The Golden State Warriors recently locked horns with the Los Angeles Clippers during the regular season. The defending champions of the NBA registered an easy victory over the Clippers.
It was never a close affair, and one reason behind it was Draymond Green‘s smart defense against Russell Westbrook. Green left Westbrook open for most of the game and dared him to shoot. In the postgame conference, Green revealed messing up Westbrook’s confidence was part of his game plan, and it worked out for the team.
“He [coach Kerr] hinted that would be that game plan,” Green said. “And then we went through it this morning in shootaround and try and get everybody to grasp the concept — it’s very easy when a guy is sagging off like that, when a guy catches it, you just rotate to him, and we didn’t want to do that.”
After revealing the game plan, Green continued and talked about how it messed up Westbrook’s confidence.
“The game plan worked for us tonight. We got Russ to miss some shots. I think when you have a game plan like that I know everyone will always judge Russ’ jump shot—but what that does to you mentally is tough,” he said. “I think it was more mental than his shot. He’s been shooting the ball well. I think he’s shooting the three at 33 or 34 percent. But mentally, that can get tough. I thought we did a good job of sticking with the game plan, and we was able to muck it up on the defensive side. It ended up working out for us.”
Draymond explains the game plan to sag off Russ and how it could've made him overthink pic.twitter.com/6WER0pKDDj
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 3, 2023
Russell Westbrook had a terrible outing as he recorded just 8 points and 6 assists while shooting an abysmal 3-12 from the field and 0-5 from the three-point line.
Westbrook’s struggles were obvious in the final scoreline of the game. The Clippers had no response to the Warriors’ game plan, as the game finished 115-91 in favor of the Dubs.
Can The Golden State Warriors Defend Their NBA Championship?
In the 2022-23 NBA season, the Golden State Warriors have played like two completely different teams in home and road games.
At home, the Warriors have truly dominated teams. But at the same time, when they have traveled on the road, the Dubs have one of the worst records in the league.
Despite that, Klay Thompson recently issued a warning to the rest of the league, claiming that no team in the NBA wants to face a healthy Warriors team in the playoffs.
I feel it, yeah,” Thompson said. “We all feel it. With 20 games left, it’s such a golden opportunity for us to increase our seeding. Just get in a great rhythm and guys are getting such great experience right now, it’s going to pay off huge come playoff time. And I promise you this, when we’re healthy, no one wants to see us in the postseason. I promise you that.”
With less than 20 games left to be played this season, the Warriors currently have a 33-30 record in the Western Conference. Stephen Curry is expected to return back to the roster soon, so it certainly feels like things are about to get better for the defending champions of the NBA.
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