In this solo reaction video, Draymond Green breaks down the Warriors' 101‑98 Game 4 win over the Grizzlies, emphasizing the impact of Ja Morant’s injury, the surprising insertion of Steven Adams for Memphis, and the low‑scoring, turnover‑heavy nature of the contest. He praises Jaren Jackson Jr.’s dominant second‑half performance and recounts his own block, while critiquing the Warriors’ early offensive rhythm. Green highlights Steph Curry’s decisive fourth‑quarter surge and his defensive focus on Desmond Bane, framing these as key reasons the Warriors lead the series 3‑1. He underscores the importance of rebounding, noting the Warriors’ unexpected advantage in that metric. The segment also touches on personal notes: well‑wishes for injured players, the emotional toll of a COVID‑positive head coach, and congratulations to Mike Brown on his new role with the Sacramento Kings. Throughout, Green mixes analytical observations with personal reflections and a modest apology for his low energy.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. Now moving forward to the Warriors-Grizzlies game. As I had to do with my day, I would now move forward in the podcast. For those of you who always know my energy on the podcast, I truly apologize that I just don't have that today. But I will give you what I have. Warriors-Grizzlies, no Ja. That is a team that was 20-5 in the regular season without Ja. They showed that tonight. We got away with one that we probably shouldn't have won. But we are battle-tested, we are, we do have championship pedigree, and we understand that, hey, we started the game 0 for 16, 0 for 15 from 3. —and couldn't buy a basket. I mean, the score was 41 to 38 at halftime, à la the 2004 Detroit Pistons beating the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals. Very, very, very low-scoring game, which none of us are used to in today's NBA. Yeah. But no Ja, insert Steven Adams into the lineup. I was a little shocked that they decided to go to Steven Adams. In large part due to he hadn't played— I think he played the first game and maybe the first few minutes of the second game in their first round series, which went 6 games. Mm-hmm. And hadn't really played since until the garbage time minutes in our last game, which was a blowout. And so I was really shocked that they inserted him into the star lineup. In true Steven Adams fashion, professional as he is and has always been, he comes out and he has a very good game. Yeah. Rebounded the ball really well. Scored the ball when he had opportunities. Brought a physical presence for them that we hadn't really seen because Steven just brings a different type of dominance to a basketball game. And so I thought that was a— that was a— insert Steven Adams, it turned out to be a positive for them. I thought there were ways that we could have taken advantage of Steven Adams being in the lineup with just our style of play and the lineups that we were playing, but we just didn't have it going offensively. We didn't have a rhythm. A lot of turnovers in the first half again, which has kind of been a story in this series. You know, last game we scored 142 points. I think we had 16 or 17 turnovers, but 14 of those came in the first half. We were leading by 7. After game 3, at halftime of game 3, I'm sorry. And we came out that third quarter and we had one of those Warriors third quarters that a lot of people that watch Warriors basketball over the last 7 years or so has gotten accustomed to. And we were able to blow the game open. Yeah. And hold on to that lead. Not only hold on to it, but push it up. And you know, one of the— one thing that I thought was beautiful in that Game 3 was we were up 20 points. Ja Morant, I know what the conversation was when they huddled up. We've been here before. We know what it takes. Let's go out here and let's get back in this game and win the game. Yeah. And Ja Morant came out playing like that. They were up 20 points. Ja started to go on his rampage and score on every play. And I think he looked up like, "Wow, I'm starting to go crazy." He had a couple of those Ja layups that only Ja makes. And he looked up and they were down 25. And that was— 25. Big for us because that was to show them this isn't the Minnesota Timberwolves. You're no longer playing that team. This is the Golden State Warriors. This is championship-level basketball. This is how we do it. And it was beautiful to see. We went on to score 142 points and win the game. Wow. Far cry from the 101 points that we scored tonight. But it's funny because I told Jordan Poole, Jordan Poole asked me right after that game, he said, "Oh, they gonna quit now, huh?" I said, "Oh no, it's 0-0 when Game 4 start on Monday." He said, "Oh, okay, all right, I got you." And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. I wanna send my well wishes to Ja Morant. You know, you never wanna see a guy get hurt. I totally disagree with the whole notion of Jordan hurt his knee, as I saw on several different plays even on the film, him grabbing at his knee long before that play. I also saw on that play him and Jordan bump knees. But in saying that, like I said in my press conference that day, I'm not gonna go tit for tat on what happened or whatnot. I wish him well. I wish him a speedy recovery. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] You never want to see anyone get hurt, especially a young superstar talent like that. And so, most importantly, just wanna wish John speedy recovery. Let's talk a little bit about Game 4. And I prom— again, I apologize for my lack of energy. It's been a very emotionally taxing day for me. Jaren Jackson was having an absolutely incredible game. We couldn't get a stop. Otto couldn't get a stop. Klay couldn't get a stop. I couldn't get a stop. None of us could get a stop on Jaren Jackson in the second half. Down the stretch, they went to him. He drove left, crossed the middle of the paint. He misses. Steph Curry gets the rebound. Knock 2 free throws down. We go up 98 to 95. We get another stop. They go back to Jaren for the 3. 