Draymond Green believes the Golden State Warriors would have three-peated last June if it wasn’t for Kevin Durant’s injury. Durant went down in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors. In the end, the Warriors still won the game, but that was the last win they would get during that series.
The Warriors won the next game and the NBA championship, but Draymond claimed that the story would’ve been very different had Durant not picked that injury.
“[Toronto] wouldn’t have stood a chance if Kevin didn’t get hurt,” Green said on Showtime’s All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. “Kevin don’t get hurt — you seen the game he came back in Game 5, I looked up, it was like six minutes to go, we had like 40 points in the first quarter—and so they wouldn’t have stood a chance if Kevin didn’t get hurt.”
Draymond unleashing 👀 pic.twitter.com/rROsN5wn8S
— Yahoo Sports Canada (@YahooCASports) April 23, 2020
He might have a point there. Before going down, KD had scored 11 points in 12 minutes, and the Warriors looked with a very good chance to get things back on track. However, they lost Durant, Klay Thompson, and Kevon Looney during that series, which hurt their chances to be crowned NBA champions for the third straight year.
Last playoffs were tough for Golden State. They lost Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, and DeMarcus Cousins at some point during the postseason, before the NBA Finals took the biggest toll on the team.
Still, the Warriors did a great job, stopping Curry and helping Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry secure the first NBA title in the history of the franchise.
