In this post‑game monologue, Warriors forward Draymond Green analyzes the team's 112‑87 Game 1 win over the Dallas Mavericks. He opens by highlighting Andrew Wiggins' relentless defense on Luka Dončić, noting Wiggins' physicality and the need for continued effort against a player who will adjust after film study. Green then praises Kevon Looney’s often‑overlooked defensive instincts, emphasizing his smart use of length, angles, and basketball IQ, as well as his overall impact on both ends of the floor, especially given his durability and contract‑year motivation. Green shifts to broader playoff themes, describing the unique intensity of postseason basketball, the global audience, and the personal rush players feel when performing at the highest level. He critiques the Warriors’ shooting night—Steph Curry’s below‑standard performance and Klay Thompson’s 1‑for‑4 three‑point shooting—while also acknowledging the team’s strengths: low turnover ball handling and disciplined, non‑fouling defense. Green stresses the importance of correcting open‑shot concessions, maintaining defensive discipline, and ensuring the team’s key players (Curry, Thompson, Jordan, Wiggins) step up in future games, especially to protect home‑court advantage. He warns against complacency, reminding the squad that no team reaches the conference finals by quitting, and urges readiness for the Mavericks’ anticipated physical and intense response in Game 2.
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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. Dubs win 112 to 87. I know there's been this thing about, oh man, Luka had his worst shooting game in his postseason career. Andrew Wiggins played amazing defense. He picked him up 94 feet. He got into him. He didn't allow him to dictate the terms on his own pace. You gotta give Wiggins a lot of credit. He was also in attack mode on the offensive end. I think when I look at the performance that Wiggins had on the defensive end, it was relentless. It was taking on that challenge. And when you're playing against a guy like Luka Dončić, you need someone to take on that challenge. We've seen it for years throughout this run of— Draymond Green. Klay taking on that challenge of great guards on the other end. And last night Wiggins took on that challenge and we need him to continue to take on that challenge as it'll only get tougher. It won't get any easier with a player like Luka. He's gonna watch the film, he's gonna make the necessary adjustments, he's going to continue to be aggressive and you just gotta continue to try to make it tough on him. Like I always say, you know, you'd say he had his worst shooting game of his career. Yeah. Statistically speaking. And you know, some people will say, oh, he was shut down. You don't shut Luka Dončić down. Even in shutting him down, he had 20 points. Like you just, you don't stop guys like that from scoring. They're gonna score. Your job is to make it tough on 'em. And Wiggins did that last night. You just wanna make it tough on 'em and you live with the result. And that's what we did. And you know, when you're guarding a guy like that, it's a total team effort. You know, you have to know and trust that I can be aggressive into the ball and ultimately understanding that if I get beat, someone's gonna be there to help me. And you know, that's what it was tonight. I also wanna credit Kevon Looney for the job that he did on Luka when he was switching. Kevon never gets the credit for as good of a defender as he is. And it dates all the way back to prior finals run where you'd see teams call him up in the switches and Loon just, he guards. He's one of those guys that he just has a knack for basketball. And it's not like he's the fastest moving laterally. It's not like he jumps the highest. He's just one of those guys that he competes. He competes at the highest level. He's smart. He understands angles. He has great length. And so he uses the things that he does have on his side to his advantage. And it's helped to make him an incredible defender. And the— The basketball that he's been playing overall, not just on the defensive end, but the basketball that he's been playing overall for us these last few games has been absolutely amazing. It's been the presence that he's established for us on the inside. It's been great. And you know, we've always been a better team with him on the floor and he's continuing to show why. You know, when you think about a guy like Looney, who plays 82 games this year, is coming up huge in the playoffs and is in the contract year. That's incredible. You know, you wanna play your best basketball when you're in your contract year. That's for everybody in this league. Don't ever get it twisted. Don't ever let anyone lie to you. I know people try to downplay it and be like, "Oh no, I ain't thinking about that." No, you wanna play your absolute best basketball when you are in a contract year. And when you can do that, into the postseason, it carries even more weight. You know, you get some of these guys that do it in the regular season and they play well and that's great. Like that's fine. Like gotta play well in the regular season too. But when you do it in the postseason, it's a little added oomph on that because everybody's watching. You know, one of the things that I truly enjoy about the playoffs is, and especially as you get deeper and deeper into the playoffs, is, you know, everyone is watching that basketball. Like, there's no better basketball going on in the world. See, sometimes during the regular season, you get some of those games, some of those teams that there is better