‘He’s our leader’: Without Steph Curry, the Warriors look to Draymond Green

STEPHEN CURRY HAD just found Draymond Green open on the wing for a 3-pointer, giving the Golden State Warriors a 30-20 lead Tuesday night in the second quarter of Game 1 and forcing the Minnesota Timberwolves to call a timeout.

Before heading back to the huddle, Green turned to find Curry on the other side of the court, laboring to move. Green had not seen Curry strain his hamstring on a drive moments earlier and went to check on his longtime teammate.

“I’ll be back,” Curry told Green as the point guard walked gingerly toward the tunnel and into the locker room.

Curry never returned.

With the franchise superstar icing his hamstring in the visitors locker room, Green grabbed a rebound on the ensuing possession and immediately pushed the ball up the floor. Seconds later, he drilled another 3 from the top of the key.

The signature “Booooooom!” that he or his teammates often shout after a Green 3-pointer could be heard as the Target Center was silenced. Less than a minute later, Green buried his fourth 3-pointer to push the Warriors up by 14 points over the Wolves with seven minutes left in the second quarter. Despite Curry’s absence, the Warriors’ lead grew to as many as 23 points in the third, leading to a 99-88 win to give Golden State the early advantage in the series.

At a moment when the Warriors could have been paralyzed without their superstar shooter, Green pumped life into the team. In addition to anchoring a defense that forced Anthony Edwards into missing his first 10 shots and held Minnesota to 88 points — only the second time this season Minnesota failed to score 90 — Green helped Jimmy Butler orchestrate the offense with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists to capture Game 1. Green’s four 3-pointers were second on the Warriors to Buddy Hield’s five.

Green has recalibrated since he lost his composure and felt “embarrassed” by his rocky Game 6 performance against the Houston Rockets and is a major reason Golden State has won two in a row. He will have to continue to play at a high level with Curry slated to be out through at least Game 4 with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain, starting with Game 2 on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET on TNT).

It was five nights ago, with the Warriors facing elimination in Game 7 on the road in Houston the next day, that Golden State’s players gathered for a meeting in their suburban Houston hotel. Green told ESPN that the idea to hold the most important meeting of the season was decided by Curry, Butler and himself. Green poured out how he was feeling to his teammates, something he learned to do in the past few years with the help of therapy and counseling. He vowed he would lead the Warriors with more poise and promised to set the proper tone in Game 7.

That carried into Game 1 in Minneapolis.

“He’s our leader,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “And when he’s right, like he was [in Game 7], he’s an incredible player to watch. The defense, just kind of owning the court on that side of things and then just being patient and not turning it over and being in the right spots offensively. I think the guys understood after Game 6 we were scattered, we were out of sorts.”

JUST 24 HOURS before the sixth Game 7 of his career, Green needed to recenter. In Game 6, he finished with eight points, seven assists, five rebounds, three blocks but four turnovers and the wrong disposition, committing a flagrant foul 1 just over three minutes into that 115-107 loss.

So before locking arms with Steven Adams and Alperen Sengun in Game 7, Green tuned into some slow jams, mellowing out to some 1990s R&B like Jodeci and H-Town to go with some current R&B like SZA and Brent Faiyaz.

He also had heart-to-hearts with the people he trusts most in his inner circle: His wife, Hazel Renee, his Michigan State coach, Tom Izzo, his best friend and former Spartan teammate, Travis Walton, and even his barber.

Izzo checked his former player with much-needed tough love, Green told ESPN.

“I spent the [those] two days embarrassed just at what I gave [in Game 6], what I gave to the world,” Green said. “I wanted to come out and prove again just who I am with poise but with the same fire, same tenacity.”

Green went to a spa and meditated, relying on methods he learned to calm himself after going through hours of therapy, counseling and check-in Zoom calls with NBA executives following his indefinite suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and striking Jusuf Nurkic in the face a season ago.

When Kerr eventually joined Saturday’s meeting, he initially went in looking to tell the team the keys for Game 7, including how he needed Green to lead better.

Green said Kerr didn’t say anything he hadn’t already expressed to his teammates moments earlier.

“It was like we were an old married couple repeating the same things,” Green told ESPN with a laugh.

