Warriors-Celtics NBA Finals Game 2 Reaction: Dray & Jaylen's near-technicals | 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 recording this late Sunday after we tied the series up 1 to 1. We responded as I said we would, as I thought we would. That's what championship teams are made of. You have to respond. When things don't quite go your way, and we did. So let's get right into that. The Dubs beat the Celtics 107 to 88 in game 2. Steph Curry had another great game, uh, with 29 points in 32 minutes and did not play a single second in the fourth quarter, which was absolutely amazing. Amazing. Like I said last game, Steph gets off to a good start. Steph played great. I have to hold up my end of the bargain and make sure that we win that game. And he came out, I thought, what I thought was great is he didn't come out guns blazing like he did in game 1. I think maybe for the first 6 or 7 minutes of the game, I don't think he had a point. And if he did, he maybe had 2 points. And he just allowed the game to come to him. He didn't chase after anything. He made the right play all game long, but especially in the beginning of the game, which was important to set a tone. Didn't come out just firing up shots like, "Oh man, I was hot last game. I'm gonna come back and get it going." And he really let the game come to him.

Yeah.

And I thought that was absolutely amazing. Now in saying that, he still finished the quarter, I think the first quarter with 10 points. And that was totally not chasing anything. So I thought that was beautiful. And he scored in every which way. He scored a couple layups. He had a couple floaters, 3-pointers as we know, but it was, it was really beautiful to see. And that's the maturity in Steph Curry. I know everybody just thinks, oh man, he's this great player and great shooter, which he is.

Yeah.

But the maturity that I see, you know, in coming out in game 2 and not forcing anything and just letting it all come to him, because in that situation you want it so much, like you're down 0-1, you wanna come back strong. And so in that situation you're really chasing after it. And that was huge for him to just let the game come to you, just like let the game come to him. Just like a seasoned vet does. And I know everybody's like, oh man, Steph Curry's growth. Like, it's never too late to grow. It is never too late to grow. And actually, to take that a step further, in this game, once you stop growing, you're done. And so for us, you know, with Steph, you know, continuing to improve and everyone to continue to improve, you have to continue to improve. At this level because everyone else is. And if you're not improving, you just get passed by. So I thought that was huge by him. It was absolutely amazing to see Gary Payton II back on the floor with us after missing, what, at least a month since the Memphis series and where he went down with obviously the unfortunate fall that led to him fracturing a bone in his elbow, you immediately saw his impact on the game. Defensively, his demeanor, his mindset. He got a couple putbacks, which were great. He got a couple layups off drop-offs, hit the corner 3. Let's talk about that corner 3 because that was huge. You figure after not playing a month, you get a fast break where, GP will finish that 8 times outta 10. Misses the layup and then misses both free throws. His next shot is the corner 3, which he responds and makes the corner 3 right in front of their bench. Now, for those that are listening that have played in the NBA, which is not very many people because not many people have played in the NBA.

Yeah.

