OAKLAND -- After a first quarter that unfolded like a rehearsal, the Warriors snapped awake in the second quarter Saturday to deliver 10 minutes for the ages.
With Draymond Green emitting enough defensive energy to light up all of Oakland and Kevon Looney finding his shutdown gear, the Warriors outscored New Orleans 37-9 over a nine-minute, 42-second stretch to blow the Pelicans off the court.
“Draymond's energy and intensity is key for us and definitely helps us when we are at home as well, because the fans know who Draymond is and they are looking for that every time down from him,” Kevin Durant said after the 123-101 victory.
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“Once he does it, you can just hear the crowd just roaring and it's almost like when Steph (Curry) gets a wide open 3 and you hear the crowd about to explode. Same thing happens when Draymond hustles out-of-bounds, gets a block and does a great job and gets a steal. The crowd enjoys that and I think we feed off our crowd. He was great tonight.”
Basic numbers generally don’t do proper justice to Green’s game, at least not normally. On this night, though, they were a fairly good indicator: 16 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and two blocks. He was plus-28 over 30 minutes.
With Looney getting a big block early in the run and Green putting fierce effort on both ends, their teammates followed.
“On a team, you've got a role, and my role is to kind of be the catalyst of that defense, just as (Klay Thompson’s) is to just go and score the basketball,” Green said. “I can't just depend on him to bring it and get all of us going on the defensive end. That's my job and so I try to take pride in that. You know, try to turn it up another notch, watch a bunch of film on sets they want to run or moves that guys want to go to.
Golden State Warriors
“It's just a completely different focus level than it is in the regular season.”
You may recall the regular season, which the Warriors closed by submitting some uncharacteristically ordinary ratings. There was some of that in the opening quarter, as New Orleans scored 34 points on 60-percent shooting.
The beast came out early in the second quarter, though. The Warriors were good throughout most of the first round against the Spurs. But against high-powered New Orleans, the Warriors took another giant step in their evolution from the lottery-team defense to close the regular season to championship-chasing defense.
“I've been in a few playoff series now to understand that,” Green said. “And to understand the intensity level and focus level that I need to be at on that side of the floor but you know, my job on the defensive end is more so than just me being all over the place.”
The Warriors outscored New Orleans 41-21 in the quarter, the 41 points being the highest-scoring second quarter in postseason franchise history. The Pelicans were limited to 30.4-percent (7-of-23) shooting in the quarter. Stars Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday combined to shot 1-of-8 over a combined 21 minutes.
“How could I not enjoy that?” coach Steve Kerr said. “That was an amazing run, 12 minutes, combination of offense and defense, I think we had one turnover in the whole quarter and 10 assists. And the ball was moving and it all started with our defense, and Draymond is always in the center of our defensive effort. He and KD both really keyed that sequence, or the whole quarter with their defense and rebounding and getting out and running.”
This was an exhibition of Playoff D at its finest, whether the D represent Defense or Draymond.