NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 26, 2025

Draymond Green

Game 3 - Postgame Media Conference

Golden State Warriors 104, Houston Rockets 93

DRAYMOND GREEN: -- (audio/video interruption) -- getting to the hole, finishing. He's a great finisher around the basket. Knocking his threes down was big. When you're getting that type of two-way basketball from G it really lifts this team, and is just another threat that they have to deal with.

Q. Just following up on that, GP had a good game a couple weeks ago, and I wrote about him and playing with Steph and he said he follows your blueprint on that on how to screen for him. He's really good at playing with Steph and the numbers bare that out. What makes him so effective?

DRAYMOND GREEN: He knows how to find his spots and how to use Steph to get things for himself, and I think that's big. Any time you can learn -- he's smart. You know, learn how to play off of Steph, it makes the game a lot easier for you. Any time you can pick up on those things and play great off Steph, he just has so much gravity. His graph gravity on the court is incredible.

So if you learn how to play off that, it kind of puts you as an advantage, and, good has been great at that since -- for years now. So it's great that it showed up at a good time for us.

Q. Were you surprised they used the blitz and trap so much and is that something you welcome if they do that?

DRAYMOND GREEN: No, I wasn't surprised. Especially with Jimmy out. They want to try to take Steph out of the game. So I wasn't surprised. But I thought we did a good job countering.

Q. Buddy, the storylines about him are about his personality, quirks, flaws. How about as a player, what he's given you guys this season, I think he played all 82 and what he's given you tonight.

DRAYMOND GREEN: He was huge tonight. Plus 14. Shot the ball well. Aggressive. Really good defensively. That's why I think he was signed to, what, a four-year deal or something like that, just because of what Mike and our group thought he could bring to this team.

He's been solid for us all year. You know, it's always more -- the only thing people see is the game. But what you don't see, we spent far more time together off the court than the amount of game time we have.

And so all of that stuff makes a difference, and he's huge, in the locker room, he's huge on the plane. Just for the aura of this team, he's big. Right behind Steve in three-pointers in the last at the point years for a reason, he can really shoot the basketball. Tonight we were able to get up some good looks, he knocked them down but he was really big for us. It was great to see him get that game under his belt and now we're looking forward to him continuing to build on it.

Q. Yesterday we didn't get a chance to talk to you. Brooks was defending Thompson but then called you a "dirty player." Wondering your response to that?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't have one.

Q. Did you make a comment about Jalen Green's nails postgame, and did he take umbrage to that?

DRAYMOND GREEN: I'm not sure what he took to. But it was a good win for us.