ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — To the backdrop of a Golden State Warriors blowout win against the Sacramento Kings, the Warriors had gained a lot of strides in many areas, as if they were ticking off boxes on a to-do list:
- Welcoming back David Lee after an extended absence from injury,
- Collecting the most assists (36) as a team since 2010,
- Getting tremendous bench production as they scored 62 of the Warriors’ 128 points,
- Facilitating career highs for Festus Ezeli and Justin Holiday with 15 and 18 points, respectively, and
- Recording at least one bucket for all thirteen active players scored.
Yet at the post-game press conference, head coach Steve Kerr couldn’t help but acknowledge Draymond Green‘s under-the-radar performance.
“I thought he had one of the best halves he’s had all season,” said Kerr. “That first half, he was fantastic: the ball movement, the passing, the defense. He doesn’t even need to score to make a huge impact for us and I think he’s realizing that. The way he played the first half is the way we have to play as a team. Move, cut, hit the open guy, keep the ball rolling.”
In 25 minutes played, Green only scored 6 points, but he filled up the stat sheet in other areas, among them 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocked shots.
The original question had been about strategies and potential changes with Lee’s minutes.
“I realize I’ve veered off from your question,” Kerr told the reporter. “What I’m getting at is Draymond has earned his spot. David has to adapt, obviously, because we’re winning and playing well. David will keep coming off the bench. We’ll just take each game and we’ll see where it goes.”
Lee, who actually played one more minute (16) than Kerr had anticipated, didn’t have any problem with that.
“Whether I start tomorrow or I get a ‘DNP’ or anything in between, I trust Coach that he’s doing this to help our team win games and that’s his only agenda,” Lee said, “So I trust what he decides to do and if this is a temporary thing or a permanent thing, that doesn’t matter to me at all.”
Lee spent his first five years from 2005-10 with the New York Knicks, which lost at least fifty games in each of those five years except one — in which they lost 49 — just wants to contribute on this winning team. His next two seasons with the Warriors after that saw his team win just 36, then 23 in a Lockout-shortened season.
“I’m so excited that I’m on this winning team,” Lee said. “You remember in New York and also the first year or two here, we would beg to be in this position and now we’re here and I want to be part of a winning team. I’m just real excited.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
