Getty Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green high-fives Donte DiVincenzo during Game 5 of his team's first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings.
Draymond Green was in rare form for the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night, filling the role typically reserved for the likes of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. Specifically, he was tickling the twine with the game on the line to help secure a series-swinging playoff victory.
In 32 minutes off the bench during Game 5 of the Dubs’ first-round playoff matchup with the Kings, Green dropped 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting and added seven assists, four rebounds and four steals to key a 123-116 win at Golden 1 Center.
However, his one-legged, fadeaway jumper with just under four minutes left in the contest — which extended a slim Warriors lead — warrants special mention for the striking resemblance it bore to the form and timeliness once exhibited by one of the greatest big men ever to play the game in Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki.
“Draymond was amazing, especially down the stretch,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said postgame. “They were calling him ‘Draymond Nowitzki’ after the fadeaway; that was maybe the biggest shot of the game. That and [Andrew Wiggins] hit a fadeaway as well…
“Obviously, Steph and Klay, and there were a lot of big shots made in the game but those two stand out to me.”
Warriors’ Draymond Green Elevated His Game, But Steph Curry & Klay Thompson Were Brilliant in Game 5 Win, Too
It had been a hot minute since Green last scored 20-plus points in a playoff game. In fact, he hadn’t crossed that particular threshold since Game 3 of the 2019 Western Conference Finals against Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers.
And it had been even longer since he equaled Wednesday’s point total — that last occurred way back in 2017 during a second-round bout with the Gordon Hayward/Rudy Gobert Utah Jazz.
“We’ve talked about it — throughout the series — that our bigs need to be aggressive…” Kerr added. “Draymond found some openings tonight and attacked the rim well and really finished well.”
While it was a banner night for the Dubs’ pivot, though, Curry and Thompson were just as instrumental in leading Golden State to the win (and a 3-2 series lead). For his part, Steph dropped a game-high 31 points — 10 of which came during the decisive final frame — and eight assists to pace the Warriors.
Thompson, meanwhile, added 25 points, hitting five triples and logging a team-best plus-14 in the plus/minus column.
Draymond Wasn’t About to Engage in Extracurricular Activity With Kings Fans
Even at his least controversial, Green is a player who elicits strong reactions from opposing fanbases. So, it should come as no surprise that he’s been public enemy No. 1 in Sacto ever since his Game 2 dust-up with Kings star Domantas Sabonis (after which he famously egged on the road crowd).
Given everything that was at stake during Game 5, however, the mercurial vet made a conscious effort not to engage in anything of the like this time around.
“I didn’t give any of my energy to them,” Green said of Kings fans, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “Anything other than winning this basketball, I wanted to focus all my energy towards that. So a couple times I noticed them, but for the majority of the game I didn’t even hear them.
“I was just dialed in at the task at hand.”