When you're in front of an opposing team's bench and you're shooting that corner 3, the things that are coming off outta that bench is the reason why you see everyone when they hit a corner 3 and somebody in front of someone's bench, they turn and look, they turn and say something. Because the things that are coming from that bench, we will not repeat here. And you know, we talk some shit on the Draymond Green Show. We will not repeat the things that comes away from the benches when you're shooting right in front of an opposing team's bench. So to miss the 2 free throws, have a short-term memory, and can that corner 3 in a very— it was a very timely 3, by the way. That really showed you and embodies who Gary Payton II is. And like I said, he had his hands all over it. All over it. All over that win. You can feel the impact. And it was so great to have him out there. I mean, his defense was— it's GP. He defends. And his defense, it looked like he hadn't missed a month or 4 or 5 weeks. And it's one thing to miss 4 or 5 weeks during the regular season. It is a totally different thing to miss 4 or 5 weeks in the playoffs because everybody's in playoff shape. Everybody, you got— you're tuned up. You know, the playoffs, you wanna be peaking. And so for him to come back and play the way he did, it just again shows why he's been able to put himself in a position that he's in while going through the journey that he's had to go through. And you know, it was absolutely incredible to see. We're happy to have him back. I know he'll continue to have a big imprint and impact on this game and on this series. And so I'm looking forward to that. It was also good to see Jordan Poole start to find a rhythm on offense. I think that'll continue to get better. I think he'll continue to get more into a groove. He'll continue to find his spots more and more. But I think there's also something to say for, you know, a young guy in his third year playing in his first NBA Finals. Yeah. And you were able to see him shake a little bit of that tonight. And I thought that was impressive. The two bombs, the one three right before the half, and then the bomb from nearly half court or from half court. I mean, that was beautiful. It came at, not before the half, before the end of the third quarter. It came at a wonderful time. We were able to push the lead from 14 to 23. And, going into the fourth quarter up 23, all it takes is one blow from there. You know, you throw one punch and that's kind of it. And that's what happened. We threw a punch. I think we ended up going up 29, 27 or 29 or something like that. And then they pulled the plug. I was a little shocked to see them pull the plug so early, but I do understand it and I respect it. But I just, I did not expect to come back outta that timeout and they had pulled the plug. And not totally, like they still had Pritchard out there, Payton Pritchard, they still had Grant Williams out there. But for the most part, they had pulled the plug. Now in saying that, that is a championship organization and those guys didn't come in and quit. They continued to fight and battle and we had to continue to close the game out. You don't wanna let, you know, we saw ourselves come back, the world saw, us come back from down 29 or whatever it was to Dallas and make it a game there in the last 3 minutes. So we didn't wanna do that. You know, when you get into these playoff series, you know, you got a chance to put a team away, you wanna do that because you don't want any freak injuries. You know, I told the guys on the bench right away, I said, the worst thing that can happen right now is we have to bring Steph Curry back in the game. Mm-hmm. And we were able to hold off on that and not allow that to happen. I don't think Wiggins came back in either, if I'm not mistaken. And so that was great. It was absolutely incredible. Let's talk about the Celtics a little bit, about our defense a little bit. I know we've talked a lot about our offense and defense. We talked about the defense with Gary Payton, but overall we've talked about a few players, but let's talk about our defense. I thought our defense—

Draymond Green.

Was flying around tonight. And for me personally, you obviously saw the first jump ball, then the second, the very next play, was able to knock it away from Robert Williams. But for me personally, you know, I wanted to come out and establish ourselves on that end right away. And although they took a 13-5 lead to start the game, they felt us the entire time. And that set the tone for the game. And that was very important to come as for myself, to come out and set the tone on that side of the ball. I am not someone that's gonna come in the media or come on the pod and talk about what needs to be done, what I need to do, and then not back that up. And so I thought it was very important for me to come out and try to set the tone on that side of the ball, in which I was able to accomplish and we were able to accomplish. And for the most part, our defense was pretty good throughout the entire game.

Mm-hmm.

It was very important that we limited their role players that went off last game. You know, Smartie, Al Horford, and Derek White. They combined, like I said before, 15 for 23 from 3. And for us to come out, they combined for 2 for 7 from 3 tonight. What that says is not only did we get into them, and make them do other things. But we didn't give them open looks. And you know, those guys, they're not gonna come out, mix, mix, mix, taking 3s. So if the 3 just isn't there, they're not gonna take 'em. And so the fact that they only combined for 2 for 7 from 3 says a lot about our defense and the emphasis we put on making sure we contest the shots. I thought they had so many— Draymond Green. Open looks in that game 1. And early on they weren't hitting them as much. They, those guys were hitting, but they weren't hitting them as much. But then the floodgates opened there in that third quarter and on into the fourth quarter and they didn't miss. And so, and like I said before, I thought that was a direct impact from Al Horford getting a walk-in 3 to start the game, from Derrick White getting 2, semi-open threes to start the game and knock 'em down. Smart got an open three. And so we just wanted to take that stuff away at the beginning of the game and not allow those guys to find a rhythm. And I thought that was important. I had a closeout on Derek White there in the third quarter, deep corner in front of our bench, and I just smothered him. And the reason I smothered him the way I did was because I was just having a flashback of a couple of the threes that he hit when guys were draped all over him in game 1. And I'm like, nah, I need to like be all over him so he can barely get the shot off. And obviously it hit behind the rim. It was great. But those are the type of things that you have to do, especially being down 1-0. You gotta come in, you gotta get the game at your pace, your tempo. And then you want to come in with the proper level of physicality, and I thought we did a great job of that tonight, and it showed. 15 steals we had tonight, that was huge. You know, we created a lot of turnovers, we were able to get points off those turnovers, and you know, so to come up with 15 steals, that's very, very, very impressive stat. But it goes to show our activity level on that side of the ball and how important that was. And so that was great. I thought Jayson Tatum got off to an absolutely incredible start in the first half. I think he had 21 points or 24 points at the half. And, you know, we all watch TV. We all saw how he responded in games after he has struggled. And he did the same thing tonight. He came out guns blazing, got off to a really good start, had his team in a good position. And Jaylen Brown got off to a good start as well. He hit one 3, then he, you know, he hit the 3 over me, then hit another 3. And you know, he got off to a really good start, but ultimately over the course of 48 minutes, we were able to get him contained as well. And so that was a really big deal. You know, their offense starts and stops with those two guys, obviously, you know, they are the playmakers, they are the score, the— The score makers. Scoring threats. Not that everyone else isn't a scoring threat because everyone they put on the floor is a scoring threat. But those two guys are the ones that really make the team go. And Marcus Smart. But to get those two guys contained allowed us to get the, like I said, get the game at our pace and our tempo and play our brand of basketball, which was huge in us taking this win.

