Warriors-Mavericks Game 3 reaction: Wiggins' dunk, Steph Curry’s performance | Draymond Green Show

In this post‑game monologue, Draymond Green breaks down the Warriors’ 109‑100 win over the Mavericks that gave Golden State a 3‑0 series lead. He praises Stephen Curry’s 31‑point, 11‑assist performance and highlights Curry’s often‑overlooked rebounding, attributing his motivation to the team’s three‑year finals drought rather than external narratives about Luka Dončić. Draymond lauds Andrew Wiggins for his relentless full‑court effort, offensive rebounding, and a spectacular dunk on Luka, while lamenting the offensive‑foul call that muted the moment’s emotion. He commends Kevon Looney’s 12‑rebound, 9‑point night, emphasizing Looney’s defensive positioning and impact beyond the box score. Klay Thompson’s defensive contributions are noted despite a poor shooting night. Draymond reflects on his own frustrated first half, the criticism he received from coach Izzo, and his resolve to improve his emotional control. He outlines the broader series context— the importance of a road closeout, holding Mavericks role players like Reggie Bullock to zero, and the team’s mindset of not quitting. The episode ends with optimism about a potential 4‑0 sweep and a look ahead to the NBA Finals.
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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. Let's actually get into Game 3, Dallas Mavericks versus the Golden State Warriors. We were able to take that game 109 to 100 to take a 3-0 lead. Very fun game to play in. Steph got it going. I think Steph finished the game with 31, 11, and 5 or 6. Steph has been absolutely incredible. He's been rebounding the ball great, which is huge in this series because you get long rebounds. Obviously Dallas shoots a ton of threes. And when you shoot a ton of threes, the long rebounds, the rebounds are gonna bounce to a little over the first guys that are boxing out to the free throw line area. However, with Steph, Steph doesn't just get long rebounds. Steph gets in the, gets in the thick of things and comes up with rebounds. And so one thing we've always known is Steph is a great rebounder, especially at his size and at the guard position. He's always been an incredible rebounder and he continues that through this series. But I think for me, watching Steph play, I know someone asked me tonight, like, What's the difference in Steph? Is he more motivated because people were saying like, "Luka's now the point guard in the NBA and it's him." And has that motivated him? And Luka's an incredible player. I don't, I'm not sure Steph had heard that. 'Cause like I told them, I hadn't heard that. Like I hadn't heard anyone like, "Oh, it's the changing of the guard and Luka is now the point guard in the NBA and it's no longer Steph Curry." I hadn't heard any of that talk. I also don't pay attention to much talk like that. And so I can't say that that motivated Steph Curry. What I know for certain motivates Steph Curry is that it's been, this is now year 3 of us having not been in the Finals. We can change that and make it a 2-year drought. But this is the 3rd year of that. And so not playing in the finals for 2 straight years, losing in the play-in games last year. We're back, we're healthy, and that's enough motivation in itself to get to the conference finals and then obviously onto the finals. You know, we became accustomed to winning all the time and then you don't and it just feels off. And so— Yeah. You know, we, we, we understand that we don't have 10 years of basketball left together and we have to take advantage of our opportunities and we want to add more rings. And so that right there is enough motivation in itself. I thought Wiggins played incredibly well. Everybody knows Wiggins played incredibly well. The defense he's been playing on Luka has been absolutely amazing. Thing that I love most is he's picking him up full court every time he brings the ball up the court. And number one, the amount of energy that that takes is through the roof. Now, most guys that pick guys up full court, they're not doing it on the offensive end. He's doing it on both ends of the floor. And it's not,— one particular thing. It's not just threes, it's not just mid-range shots, it's not just getting to the cup. It's like all of these things. And what I've been most impressed with on the offensive end with Wiggins, not only this series, but past two series before this one, is his offensive rebounding and coming up with extra possessions. And even the ones that he don't actually come up with, he's getting his hand on 'em and just creating extra possession and causing havoc. It's been absolutely amazing what he's been able to do. Kevon Looney with another stellar game. I think he had 9 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists or something like that. Loon has really come on and I'm happy to see Loon playing the way he's playing because this is what we all have known. Loon always impacts winning. And it's starting to show up in the stat sheet now. And it's showing up in a way to where the rest of the world can