Warriors-Lakers Game 2 reaction: Klay's threes, Steph's passing, AD struggles | 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. We are recording this after Game 2. The Dubs tied the series up 1-1. Fun night. Let's get right into that. Dubs beat the Lakers 127-100. Killer Klay Thompson came out and had a big night, 30 points on 11 for 18 shooting, 8 for 11 from 3. Always, very rarely does Klay have a really big game and we lose. Steph as well. But those two guys, you know, I've, you see like guys like breaking like records and scoring records and stuff. And I always tell guys very, like oftentimes Steph and Klay don't really break scoring records because usually when they are on the verge of doing something special like that, we usually win going away. And so then they end up not playing again. And like, it's been like that for years. I'm not even talking about tonight. I'm just saying in years past, for instance, when Klay has 60 through 3 quarters, most people would then play that fourth quarter and get however many more points, right? Like that's kind of been a thing as long as I've been here with those two guys. And tonight, you know, Klay got off to a great start, continued it on through the night. He was very pissed off after last game and I had no doubt in my mind that he would come out and have a big game. Klay, As you all may or may not know, Klay is from Southern California, grew up a Lakers fan. Dad played for the Lakers, dad works for the Lakers on TV now. His dad is the great Michael Thompson, for those that don't know, was the number one pick in the draft out of Minnesota. Won championship or a couple championships with the Lakers. And so I said all that to say this really means a lot to Klay. Obviously it means a lot to all of us. We are playing in the playoffs. Versus the Lakers, LeBron, that whole thing. But you know, there are just some circumstances that makes things— I always tell you all like the whole cliché of, oh, every game is the same is bullshit. Like that's not true. And so there's just certain things that may make a game or series mean a little more. And I think this is one of those for Klay. And on the flip side of that, no one ever really talks about the other side of that coin, which is you get overly emotional. You start pressing sometimes, you know, you want it so bad. And sometimes when you want something so bad, it doesn't go your way. And I thought one big thing for Klay today was he just came in the game, he settled right in. I mean, settled right in the game, was kind of at peace and things flowed his way from the get-go. Didn't want it so much, although we know he wants it so much. And I thought that was a really big deal. He was super patient and got the shots that he wanted to get and they went down, which was huge for us. Steph finished the game with 20 and 12, 12 assists, which was his most assists in a playoff game since 2014. I blame me for that being his most assists in a playoff game since 2014. Nonetheless, I thought he was absolutely incredible. Only had 20 points. Only had 20 points. But I thought the way he controlled the tempo of the game, took care of the basketball, got us into everything we wanted to get into. Was huge. The play right before the half when I got the dunk, he almost like invited the trap. Like he saw them coming to trap him and it's like a second there where it looks like he's about to get off the ball and he just holds it and like invited it almost and got me a dunk. But just, I'm more so speaking on that and just saying like how poised he was with everything. Like— Yeah. Super under control, knew exactly what he wanted to get to. And I thought it was absolutely incredible to watch Steph play the floor game that he played tonight. It was huge. Shout out to my man, J-Mike. J-Mike Green. J-Mike Green. Had a huge game. 15 points. He got the start. Loon was a little under the weather today. So Loon only played maybe 12 minutes or something. Which you go in the film, you walk in the gym and you see Kevon Looney, like, whoa. Me and Steph looked at each other like, yo, whoa, now we need Loon. And so to find that out, literally when we're at the gym preparing for the game, it throws a wrench into things. You know, we had a conversation with Coach. Coach asked me and Steph, what do we think as far as who started? We both like, yeah, J-Mike for sure. Like J-Mike gonna bring some toughness. He obviously can space the floor. He just, he played in last game. So he kind of got the feel of the series already. J-Mike for sure. And J-Mike finished with 15 points and 2 assists in 13 minutes. Earlier in the year, in February, when J-Mike was just getting back from injury, we spoke about J-Mike on the podcast. Very similar to tonight. I'll let you hear that. Shout out to Jemichael Green. J-Mike came out splashing from everywhere. 4 for 4 from 3, 5 for 5 from the field, 14 points. I'm looking forward to Jemichael continuing to get more and more minutes. I really think he's gonna be a huge help to us. And he's starting to, really show why it was so important that we wanted to go and get him because he brings a, a certain physicality to our team that we need and a certain dog mindset. So yeah, and listening to that, it's along those same lines. We needed J-Mike. He brought the physicality from the gate, which we needed to meet force with force and start in this game. He brought physicality. And he knocked shots down. And we all know how capable he is of shooting the basketball. He was huge tonight. And we're gonna continue to need him as this series goes on. That's a very big team. They have a lot of size, a lot of length. J-Mike was huge for us. I'm happy he had the game that he had. And most importantly, I'm happy he stayed locked in. You know, so many times you see guys let go of the rope when they're not playing. And