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With the NBA Playoffs quickly approaching, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green revealed which Western Conference contender he’d want to face in the first round of the playoffs.
During the March 28 episode of his podcast, Green explained that he hopes his Warriors draw the Sacramento Kings in the opening round of the postseason. However, the 33-year-old’s reasoning had nothing to do with the Kings’ talent, but rather their location.
“I’m not upset if the standings shook out how they did today and we met Sacramento in the first round,” Green said on the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show. “Not because I think Sacramento is a weak team, because the travel is so much easier … The only place we can fly and get to in 45 minutes in the Western Conference is Sacramento.”
Sacramento has put together a surprisingly strong season. They currently sit third in the West, two-and-a-half games behind the second-place Memphis Grizzlies.
“I said all that to say the reason why I said Sac is simply just because of the travel,” Green continued. “That’s a lot on your body. If we could bus ride an hour and ten minutes up the way like, I just think that’s much better for us.”
In order for the Warriors to matchup with the Kings, they’d have to overtake the sixth-place Minnesota Timberwolves, who they lost to on Sunday.
“Now, Sac is playing well and very good team, but just from the travel, at the end of the day, I don’t really care who we play in the playoffs. I think we can win.”
Kendrick Perkins Warns Warriors of Sacramento Kings
Speaking of a potential matchup with the Kings, former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins said earlier this month that he thinks the Dubs should “stay the hell away from” Sacramento.
“I’m going to say this right now,” Perk prefaced on the March 13 edition of ESPN’s First Take. “They’d better stay the hell away from the Sacramento Kings, because no matter how young that Kings group is, no matter how inexperience they be when it comes to the postseason, they have old souls… The Sacramento Kings are going to the Western Conference Finals. The Golden State Warriors, their championship days are over.”
Stephen Curry Speaks on Crucial Draymond Green Play in Warriors Loss
Unfortunately for Green, he was on the wrong end of the game-deciding play in Sunday’s brutal loss to Minnesota.
With time ticking down in regulation and the game tied, the former Defensive Player of the Year had his pass picked off by the Timberwolves, who then went down and drilled a go-ahead three.
Golden State’s star guard Stephen Curry later discussed the crucial sequence when speaking with reporters.
“At first, it felt like they were trying to take a foul,” Curry said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “I got two people that kind of swiped at me, and they didn’t call anything, so then I changed sides of the court. And I thought it was a little early to shoot just because [if] you make or miss, you give them another possession. So, I kicked it to Draymond. Obviously, I’m sure we could just hold it at that point, maybe, but everything up until that point was just trying to run the clock off. Run time off the clock and force them to need to make a decision whether they really wanted to foul or not. But we lost it.”
