Golden State Warriors mercurial forward Draymond Green made a blunt admission after avoiding ejection in their 109-106 Game 4 win over the feisty Houston Rockets on Monday at Chase Center.
“I’ll always walk that line. That’s who I am,” Green told reporters when asked about his restraint in avoiding a second technical foul that could have tossed him. “I’m a habitual line stepper.”
Green survived the game with five fouls, including a Flagrant 1 and one technical foul.
“Draymond always walks the line, he always teeters on that line,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters. “He’s an emotional force, a physical force and he just can’t cross the line. He knows that.”
Green had to sit on the bench for a big chunk of the second half after committing his fifth foul with still 8:06 left in the third quarter. And when he returned in the fourth quarter, he played without worrying about getting his sixth — disqualifying — foul.
“He’s done a great job of playing through the frustrations,’ Kerr said of Green. “This is a tough series for him. The way the game is being played, they’ve kind of taken the ball out of his hands a little bit. He’s done a really good job of dealing with the frustration and competing. The last two games, his fourth-quarter defense keyed everything.”
Keeping Emotions in Check
The Rockets tried to take him out of the game. Green drew a technical foul in his involvement in the altercation between Stephen Curry and Rockets forward Dillon Brooks in the first half. Then he was called for a Flagrant 1 for planting his feet on the back of Tari Eason‘s head and grabbing his jersey while they were down after the Rockets big man stripped him of the ball.
Green kept his emotions in check at crunch time as he made the biggest defensive stop of the game.
“Just not pick up a cheap one, but I’m never going to be one of the guys that just because you got five [fouls] you don’t defend,” Green said. “I feel very confident in my defensive ability to defend without fouling. In that situation, you have to make sure your fundamentals are clean. That’s what I try to do.”
Draymond Green Is ‘Best Defender I’ve Seen in My Life’
With the Warriors holding a slim 107-106 lead, Green defended the steaming hot Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun, who scored a game-high 31 points. Green forced Sengun to miss a shot inside the free-throw line with four seconds left.
“He’s the best defender I’ve ever seen in my life,” Kerr said of Green. “He rises to the occasion. On top of being a great defender, he’s an incredible competitor.”
It’s a massive praise given that Kerr has played with Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippen in the second three-peat of the Chicago Bulls dynasty in the 90s.
Jimmy Butler finished Green’s defensive play with the game-sealing rebound against three Rockets players off Sengun’s miss.
“I saw that I wasn’t battling with Steven Adams in the last play, so I was able to go up there and be a semi-athlete, but I wanted that rebound,” Butler said of the play. “I told Dray (Green), if you get a stop, I will get the rebound. He got the stop and I got the rebound.”