you know, we've been telling him all year like, "Hey man, we gonna need you." Yeah. And we just need you to stay ready because it happens like this every year where you gonna need guys that you may not have leaned on as much all year. You're gonna need them in the most important moments. And tonight was one of those nights, especially with Loon going down and J-Mike answered the bell. So shout out to J-Mike. Let's keep it going, my brother. Y'all make sure y'all show that man some love because it's not easy. Going from a guy who's played, you know, throughout his career and then all of a sudden you're not playing much. True professional, way to stay locked in, J-Mike. That was huge. And then yours truly had 11, 11, and 9. Man, it would've been nice to get a triple-double, huh? Another playoff triple-double would've been nice. In saying that, we had the game under our control and I was not about to go out there and try to chase after a triple-double. Doing things like that usually doesn't end well. And if you're supposed to get a triple-double, you will get a triple-double and it'll happen. So I'm not worried about that at all. My job on defense tonight was to guard AD, which is never an easy job. It's always a tall task. You know, got him to miss some shots with, you know, just really wanted to make sure I was getting the contest and, you know, if he hit shots, you have to live with that. AD's a great player, as we all know. Future Hall of Famer, NBA champion, perennial All-Star, you name it. Both ends of the floor. Absolutely incredible player. And I think my mindset was just to make it tough on him. No secret sauce, no, like, it's just to make him take tough shots. If you can make a guy take tough shots, you have to live with the results because a guy like that, Like you don't shut down great players like Anthony Davis. You just try to make them take tough shots and you live with the results. And I think we did a pre— a lot better job on him tonight. He finished with 11, 7, and 4. Last game he had 30, 23, and 5. So it was obviously well known that we needed to do a much better job on AD coming into this game. And I can't take all the credit for that. So when you're guarding a guy like that, it's a complete team effort. And you know, our guys did the job collectively and we were able to get AD to have a tough night. Bron had it going. I'm not sure what Bron finished with, but he had it going. He had it going from 3. He hit the 3 off the backboard with the shot clock running down from about 30, 35 feet out or something. Absolutely had it going. It was great to see us weather that storm. He came out extremely aggressive. And we weathered the storm and was able to get stops when we needed it and open the game up. But you know, we are gonna continue to expect to see a very aggressive LeBron James, especially heading back to LA in Crypto Arena. So, you know, we'll be prepared to try to meet that force with force and go on this road and try to get it done. And that's gonna be a big key. As far as the Lakers adjustments go, I thought, you know, or we made adjustments as well. I mean, the one adjustment that was clearly obvious was, you know, me guarding AD. What will, you know, you always, when you're in these playoff series, you always try to figure out like, what will the other team's adjustment be? You know, 'cause this, as I've told y'all, this, when you get in these series, man, it's a game of adjustments. It's a chess match. It's coach, You know, coach throw his pawn out there, not necessarily throwing the queen out there, but he may throw a pawn out there to get taken. May even throw a rook or a bishop out there at times to get taken. Ultimately trying to set up the board. And that is what these playoffs be. You saw it in full force last series when it was the Kings and Mike Brown, who knows us very well, and him and Steve playing chess. And one, as a basketball fan, absolutely fun to watch. Just like the chess pieces and the moves that were being made. I absolutely enjoyed it. And most importantly for me, I learned. I learned from it. You watch these coaches do this. I learned from it. I've been learning so much from Steve this year. It's been a real pleasure in playing for Steve and learning not only the X's and O's things, but Steve has taught me more about winning. Like I think I've always been a winner my whole life, but Steve Kerr has won at a level that not many people in NBA history, like Steve Kerr is along the lines almost of Bill Russell when it comes to winning in the NBA. I think Bill Russell finished with what, 11 rings in total or something like that? Obviously Steve's aren't all as a player, but he's got 9 rings. 9 rings. Like, he's literally up there with Bill Russell, um, like, and so one of the greatest winners we've ever seen, and I have learned so much from him about winning, how to win, how do you go about it. It's no coincidence. It is not a coincidence, and I'm thankful, uh, for Steve and his brilliance, and most importantly, his winning mentality and winning ways, because Just like losers rub off on people, winners rub off on people. And we've had the luxury of having one of the best winners in NBA history rolling with us. And I'm trying to learn as much as I can for as long as I can, because it doesn't only help you in basketball. Winning is winning in anything. And it'll help you in life. It helps me in life. And so I'm very thankful for Steve and just being able to watch him do this thing. It's absolutely incredible. As far as game 3 goes, obviously we're headed to Crypto Arena. I expect it to be a crazy environment. Number 1, you know the stars gonna be out. Steph Curry versus LeBron James at Crypto Arena on a Saturday. Stars will be out and you gotta love it. You gotta embrace it. That's the big stage. Gotta embrace it. Know they're gonna come