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Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry lauded Draymond Green for his composure while slamming Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic over his postgame comments.
“I know everybody’s going to talk about what Nurkic said or how idiotic that was but just the fact that Draymond knows how to walk the line that he needs to walk, this is probably the best game that you’ve seen where he can be loud and fiery and competitive and jaw back and forth but we’re playing basketball,” Curry told reporters after his 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left lifted the Warriors over the Suns 113-112 on February 10 at Chase Center. “If you didn’t see that tonight then you ain’t watching the game.”
Green and Nurkic had heated moments in their first meeting since the smacking incident on December 12 which led to the Warriors forward 12-game suspension. Nurkic had choice words for Green after the game.
“It’s sad,” Nurkic told reporters. “He didn’t learn anything. It’s just a matter of time. He’s going to knock somebody else again. I take everything back, what I said. He doesn’t deserve a chance.”
“Just his antics — try to hit people. The stuff he shouldn’t do, but I don’t care. At the end of the day, he tried to play that way. No one is worried about him. They got the win tonight. We’ll see what happens in a few games.”
‘That’s Draymond Green’s Identity’
Green handled himself well despite Nurkic’s attempt to get under his skin. He was hit a technical foul — his first since returning 11 games ago — but it wasn’t against Nurkic, but just complaining about a non-call on his layup in the third quarter.
“That’s his identity,” Curry said. “That’s who he is a basketball player. It’d be like me running out there not shooting threes like it’s a part of who you are.
So, I know it has been a delicate situation. He’s trying to figure that out and not let it spill over because we can’t have that and he knows that he can’t afford to let it get out of control but it fuels him because he lives for those moments where it’s just how we’re going to win this game and I’m coming at you and you got to go through me and you’ve seen that in the best of moments for sure. So we want to encourage him to keep doing that.”
Green behaved well in their past 10 games leading until Nurkic tested him on Saturday. He let out his bottled emotions once Nurkic tested him. But with some restraint.
“He tried to get in my head and it didn’t work,” Green said of Nurkic.
Draymond Green’s Impact
Green has sparked the Warriors’ turnaround as they won 7 of their 11 games since rejoining the Warriors on January 15 against the Memphis Grizzlies.
During this span, Green averaged 8.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 6.6 assists to help the Warriors (25-25) get back to .500 with still 32 games remaining in the regular season.
“He’s given us a lift every game he’s been back,” Curry said of Green’s impact. “He connects, obviously, our defense but you saw what he did. You can talk about his defense every game but all he did offensively tonight, especially in the fourth quarter — the lob to JK [to tie the game]. … he had some nice ball handling, and got to the glass so he was a threat on offense as well. So he gave us great energy in the sense of that competitive spirit that you need to win a game like tonight to meet the moment.”
Green almost had a triple-double with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists against Nurkic and the Suns.
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