say, oh man, that guy's playing well. Because if it don't show up in the stat sheet, most people don't have a clue what's going on in a basketball game, although they think they do. Most people don't have a clue what's going on in the basketball game, and they'll say, oh man, he sucks, or he's this, or he's that. And he's been absolutely amazing. One of the— and I spoke about this before, um, and I'll say it again for those that didn't hear it before— one of the things that I, I get the biggest joy out of is I've seen it for years. People call Loon up into the screen. They think they got, oh man, I see this guy, I can go by him. And he just defends and defends and uses his length well and doesn't bite on fakes. And to see teams then realize like, oh man, we can't call that guy into the screen. It always brings me great joy. So Loon has been absolutely amazing. All playoffs long, by the way, he was incredible in the Draymond Green series too. We ended up going small because we thought we had matchup advantage on the other end by going small. But Loon has been amazing all year, played 82 games, coming to these playoffs and been the true professional that we know he is. And he's been huge for us. I mean, the inside presence that he gives us is exactly what we were missing in that Memphis series when Steph and I went to coach like, yo, we have to start Loon. Yeah. And the presence has been there every game ever since. And so Loon's been absolutely amazing. I thought, I thought Klay played a really good game. Last 2 games, his driving and kicking and getting the domino to fall, the first domino to fall has been incredible. He didn't shoot the ball particularly well tonight. 3 for 10 from 3. I think it was 6 for 18 from the floor for 19 points. But what was most beautiful about it is he had great looks. And if you give Klay Thompson great looks, I'm living with that. Klay Thompson gonna make those. I'm never worried about that. And so I thought Klay was really key on the defensive end. Klay was very good for us as well. I mean, overall total team effort. For me, I had a piss poor first half. Piss poor, frustrated. Hold on. Also, did y'all think I was over and back? All right, just asking for your opinion. I don't know. I'm not gonna give my opinion on that call, but I'm asking for your opinion. Maybe you can hashtag the Draymond Green Show. Wait, what's our hashtag, Jax? It's the Draymond Green Show. Hashtag the Draymond Green Show. And let me know if you thought it was over and back or not. I'm gonna leave that up to you because you can't get fined, I can. So you tell me what you think. But nonetheless, I was frustrated. I was pissed off. And coming out the second half, I knew I had to be better if we were gonna win that game on the road, that I had to be better on both ends of the floor, defensive end and offensive end of the floor. And I thought I did a pretty good job of that. I'm really mad that my long 2 was a 2 because you know, when I take the 3, I like to make the 3 and, you know, kind of, although it still kind of acted as a 3, like it didn't count as a 3, but it gave the effect of a 3. And so still felt pretty good. But no, I think for me, last game, game 2, I spent the entire game pouting, frustrated, arguing with the referees, blah, blah, blah. I actually got a text tonight for saying that's wack, but badge of honor. I wear that with pride. So it is what it is. But I think Coach Izzo texted me actually after last game and he said it in a very nice way. He said, I'm gonna read the text to you. Because I don't want to get his words wrong, but he said it in a very nice way, which is not normal because he'll usually just tell me like, hey, you were terrible. He said, "Day shaky, but you got the job done. In my humble opinion, y'all got caught up in the officiating. You got to realize you're the leader and many follows." That being said, you hit a big 3-point shot and a couple big stops was key. They follow your lead, but you're still up 2-0. Good luck, brother. And that, I knew exactly what he was saying. He didn't need to say much more. And I responded to him. I said, Coach, you were 1,000% right. I let my emotions go overboard and the team did follow. I have to be better. Good luck, brother. But it sure does feel good to win. And like I said, I knew exactly right away what he was saying. I knew I needed to be better in that department and not let that affect my game negatively. And I think it had really affected my game negatively in game 2, which ultimately affected us as a team negatively. Now we were able to win the game and You know, when you can learn from your mistakes with a win, take that. And so I'll take it and just continue to move forward. But I had, I knew that I had to be better in that department coming into this game. And I thought I did a much better job there. And so obviously we're up 3-0, closeout game, which we know is always the hardest game. This team is not gonna come out and quit. They're not quitters. They're not led by a quitter that's a coach. And they're not led by— their main guy isn't a quitter either. So we're not expecting that. But ultimately, if we come out, we execute our game plan, we play our brand of basketball, we should go back to San Francisco as a participant in the NBA Finals. And man, does that sound good? 