It’s a union that has produced four championships. Kerr has repeatedly said that Green is one of the greatest competitors he has ever been around and “the best defender I’ve ever seen in my life.”

On the morning of Game 7 at the team shootaround, Kerr had a lengthy discussion with Green on the side. Kerr could be seen pointing toward the court numerous times, and Green listened intently and nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Green called the talk “one of the better conversations we’ve ever had.” Kerr told him stories and reminded Green what he’s accomplished in his career. He pointed out that “nobody will remember” the final result of Game 7 compared to Green’s résumé, and that he should have fun with poise while giving the rest of the Warriors something to follow.

During that meeting, Curry spoke to the team about controlling what it can control that doesn’t show up in the box score.

What he saw from Green in Game 7 was exactly how the emotional Warrior can combat what is expected to be another physical and grinding series that will test his composure.

“No better lesson than [Game 7],” Curry said Sunday. “Like make it about basketball. He doesn’t need to be a mute and not talk and be demonstrative. We wanted that type of [intense and fiery] Draymond, but conserve the energy towards us, our huddles. Even when he had that kind of mix-up with [Fred] VanVleet, he didn’t react, go talk to the refs, try to plead his case. It didn’t go his way.

“He kept it about basketball.”

GREEN KNOWS ALL eyes will be on him to see how he handles Gobert physically and mentally. He had his biggest offensive highlight of the season when he dribbled from half court between his legs in isolation at the top of the key before blowing by Gobert for a one-handed driving dunk with 28 seconds left in a 114-106 win on Dec. 8. Green immediately pulled out the Curry “night night” celebration.

Green maintained his cool against Gobert for most of the regular season, but he will draw an automatic one-game suspension with either two more flagrant foul points or three more technicals. Green repeated a famous punchline from comedian Charlie Murphy on “Chappelle’s Show” to describe his penchant for pushing the envelope.

“I’ve always walked that line,” Green said after the Game 4 win over Houston. “That’s who I am. Habitual line-stepper.”

When Green was issued a technical after flailing and making contact with VanVleet’s face in Game 7, he was frustrated on the Warriors bench but Butler, assistant coaches Terry Stotts and Jerry Stackhouse calmed him. Curry had a prolonged handshake with Green as if to make sure his emotional teammate would be fine.

In hostile territory where fans chanted “F— you, Draymond!” in the Toyota Center, Green retaliated with 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocks and was the foundation of a defense that held Houston to 89 points. And he kept the theatrics to a minimum.

It’s what Kerr needed from Green.

On Thursday, Green won’t have Curry to screen and pass to in a playoff game for the first time since the 2018 Western Conference semifinals, when Curry was sidelined with a knee injury in Game 1 against the New Orleans Pelicans. The Warriors are 9-3 in playoff games without Curry but that was with a younger Green and former Warrior Klay Thompson on a deeper roster. And Kevin Durant played in six of those games.

Kerr will rely on Green to do more playmaking with the ball, something Houston tried to neutralize in the first round by putting VanVleet often on Green. Green is just the eighth player in NBA history to have 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in the playoffs, joining Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and Jason Kidd.

Without Curry, Green will likely play some point guard to alleviate the ballhandling from Butler and get the team into sets. Kerr said the coaching staff spent Wednesday trying to figure out how best to operate without Curry.

“I had four turnovers,” Green said when looking at the Game 1 stat sheet Tuesday night. “Your margin for error shrinks dramatically without Steph. We’ll see what Coach has in store. I’m not going to come out and be like, ‘Aw man, I need to be Steph.’ I can’t do that.

“But I may have to handle a little more. Just play my role, honor the game plan that Coach gives us, if that’s me making more plays, I’ll try to do that.”

After the stirring Game 1 win, Green was still trying to pump life into his team with leadership. Even though Curry could be seen limping out of the locker room, Green insisted that the Warriors “won’t panic.”

His vow to lead better will be needed more than ever.

“I have to keep it similar for my guys,” Green said after Game 7 about how vital it will be to play like he did Sunday against Gobert. “Forget anybody else [like Gobert]. But for my guys, I need to stay that way, so I’ll be locked in. It’ll be good. But finding that balance, finding that line, not crossing it is important for me and this team, and I gave them my word.

“I’ll continue to give them my word.”