BASKETBALL

Draymond Green locks down Anthony Davis in Game 2

This is why he’s one of the best defenders in the world.

Published

3 years ago

May 5, 2023

Zack Theis

Draymond Green locked down Anthony Davis in a blowout win over the Lakers in Game 2 and nearly secured a triple-double.

After coming off a Game 1 loss at home to the Lakers where LeBron James and Anthony Davis both dominated, Golden State needed a response and they got it in dominant fashion. One of the biggest reasons for this dominant win was former Spartan Draymond Green.

Some people might say Klay Thompson is the reason because he scored 30 points but I believe Draymond made the biggest impact.

Draymond isn’t a player that is going to go off for 30 points. That is just not his game and role on the Warriors. He is the player that makes everything work on both sides of the ball. You might disagree with that statement but if you look, who is setting the screens? Who is making the big stops on defense? It’s Draymond Green and because of that, he was one assist shy of a triple-double.

When Draymond is causing issues for other teams, that’s when the Warriors are at their best and that is exactly what he did on Thursday night. Draymond was locking down Anthony Davis and this comes after a game that you could argue that he was the best player on the court. Draymond took on the challenge and held AD to 11 points and four turnovers while being his primary defender.

In the first quarter, Davis shot 0-for-5 from the floor, and four of those shots came when Draymond was guarding him. Davis did end the game shooting 5-for-11 from the field and only had seven rebounds.

If Draymond continues to cause AD trouble like he did on Thursday night, this series might be over.

Draymond not only held Davis to 11 points, but he was also active on the boards with 11 rebounds and even contributed 11 points. Again, Draymond is not going to stand out statistically by scoring a ton of points but he doesn’t have to do that. He has players like Klay Thompson and Steph Curry to score the bulk of the points. Green is an important part of what makes the Golden State Warriors work and he was a very big reason for their performance in Game 2.

You won’t hear a lot of the media talking about his performance because of what Klay did, but Draymond deserves to be recognized for how impactful he was, not only on the offensive side of the ball but his defensive performance against Davis.

If Draymond can continue this type of performance for the rest of the series, the Warriors have a good chance to get to the Western Conference Finals and could possibly get Day Day another championship ring.