'Cause it's been a long couple years. I mean, 2 years ago we won 15 games. Yeah. Let that resonate for a minute. 15 games. I was ready to pull all my gray hairs out. I mean, that's where quite a few of these came from too. You better know it. But to go from 15 games 2 years ago, now obviously it's Lil Fools gold. Klay was out, Steph was out. We get it. But still was 15 games and it's still the same organization that won 15 games. And here we are with an opportunity to close out a series on the road and head back to the NBA Finals. And I am thrilled. I absolutely love when I go on TNT and do the whole Inside thing, but I'd much rather be in the NBA Finals. And so, So we have that opportunity. We have to make sure that we take advantage of it. Come out. I think one of the big keys in the game for us tonight was holding Reggie Bullock to zero points. You know, those guys come home, they get their shots going and maybe he ended up scoring late, but for the majority of the game, I know he has zero points. I'm not sure if he, Jackson said he did finish with zero. And I thought that was a huge key. 'Cause when they get those guys going, you already have to send a couple bodies at Luka. And when they get those guys going and they're just knocking shots down left and right, they're really, really, really tough team to beat. So that was a big deal for us, you know, and I think if we can do some of that next game, obviously you may not hold him to zero. He's probably gonna hit a shot. He shoots the ball. But if we can contain him, Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie better. Spencer Dinwiddie had a really good game tonight. Jalen Brunson. Luka is tough to stop and Wiggins is doing an incredible job, but you're never gonna hold him to 10 points or 0 points. It's just not gonna happen. And so you have to do the job where you can do the job. And I think we've done a good job of that for the most part in this series. So game 4 on Tuesday will be a fun one. We have to come out and take care of the ball like we did tonight, especially at the beginning of the game. We really put an emphasis on taking care of the ball at the beginning of the game and getting shots up. And we did a really good job of that. So that's gonna be a big key, making sure we get off to a good start. You know they're gonna come out, they're gonna throw a haymaker to start the game. Everybody does, especially down 3-0. You feel like you got nothing to lose, no one's gonna quit. So we have to be able to withstand that haymaker. And if we can withstand that haymaker and punch back, then the doubt starts to set in. And if we can get the doubt to set in, you make it, for lack of a better term, a lot easier on yourself. 'Cause it's never easy, but you make it a little easier on yourself. So take the haymaker, respond, and then let it play out how it may. But hopefully the next time I talk to you all, we will be up. Up. 4-0 and done with this series and moving on to the NBA Finals. Actually, before we move on, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Andrew Wiggins' dunk. Dunking on someone is incredible. You get, you know, momentum. It just feel good to dunk on somebody. But to dunk on Luka, that's a different— that's a different thing. You know, that's like, it's one thing to dunk on somebody that's great, but when you dunk on one of the guys, like, like Luka, as we all know, Luka one of them ones, he one of the guys. Like, when you get to, when you can dunk on one of the guys, it's like much, much bigger. And such an incredible dunk. I hate that it was, the play was stopped by the offensive foul call. And although it's, you know, we still got the 2 points and the dunk counted, it just sucks that those emotions weren't able to be felt right then during that game. Like once the review happens and it counts and all of that, like that's cool, but it's not the same emotion than when a dunk just happened. Like if Luka has to get up off the floor and dribble the ball up and Wiggins is picking him up full court. Like, that's a totally different thing and that's a totally different emotion. And so it kind of sucks that the play just didn't go on and you didn't get to feel that emotion, what that dunk should have brought. Um, but nonetheless, it is a highlight. It's one that'll probably be the biggest hot— slash top highlight on Andrew Wiggins career highlights. Yeah. Absolutely amazing. We've been telling Wiggs, asking him for years, Wiggs, when you go to the hole, just try to dunk. Like we don't care if you make it or miss it. 9 times outta 10, if you try it, he jumps so high and it's a pogo stick. 9 times outta 10, you're probably going to make it or get fouled. And he's attacking the rim aggressively like that. And man, that was an incredible play. And I had a front row seat better than anyone else in that, Arena, it was beautiful to see.
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