With Curry expected to miss time, Draymond Green sets new standard for Warriors defense

MINNEAPOLIS With the battle s preeminent shooter Steph Curry sidelined from a second-quarter hamstring injury a raucous Target Center crowd ready to lose its mind and a Timberwolves offense stocked with high-volume scorers the odds were stacked against the Warriors in Championship of the Western Conference semifinals But on Tuesday night Golden State s defense was the great equalizer and later the overwhelming advantage in a - conquest that ripped home-court advantage away from the Timberwolves And as he has been for the past decade Draymond Green was the catalyst Despite being deflated when he received news at halftime that Curry would not return after being diagnosed with a left hamstring strain Green remained focused on the task at hand He ended up taking the air out of the Wolves offense Incredible job incredible match plan put together by CD Chris DeMarco and Stack Jerry Stackhouse and the guys did a great job of following it Green reported Thirteen players saw playing time for the Warriors and every single one gave maximum effort on the defensive end The numbers bore that out Minnesota s first-half points were the fewest the Warriors franchise had given up in a playoff match since the shot clock s inception in The Timberwolves shot a historically inept for from long range in the first half and ended the night a paltry for on -point attempts We flew around we made extra efforts which was pivotal Green declared We know this is a very good -point shooting association and we knew we didn t want to give them uncontested looks They start hitting their threes and they can roll The Warriors also held Anthony Edwards to points on shots including an for to start the challenge Buddy Hield took the challenge of guarding one of the battle s superstars and more than held his own at the point of attack You got the toughest matchup in guarding Anthony Edwards Jimmy Butler III declared to Hield who was sitting next to him during the press conference He came back guarding at a high level and creating and making shots Two-way contestant is a stretch but he s been key Even though rebounding is not normally associated with defense Gary Payton II who returned from illness declared that outrebounding the Wolves to and limiting their offensive rebounds was crucial Rudy Gobert had only rebounds four offensive after grabbing boards against the Lakers in the fifth and final competition of Minnesota s first-round series We thought we did what we needed to do to limit their shots Payton II announced And the guys went to the glass and rebounded which we knew was something we didn t do a great job of in the last series But for as much as the other players contributed to the collective unit it was of class Green who had the greatest impact Green came third in defensive player of the year voting but made a one-game situation Tuesday that he should have finished two spots higher As the fulcrum of a defense that toggled between man and a - zone Green rarely stayed inside He blitzed ball-handlers before recovering at the rim and then often made the closeout after a wild Wolves kickout It was nothing Kerr had not seen before He was everywhere he was guarding everyone Kerr revealed after calling Draymond the greatest defensive performer he had ever seen He just has a way of helping every single teammate by being in the right spot and thwarting different advantages the opponent has Thwarting those advantages will be of the utmost importance on Thursday when the Warriors will likely have to play without Curry He is scheduled to receive an MRI on Wednesday But even if the future Hall of Famer is out for extended time Green revealed the band s standards and goal does not waver Obviously things get tougher as we go forward without Steph but it s still the same mission Kerr reported We re trying to keep this thing going and win as multiple games as we can So I m not gonna let that reality set in right now