Green Show. And by the way, a reminder to submit your questions on Twitter, hashtag the Draymond Green Show. This was a good question that I thought in the spirit of the Celtics winning, from Jeff Goodman, @JeffGoodman, the college basketball reporter. He said, where does Tatum rank in terms of the most, quote, complete players in the NBA? Because he said Giannis doesn't have a consistent 3-point jump shot. Luka doesn't defend with consistency. He did not mention Kevin Durant, but that is a fair question. Where does Tatum rank in terms of the most complete players in the NBA?

Jeff, what's up, my man? I think Jeff may owe me dinner for a bet about something with college basketball. I don't know. Maybe I owe Jeff dinner. I think it's possible I may owe Jeff dinner. Jeff, what's up? Jeff, next time, hashtag the Draymond Green Show. But because you are Jeff Goodman and because you are my guy, we still found a question. Shout out to Jackson. Where does Tatum rank amongst complete players? I don't think, I don't think there's a shortage of complete players in the NBA, so. As far as like sitting, like ranking them, I, I, that's something that I've never truly thought about because I don't think there's a shortage. I think we have several complete players. What I will say is I think Jason has continued to grow and, and, and credit to Ime Udoka for getting him to take that next step on the defensive end because I think this year is the most I've ever seen JT lock in on the defensive end and he takes it personal now. And you can see that in the way he's defending, in the way they're defending is he takes it personal now. And so I can't just say all these years before that JT was the most complete player, but I think he has grown into that and he is that now. And I do think some of that credit goes to Ime and their coaching staff on requiring him to play defense on, you know, that, that being a non-negotiable, like, no, JT, I know you can score, but if we're gonna win, you have to play some defense. And he's taking that next step. JB is taking that next step and they're really truly defending. And so I don't really want to get to, who's the best, who's, you know, where is he ranked. But what I will say is he is now on that list of complete players, whereas he wasn't prior to this year, in my opinion. Because he didn't always bring it on the defensive end like he does this year, and he does all the time.

All right, next one from @WhiteDonDraper. What were you saying to KD in that famous GIF where you're like tapping him and hyping him up? I know you've sort of talked about this, you're just hyping him up generally, but What specifically were you saying to Kevin Durant?

I can't remember exactly what I was saying, but I think I was saying something about like, they wanna guard something like that, I got you. And if I got you, I'm gonna roll with you every time. Like against that, what they're down there doing, and you mean to tell me I got you, I can get you the ball? I'm rolling with that every single time. They can't stop you. There's nobody down there, nobody in this league can stop you. So if that's what they're gonna give us, I'm rolling with that every single time. And so it was something along those lines. I can't remember it verbatim, but it was something along those lines.

All right, last one from Fern at Cloud Vision. How are playoff games different in Chase Center versus Oracle? I thought this was interesting to revisit 'cause we talked about this earlier in the season. And you basically said that because you hadn't had any playoff games or really much of a playoff experience in the Chase Center, you had to build up that playoff culture. Now you've won 2 series in the Chase Center. So, so far at least, how would you say it compares?

I think, I think, you know, Chase is starting to make a name for itself. Chase is starting to become a good home court advantage, but I still can't compare it to Oracle because there's just so much success in Oracle and we have to continue to create success in this building. What I will say is I think —An Oracle, like, you walk in the warmups at Oracle, you can't hear. Like, they would cut off the music 'cause it'd be too loud. Like, I think that was one of the differences. Like, when the crowd gets going, like, once our crowd get going now, it's going. But Oracle would be going from the very beginning of us stepping onto the court. Not the buzzer sound, us stepping onto the court. And so just a different type of energy in Oracle. Nonetheless, It's becoming a great home court for us. We're protecting our home court. It's been super loud. When we just played that game 6, that sounded and felt like Oracle and it was insane. But again, we're building to that point and a part of that responsibility is on us as players. It's not on the fans. And so we're bringing what we gotta bring. They're bringing what they need to bring and we're making it work and we're putting it together. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]