warriorsground (Photo: via Elespecial.com)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors finished off the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
Stephen Curry mentioned that the team needed to get back to having fun:
Draymond Green reiterated that approach yesterday at practice.
“You gotta always have fun, no matter what situation. Even on the bench, have fun, bring energy to the guys that’s on the floor. It’s contagious,” Green explained, “Contagious energy carries over. It’s like if you see guys dropping their head, bad body language, that carries over, that’s contagious as well. So you wanna be contagious, but in the right way.”
Coach Mark Jackson concurred.
“I thought last night, they got back to just having fun,” Jackson said, “We talked about it before the game and fortunately went out and took care of business. We put together a quality 48 minutes from top to bottom.”
That even included this poster dunk from Green:
“I didn’t quite know at that moment my reaction was that long,” Green said, “I knew I yelled, but I didn’t know I yelled that far down the court. I was just in the heat of the moment. We were making a run. I don’t get many dunks, so I gotta get excited.”
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
When Warriors head coach Mark Jackson woke up Friday morning, an image on his TV screen provided a clue to what might get his team off its recent teeter-totter between good and bad outings.
.
Before he could even rub the sleep from his eyes, Jackson saw Draymond Green catch a pass from Stephen Curry, pivot toward the lane, cock the ball behind his head and force in a one-handed dunk over elite defensive center Joakim Noah.
.
“Then I see (Green) running off the screen on SportsCenter with his mouth wide open, like he just made the play of the century,” Jackson said. “You could just tell how his spirit, his approach, his mentality and his competitive nature gives us a chance every night.”
.
After Green made the highlight reel play, he let out a wide-eyed yawp that might still be echoing – if the reaction hadn’t given way to his infectious smile when he was greeted by his teammates.
.
And that’s what Jackson is after. He wants his team to get back to playing freely and having fun – the characteristics that allowed the Warriors to overachieve last season.
.
“We’re pressing, we’re worrying about this and worrying about that, but we’re at our best when we’re just having fun,” Green said. “Of course, any time expectations rise, you’re human. You’re going to know it, and you’re going to react to it. But no one expects more out of us than we expect out of us.”
As for the losses at #Roaracle, Jackson took a step back to look at the bigger picture.
“We’ve seen it in the playoffs against even good teams,” Jackson explained, “Homecourt advantage teams lose homecourt advantage after 82 games. The first game of the postseason, they think, ‘Okay, well it’s automatic’. We gotta understand who we are or where we are and embrace and continually get better, but I think all those things come into play of why we haven’t been as effective at home.”
“That’s a part of growth. You can’t have a loss disappoint you,” Green said, “We gotta get up for every game. It’s a part of the learning curve, part of the experience, and as we continue to grow, we’ll get better at that.”
Green, one of the most passionate yet articulate basketball players around, expounded on the Warriors’ recent woes:
Anytime you go from being from the bottom of the crop to one of the top, whatever team that comes in here, they’re gonna play hard everywhere you go. They’re gonna play hard.
.
You got all-stars, everybody wants to attack those guys. You got guys in the dunk contest, everyone wants to challenge them. You got two of the greatest shooters in the game, everyone wants to see if they can out-shoot them or run them off the line or lock them up. You’ve got one of the best power forwards, everyone is going to try to go after him. You got one of the best defensive centers, everyone’s going to try to attack him.
.
Anytime those things happen you’ve got to be able to adjust to that. It takes an adjustment period, along with we’re adding a very good wing in Andre (Iguodala), along with Harrison (Barnes) moving to a different role, all those things are situations that you have to adjust to and sometimes it takes a little longer to adjust than you would want it to, but at the end of the day, it’s all about getting better.
.
I think we’re getting better and there’s going to be nights like against Charlotte. You hate it, but it’s a part of basketball. We just gotta keep on growing and getting better. I think we’re taking steps in the right direction and that’s the most important thing.
Green also explained how this season’s 30-20 win-loss record compares to last season’s.
“I wouldn’t say (we’re) happy, because we know we’ve dropped some games that we should’ve won, so I wouldn’t say happy nor satisfied, but we’re in a good spot,” Green said, “I think last year going into the (All-Star) break we were 30-and-23 or something like that and everybody was ‘hooray’ and everybody was happy. Then all of a sudden we’re 30-and-20 and everybody’s disappointed. Like everyone says, expectations grow and we know that, but we’re gonna continue to get better we’re gonna make that push.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
