As the Golden State Warriors and their fans continue to bask in the glory of their 4th championship in the last 8 seasons, it is easy to forget that there was a time when things weren’t all that rosy. Think back to the circumstances leading into Game 4, with the Warriors having just lost Game 3. They were in somewhat of a must-win scenario as going down 3-1 would have been very problematic and they were going to have to get the win despite Draymond Green’s putrid displays.
Green was terrible in their two defeats in the series and he was having another rough outing in Game 4, as the Warriors found themselves down 5 with just over 6 minutes remaining. As they stared down the prospect of a 3-1 deficit, Stephen Curry stepped up to the plate as he finished with 10 points in the quarter and 43 for the game as the Warriors won 107-97. Speaking during his collaboration podcast with JJ Redick, Green admitted that he thanked Steph for his heroics, as the Celtics crowd going at him in Game 3 had really rattled him.
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“I was a little rattled and I’m never rattled, because it was just unexpected. You expect the boos, you expect people screaming and yelling at you, but I never expected 21,000 people to be yelling ‘F**k you Draymond.’ And then you’re running down the court, and on the sideline, it’s ‘F**k you, b***h.’ So I was a little thrown off by it on top of it, I was struggling playing. What you dive into is your game, but I couldn’t really dive into that because I was struggling. And I think he visibly saw that. At the end of Game 4 on the court, I said Thank You because they were going to f*****g destroy me.”
Green felt that Curry saw him struggle, which is why he was so emotional after Game 4 and he is right when he says he was going to get destroyed by everyone if they had gone on to lose that game. The likes of Kendrick Perkins with whom his feud has dragged on into the offseason was one of many individuals to go at him for that Game 3 performance, as he said Draymond was more prepped for his podcast than the game.
Green also showed his respect to the Celtics fanbase for giving him a hard time and by the looks of it, they really managed to put him off in the Finals. He and the rest of the Warriors fanbase have Curry to thank for saving them once again.