out, just lost by 27 points. They're gonna come out— Draymond Green. Bouncing off the wall. They're going to come out throwing blows, and you have to stand in there and take that first blow. And you may have to stand in there and take another one, but you more importantly, you got to make sure you're responding and not getting out of character. Um, and I think that'll be big for us as we head down to Crypto in Los Angeles and try to take care of business. The goal is always You have to go get one, uh, be that we lost home court advantage, but why not get greedy and try to get two? But let's start with one first. Let's start with one on Saturday. Looking forward to that game. Expecting an extremely physical Lakers team ready to go back in front of their home fans. So looking forward to that. Everybody make sure y'all locked into that game. And now. As we said last time, congratulations Joel Embiid on winning the MVP. Joel Embiid, I was so wrong on last podcast. I said Joel probably won't come back to game 3 because they stole one and like, I was so wrong, I was right though. Which is, I still don't think he should have come back. He played 27 minutes and he was not as assertive on the offensive end as Joel normally is. That's due to a couple things. Number one, he could possibly not, well, we know he's not 100% healthy, but also you come back, your team just won and you kind of feel like you don't want to get in the way of that. Another thing, the emotions of winning the MVP, it's tough. And another reason why I would've kept Joel out of the lineup if I was the Philadelphia 76ers is because now Joel's gonna go home and he's gonna be handed the MVP trophy right before the game. And that changes the emotions of the game. Like I've been a part of those games where a guy get an MVP trophy, Steph Curry, and it just changes your emotions. Like not him, like everybody, like it's just like, whoa, like you have this super big moment. Like winning the MVP is insane and you have like this super big moment and then you're like, oh, we gotta go play a basketball game now. Yeah. It's not easy. It's very hard. It's very, very, very hard. And so now they'll be faced with that. But another reason I didn't think they would have or should have brought Joel back in game 2 is just because like, you did your job, you won one. That's 3 or 4 more days of rest that he could have. And then coming back home, yes, you do have the crazy emotions with winning MVP, but now, you know, with a guy that's coming off an injury, he may need that extra boost of emotions. You know what I'm saying? And so, you know, to kind of get 'em over the hump. And saying all of that, I expect Joel Embiid to have a super dominant game 3. But give credit to the Celtics, man. They responded. I knew they would respond that way. They're, you know, they're a team that's shooting, gunning to get a championship. And they were locked in. Jason Tatum has 7 points and they won by 30. Yeah. Jalen Brown came out getting it done. Malcolm Brogdon has been getting it done. Gotta give a lot of credit to Malcolm Brogdon, but everybody stepped up. And like I said, Marcus Smart, everybody stepped up and, and that was to be expected. They also did a great job of containing James Harden. James Harden had a very tough night and in turn they team had a tough night. So looking forward to seeing how that one goes on the next go around. Next game, Jackson, when is that next game? I know you know. Next game is Friday. And he gonna give a, ah, as if he don't, as if it's not locked into his calendar. Come on now, we know, we all know Jackson is a big time Celtics fan and this guy just gave us an ah because I called him out on knowing when the game is and he's gonna act like he did not know when the game is. Friday, which is tomorrow. Tomorrow. Wow, these days are flying by. Wow, Friday, tomorrow. All right, well, When you all hear this, they'll hear us tonight, Jackson? They'll hear it. I mean, they'll hear it Friday. Oh, well you'll hear this Friday. 11:30 already. It's today. It'll be today. It's today. But I'm looking forward to Philly going home and seeing how they respond to losing game 2 the way they did. Teams usually come back ready to go after losing a playoff game like that. Like I said, as I'm expecting the Los Angeles Lakers as well. But that series is shaping out to be a good one. And of course we expected that. So looking forward to that. Also seeing, looking forward to see how Joel bounce back and can he get over that hump? And then you have the Knicks in Miami, headed to Miami, expecting to see Jimmy Butler back out there. A little differently than these other two. Miami may have given game 2 away and not like punt it, like gave it away, like probably should have won. Yet Jalen Brunson showed up and they had a big game and they won game 2. And you gotta give those guys a lot of credit. They're going, now they gotta, now they gotta go get one on the road. Big weekend in Miami. Also F1. F1. Be interesting to see if guys get caught up and is moving in them Miami streets. There's already a lot in Miami. Got F1 weekend, there's a lot going on. Carbon, major food group, they've gone and taken over Miami, but they New York guys, are they gonna have the New York Knicks out in that Carbon Beach? Ah, we shall see if guys can stay locked in, but That series is tied up at 1-1. Jackson had this stat for me. He said the Warriors made it 16 straight teams that dropped game 1 at home and then won game 2. And he said, why do I think that is? And I'm here to tell you, I have no idea. I have no clue why that is. No idea. But what I will tell you is let's go win game 1 on their court. And that's the most important thing. Until next show, till next time, that's a wrap from the Draymond Green Show. Peace. 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.