basketball going on elsewhere in the world. But when you can get the 4 best teams or the 8 best teams in the best league in the world playing against each other, everyone's watching that. So then you get to 4, everyone's locked in, including the 4 teams that lost before. Yeah. And then you get to 2 and the 2 teams that lost before, like everybody in the world is watching that. And so when you can play on that level and continue to improve your game and play at a high level, there's no better feeling as, as an athlete. There's no better feeling as an NBA player than being able to produce on a high level during the playoffs. It's a different rush that it gives. And so to see Kevon Looney, having the postseason that he's having on top of, you know, the injury questions that he had to play in 82 games this year. One of 5 or 6 guys, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it's one of 5, one of 5 or 6 guys with the injuries that he had and to continue to work on his body, get his body to a place to where he can stay healthy. Man, I take my hat off to Looney. We gonna need him to continue. to play the same basketball as well. When I look at the game last night, yes, it was a blowout. It didn't feel like a blowout because, you know, I think we blew the game open there in that period there in the third quarter. So it just wasn't like a blowout the entire game, but the final score was a blowout. I walked away from that game saying there's a lot of things that we could do better. Now granted, there's a lot of things that they can do better, but I think there are some things that we can really do better. And I also don't think we shot the ball very well either. And when I look at those things that really bode well for us, you know, Steph Curry didn't have an incredible shooting night. No. Klay Thompson was 1 for 4 from 3. You know, we, we can shoot a lot better. And, and I also think we can play a lot better. Like, I think we did some things last night that allowed us to take control of the game, and that was not turning the ball over, that was defending without fouling. Those are staple things in our defense, though. Those are non-negotiable. Those are things that we are supposed to do. And so we did the things that we were supposed to do, and I think we struggled with some things that were more than capable of being pretty, like, pretty damn good at. And if we can do those things better, that'll help us a lot in this series because as this series goes on, this is going to get tougher and tougher. That's a great team, that's a well-coached team, and they have very good talent. And so I think as this series goes on, series goes on, it's going to get tougher and tougher. Yeah. And so you, for us, you can't walk away from a game like that and be like, oh, it's over. Like they can't win. Like that's one game. That team's not gonna quit. That's the same team that lost game one that same way versus the Phoenix Suns. They also lost game two versus the Phoenix Suns. They went home and they found their confidence and they were a totally different team. So we still have to take care of our business tomorrow and make sure we protect our home court. You want to go, You never want to leave home after those first two games having lost home court advantage. So it is very important for us to come out and take care of game two, clean up some of the mistakes that we did make. I thought we gave up some open shots that we can take away because, you know, guys, they're, like I said, they're going to shoot better. And so I thought we gave up some open looks that we can take away and we will take away. In order to keep our defense at the level that it was in game 1. Some of those open looks that they got, we have to take some of those away. I think we can get better in our game plan discipline. And most importantly, which will really determine A little of how this series go is we have to make sure we get our guys going. Like Steph had a good night, wasn't great. It was a good night, wasn't great by Steph Curry standards. Great by just about everyone else standards in this league. Wasn't great by Steph Curry standards. Steph Curry's gonna have a great night. Klay Thompson had a good second half. He was good defensively. Offensively, he had a good second half. Klay's gonna play better. I thought Jordan had some spurts of where he played well. He's gonna play better. So that's gonna be important for us moving forward because there's gonna be some games where you need your guys. And Wiggins, Wiggins had it going all night. But there's gonna be some games where you need one of those guys to go berserk. Like— in order to win the game, especially on the road. But that team is coming out upset tomorrow. It's just like I was telling our guys, no team gets to the conference finals and quit after one game, after two games, or after three games. No one gets to the conference finals and quit because the team that will get to the conference finals and quit never makes it to the conference finals. It's just that simple. You don't make it this far if you have quit in you. Mm-hmm. Because there would have been something along the way where you would have quit before. There's never an easy route to the conference finals. So the whole notion of this team is going to quit, it ain't happening. It's not happening. They got Luka Dončić. They follow their horse. He struggled a little bit last night. He's going to come out attacking. Mm-hmm. That team's gonna come out balls to the walls tomorrow, and we have to make sure that we're ready to meet their level of physicality and meet their intensity level. Draymond Green.