3. I get a block. And for the lip readers out there, I simply said, "Don't do that for game. Don't. He's having a great game, but don't go at me for game. I don't like that. It's disrespectful." You know, and the reality is somebody go at you for game sometimes and they go the opposite way. I can take it all the way back to Andre Miller gaming me in the playoffs. Mm-hmm. My rookie year. But I don't like that. Don't go at me for game. And they did. And I understand. Jaren had it going, no Jah. Dylan Brooks was having a pretty rough night. They go to their guy. I totally get it. Incredible, incredible performance by Jaren. He's been incredible all series, actually. Mm-hmm. But I had to do what I'm paid to do. And that's come up with big time stops and big time moments. And shout out to our guards, Steph, Klay, Wiggs, Jordan, Draymond Green, everybody who stepped on the floor has been rebounding the basketball. And that's been critical. Yeah. Especially with the lineups that we play. Otto do an incredible job rebounding. Looney comes in, do an incredible job rebounding. And that is a huge key to us being ahead 3-1 in this series. Because as I said at the beginning of the series, the game starts for them on a missed shot by them or us. Offensive rebounds. They led the league in offensive rebounding. They play big, they crash the glass. And so rebounding has been huge for us in this series, and it's in large part due— and it's in large part of the reason we're up 3-1. I'm not exactly certain, but I think we've out-rebounded them in all 4 games. That's correct. And that is huge, because that's supposed to be our weakness. That's supposed to be— how they're supposed to take advantage of our small lineups. And for us to rebound that way, you have to give a lot of credit to all the guys on the floor taking on that challenge, boxing out. A huge part of that is keeping your man in front of you so you are in rebounding position. And so that's been a huge key in this series, and it's been absolutely great. Steph Curry, with all the slander, all of this, all of that, Steph Curry showed you once again, for those that love to talk and blah, blah, blah for headlines, why he's Steph Curry. The way he took over that fourth quarter. In particular, the last 6 minutes of that fourth quarter. Showed you why he's Steph Curry. Showed you why he's the only unanimous MVP in NBA history. He showed you why he's a 3-time champion. He showed you why the Babyface Assassin became Steph Curry as you know him today. Huge, huge, huge effort by Steph on the offensive end, especially on a pretty horrendous offensive night for us. Mm-hmm. But you put the ball in your guy hands that's gonna make the plays for you, and you trust him to make the plays. Mike Brown did that. He didn't go away from that. And eventually Steph did what Steph does. He took over the game down the stretch. He got us every big bucket that we needed. And we were able to pull out that game. Mm-hmm. Also, huge, huge thing that Steph has been doing this series is taking Desmond Bane out. Desmond Bane is a huge key to their offense, and Steph has done an incredible job of taking him out of the series. Now, we have one more win to get. It's not over. But Steph's focus on the defensive end for a non-defender, I mean, he's been so locked in. Like even when he leaves the floor, he go, he points to, he calls whoever on our team he then wants to guard bang. "Klay, you go there." And that's his trust in Klay. You know, we've been together now, those two for 11 years, myself 10. That's his trust in Klay. Like, "No, I'm not trusting anyone else. I'm gonna trust Klay. You go guard him." Yeah. And that's been huge, and it's been beautiful to see for me on how he's taken on that challenge and made it tough for Bain to get loose, which is another huge reason we're sitting here up 3-1, headed back to Memphis tomorrow to try to close out this series on Wednesday. That's been absolutely— Draymond Green. Incredibly important. And I hope that he will get the credit for that. I hope that people can look past, you know, of course, what everyone's gonna talk about, "Oh, Steph got it going offensively." But no one's going to talk about his defensive effort in taking Desmond Bane out the series, and that's been huge. So shout out to Steph. We need it for one more night, my brother. We need it for one more night. Yeah. Close this thing out, get back to the conference finals. It's been a long, long year. An eventful one. Congratulations to Mike Brown on getting the head coach of the Sacramento Kings. Think the Sacramento Kings is on a 17-year playoff drought, 16, 17-year playoff drought. I have no doubt in my mind that Mike is going to take his championship pedigree his incredible, especially defensive mind, incredible basketball mind, with an incredible staff to Sacramento with him. And I think it won't be long before that streak is broken. And I'm looking forward to Mike. Mike is what now, 13-0 in the playoffs as the Dubs head coach. Mm-hmm. Record stays unblemished. I also send love, well wishes, and a speedy recovery to Coach Kerr, to Rick Celebrini, to Karl Bergstrom in recovering from COVID Just another one of the things that we're hit with. So on top of me dealing with what I've been dealing with, and emotion, that I've been dealing with today in Las Vegas. We then walk into the arena to only find out that our head coach just tested positive for COVID right before the game. And so it's been a very eventful, emotional day nonetheless, but the Dubs pulled it out. The Dubs are up 3-1 headed back to Memphis. And you don't squander opportunities. You take advantage of opportunities. So we are going to give all that we have to close this thing out in 5. 5. And I believe in my heart, if we go in locked in, play Warriors basketball from the beginning, that we'll do that. That's the plan. Draymond Green.