Yeah.

Before we get into the mailbag questions, one more thing to discuss, which is what I've just found out. Post-game is like, you know, you end up seeing all the stuff on Instagram. The small technical foul controversy.

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Yeah.

Download the app today and keep an eye out for announcements on the next episode.

This is Steph Curry. He's the MVP of cryptocurrency.

No.

But you are an expert, right? Definitely not. I'm not an expert and I don't need to be. All I need is FTX. It's the place to learn about crypto. I'm definitely making an NFT of this. I saw where Javi said, you know, you're making the decision like if someone has a tech or not. And the reality is, is that makes sense. Like, you know, people want to try to make it out to be a controversy. That makes sense. Like, nobody's paying to watch this stuff to see guys get thrown out of the game and you not see the game you want to watch. Like, and so I understand and agree, like, yes, if there is some egregious and you know, then I'm gonna get thrown out. As we know, nobody's sparing me, nor do I expect to get spared, nor do I want to be spared. But if it's something that's not egregious, probably shouldn't get thrown out of a game. So I had no clue people even thought like I was that close to being thrown out. I mean, I had no clue that people thought I was even that close to being thrown out. Because I don't play the game worried about getting thrown out or not. I play the game ultimately chasing the level of physicality that I want the game to be at. And however you gotta get that done, you get that done. So I never goes into it or after my first tech like, "Oh man, I gotta tread carefully or walk lightly just to stay in the game." Like, because if I'ma tread carefully and walk lightly, then I may as well get thrown out anyway. 'Cause that's not gonna help my team win. So I have to be me for my team. And I thought that was very important. I'm always gonna be me. And so to hear that that was like some type of little controversy or whatever was news to me. But now that I know the news and we're discussing it, you have my thoughts and my opinion and how I feel about Tex or my Tex and— Yeah. That's just what it's gonna be. 10 years in, I ain't changed up until this point. Why change now? 3 championships later, 4 All-Stars later, 7 defensive, All-Defensive teams later, why change now? Being who you want me to be or who you think I should be don't work for me. But being who I am and who I know I am and staying true to that, that works for me. Me. So I'm always going to stay true to that and you don't have to worry about that. That's it. And that's that. But before we get out of here, as I do have to pack, um, to head out to Boston at 9 AM. Jax, you got a couple mailbag questions for you. Also, by the way, as you all must know, Jackson is pissed off. He is a Boston Celtics fan as our loyal listeners and subscribers know at this point, who we greatly appreciate you tuning in and checking the pod out. We don't take that for granted. Jackson's pissed off, just so y'all know, his Celtics lost. Let's see what Jackson, Jackson, you got something to say for yourself before you get in these money bag questions?

Nah, nah.

I'm sorry, money bag, money bag, mail bag. Money bag works too though, baby.

It was a fun, competitive first half. It was, and then the third quarter just kind of got away. That happens. Fourth quarter got away from the Warriors in game one. Third quarter got away from the Celtics in game two. It happens.

Tell me about it. I know that feeling all too well.

Yeah, it's all right.

It's all right. I mean, the Celtics, look, I got, I got allegiances in both camps now, so it's okay. But the Celtics got the split on the road that they were trying to get, and now they're going back to Boston.

You gotta protect home court.

That's exactly right. Now for the mailbag before I get too over my head talking about this game. From Andrew Pimentel @AndrewPimentel. What type of basketball player do you think every team needs, whether it's in the league, high school, etc.?

