Green promised everything would be different after Boston’s Game 1 win, as the annoying forward turned up everywhere he was needed to even the series.
— Draymond Green faced the marrow-level dread of going down two games to none in the NBA Finals by arriving for Sunday’s Game 2 determined to be annoying as hell for as long as it took. Over the course of the contest’s 48 minutes, he argued with the officials — and nearly every Boston Celtics player — and threw his body around the court with a barely controlled fury. Put it this way: The man got a well-deserved technical foul midway through the first quarter on a play in which the call went his way. Yes, Green set the tone for the Golden State Warriors’ 107-88 blowout win that evened the series at Chase Center, and that tone was a roar. Green promised after Game 1 that everything would be different. He said the Celtics needed to «feel» him more, and he went out and unleashed a sensory experience comparable to standing under a waterfall. Jaylen Brown was his primary defensive assignment, and Brown went 5-for-17 from the field, but that was just the start of it. There were countless possessions in which Green, perhaps the smartest defender in the league’s history, ended up guarding three or four different Celtics. He seemed to turn up everywhere he was needed. Asked when he knew the Warriors would be getting the extra-spicy version of Green for Game 2, Stephen Curry said, «About five minutes after Game 1.»
Green was so wildly into the game there was a very real chance he’d be sent out of it. After the early technical foul, nothing changed. He continued to talk nonstop to anyone who would listen and many who would have preferred not to but weren’t offered the choice. He continued to hold every entanglement with Celtics players — there were many — just a second or two longer than recommended. There was one with Brown that caused the referees to don the headsets and take a closer look to see if Green’s night might be over. It wasn’t, for reasons the Celtics failed to understand, but Green appeared unconcerned.
«For me to sit back and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to push it to this edge and try to pull back’, that don’t work», Green said.
