Getty Gary Payton II of the Golden State Warriors.
Though the Golden State Warriors were unable to close out their March 26 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, there was one positive: Gary Payton II made his season debut, scoring 9 points in just 15 minutes off of the bench.
Warriors forward Draymond Green was excited to have Payton II back in the lineup. He discussed on his podcast the process of implementing Payton back into Golden State’s system.
“Having GP back! Number one, just to see GP back out on the floor with us was great,” Green said on the March 28 episode of “The Draymond Green Show.” “I think with that comes rotations and figuring out the pieces. What rotations, what lineups are best together when adding GP back into the fold. That’ll take a few games to figure out. It always feels a bit better when you can figure those things out in a win. And quite frankly, like I said, we should have been doing that. But, that’s not the case. So, just get back to the drawing board and continue to figure those things out.”
Draymond Green Discusses ‘S*****’ Warriors’ Loss
Green committed a costly turnover in Golden State’s 99-96 loss, and his disappointment was reflected in Green’s tone in the intro to his podcast.
“Coming off the heels of a s***** loss last night, where we probably should’ve won that game pretty easily, and it just didn’t happen that way,” he said. “Obviously I had a turnover late down the stretch that led to a 3, which ultimately ended up being the basket to give them the lead and eventually win them the game.”
With 14.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Warriors up by 1 point, Green made an errant pass into the hands of the T-Wolves’ Kyle Anderson, who assisted Karl-Anthony Townes on a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to put Minnesota ahead for good.
“I’ve just got to better with the ball in that situation and understand who it is that’s closing out to me. Kyle Anderson has very long arms; he’s great in the passing lane,” Green said. “In saying that, I’m not really one to make much of one play and say that’s why we lost the game — because there are a ton of plays throughout the course of a game that I feel like, even me personally, could’ve done better to change the outcome of a game.
“But, in a situation like that, it’s very natural to feel like, ‘Oh, man, I cost us the game with that play,’ or ‘Oh, man, someone else cost us the game with a play that may have happened at the end.’ That’s not quite the case … But pretty rough night.”
Steve Kerr Unhappy With Sloppy Warriors in Loss to Timberwolves
Green wasn’t the only one upset with the tough loss. Head coach Steve Kerr fired off a disappointed rant regarding Golden State’s sloppy play.
“I don’t need to rank [the turnovers]. They all hurt,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “We got to close the game. We got to execute down the stretch. And I got to help them. I got to do a better job myself in helping them to execute. But disappointing because we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win. Had the ball with the lead late. I thought couple of possessions in those last two minutes just hurt us, and they hit the big shot.”