What type of basketball? I think every team needs a leader. You know, you can get into all the nuances of, oh, like every team needs a shooter, every team needs a point guard, or every team needs this or that or big man. Every team needs a leader. If you don't have a leader on your team, you can have as much talent as you want, it'll never work. Or little talent as you ever want. You can do more with a great leader on your team and less talent than you can do with a team that is filled with talent and has no leadership. 'Cause it's all going to come crashing down because when you have a team full of talent, You also have a team full of egos. You have a team full of guys that know they are extremely talented. And so one thing that every team needs is you have to, and I repeat, you must have leadership.

From Emily Kate at @msportstakes, if you weren't with the Warriors, where else would you want to play?

If I was not with the Warriors, where else would I wanna play? And I am going to make sure.

Yeah, be careful.

I do not get fined for tampering here, Emily. To be 100% honest with you, if I was not with the Warriors, I used to think about that all the time. Like where, where am I going? Where would I like to play if I'm not with the Warriors and blah, blah, blah. And quite frankly, at this point in my career, I don't see anything else for me. In my opinion, we've built this thing. We, no, not in my opinion. We've built this thing from the ground. Like when I got here as a rookie, this team had won 23 games the year before. We built this thing from the ground. We were a laughingstock. Nobody was checking for the Warriors. Nobody was worried about the Warriors. And so to build this thing from the ground up, it's like, this is our baby. And And so I don't see anything else for me because this is so precious. Like, not often do you see some guys build something from the ground up and be able to sustain it and sustain it. By the way, y'all see the microphone cap? Nobody told me. Gee, I see Jackson. See, Jackson would've told me had the Celtics not lost tonight. But, you know, to build from the ground up It's just such a special thing. So I don't see anything else for me. I can't believe Jackson just had my microphone sitting here like this. That is crazy.

We're gonna get you a new one. One that fits a little better. 'Cause enough of these complaints about the mic, the pop filter.

Y'all know it. If the Celtics had won, he would be like, "Draymond Green, your mic's messed up." 'Cause he wanna hear more of what I gotta say. I don't think Jackson wanna hear it tonight.

It just happened 5 minutes ago. It wasn't the whole time.

Wow, 5 minutes ago is crazy. By the way, there's someone who's going to only watch that segment of the podcast. Like, I only want to see those— that the last 5 minutes of the podcast and see me out here like this. But it's cool. I think we got one more mailbag question. We usually do 3. Jax, you got one more for me?

I do. From our boy Charlie at Playoff Draymond. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Have you ever thought about writing a book about your career? If so, what would the title be?

Um, I do want to write a book one day, but not today. I don't want to do it while I'm playing because I just don't have the bandwidth to focus on it. Like, it's so many things going on. But when I do write my book, I'm not sure what the title would be. I think I got some good, some good titles, like The Misunderstood Man, or The Guy That Does Not Care That He's Misunderstood, or something of that nature, Charlie. Um, I don't know, Charlie. I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one because I haven't thought so deep into, into the book because I just, I, I know I'm not writing that book no time soon, but I'll tell you what, when I do, it's gonna be a great one and it's gonna be a movie and maybe even a TV series. So watch out because I'm coming with the whole shebang when I do write the book. I'm gonna go at people like Uncle Oak just went at people in his book. Shout out to Uncle Oak book, man, Charles Oakley. Shout out. Wrote a book, and for those of you that have not read his book, you should definitely go check it out because it is some stories in there that you cannot get anywhere else. So my book may be a little bit like that. Not quite Uncle Oak-ish. Uncle Oak went deep. But you gotta hear some of this story. You gonna get some of these.

And a reminder to also, as you check out Uncle Oak's book, check out our podcast with Uncle Oak on the Draymond Green Show. —as well as a reminder to submit your mailbag questions on Twitter, hashtag #TheDraymondGreenShow.

Definitely appreciate the mailbag questions. Always a fun time incorporating you, our subscribers that we love. Anytime we can do that, it's always great. Until next time, I will be coming to you from Boston, Massachusetts. But I'm gonna go pack. Kiss my kids, kiss my wife, and get ready to take this show on the road. That's it from this episode of the Draymond Green Show. I will talk to y'all Wednesday after game 3. That should be a win. Let's hope it's a win. Let's do all we can to make it a win. Until then, that's a wrap. Peace.

Peace.