SAN FRANCISCO – On a night when emotions ran high on the Chase Center court and in the crowd, the Warriors’ most passionate player did a great job keeping his own feelings in check.
Draymond Green put together a typical scoreline that has come to define his brilliant and temperamental career – 11 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks – all while playing a pivotal role in the Warriors’ 120-117 win over Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
It was Thompson’s first game back at Chase Center since leaving the Bay Area basketball dynasty that he helped build and signing a free-agent deal with the Mavericks.
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The always popular Thompson was cheered wildly by the crowd while a pregame tribute video played on the scoreboard above the court -- and the good feelings for the former Splash Brother continued throughout the night.
About the only person who didn’t get caught up in all the hoopla was Green.
“We just wanted to win the game,” Green said. “It wasn’t really about Klay. Obviously, with Klay coming back in here, we knew that he’d come in competitive, as he always has been. It wasn’t quite good enough today.
“We weren’t out there, ‘Aw man Klay’s in a different jersey.’ It is what it is. We had great years here. He’s over there trying to do something special, we’re here trying to do something special. Once you get in between those lines all that extra stuff goes out the window.”
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Most of the talk leading up to the game was about the emotions that would be felt by Thompson and Stephen Curry. Those two, along with Green, were the cornerstones when the Dubs won four NBA titles in an eight-year span.
Green managed to avoid a lot of that chatter but couldn’t get away from it when the day finally came.
Even then, the Warriors’ four-time All-Star didn’t flinch.
“If I’m totally honest with you, I had zero emotions towards, ‘Aw this is Klay’s return,’ ” Green said. “I did some things to make sure I had zero emotions about it, but it wasn’t like I just don’t care. No, of course. We’re human beings, we care. But I’ve been at this a long time, played against a lot of friends. This is obviously different. Klay Thompson gets just as much credit (for) building this as Steph Curry and myself. Not more. He is right at the center of that.”
Draymond admits he watched Klay's tribute video early to avoid dealing with those emotions before the game pic.twitter.com/U5Anpu00U6
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As true as that was, Green tried to keep the moment of Thompson’s return in perspective. In his mind, it was just another regular-season game.
“It just wasn’t that for me,” Green said. “It was a basketball game that we really wanted to win, that had implications more than just a regular season game, and that was about it.”
Green definitely had fun with it.
He sank a clutch 3-pointer in front of the Mavs’ bench midway through the third quarter then twirled around and started chirping at the Dallas bench.
Green later fed Moses Moody with a bounce pass in the fourth quarter that led to a dunk and a 104-103 Golden State lead.
“(Warriors assistant coach) Chris DeMarco said he was playing like it was Game 7 of the (NBA) Finals,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “But that’s Draymond, he’s the ultimate competitor.”
Green shared a few moments with Thompson but it was all business for both men after tip-off.
“You don’t win four championships together without that competitive fire," Green said. “He has that, and we’ve known that forever. We have that, and he’s known that forever. That’s always going to happen. When you play against somebody you’re close with, you want to beat them even more. It just raises that level of competition. So seeing him over there, you want to do great things and that was kind of the mindset.”
In order to keep his emotions under control, Green did not come out to the court when the tribute video to Thompson played. Green had watched the video earlier and felt it best if he stayed behind when it was played for the crowd.
“I just didn’t want to deal with those emotions because, A, there’s a love for Klay that ain’t going nowhere. But B, in watching his re-runs, we’re all a part of it,” Green said. “So then you start going into the emotions, ‘Oh I remember that. In that playoff run we had to do this overcome this.’
"You start to go down those lanes, let him have that. That was a big thing for me. I just did not want the first time I saw his tribute video to be me standing out watching it.”