Draymond Green Presents Unique Challenge for Anthony Davis to Solve

OAKLAND — Draymond Green already had both legs, thigh to ankle, swaddled in bags of ice as he sat in front of his locker when assistant athletic trainer Drew Yoder alerted him that he was second among three players for one-hour postgame massages.

“Put me last,” Green said, “and make it an hour and a half.”

A veteran move, to be sure, the last of many on the night that allowed Green and the top-seeded Golden State Warriors to stake a 1-0 lead in their first-round series against the eighth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans.

The final score, 106-99, did not reflect how foregone the outcome was from midway through the first quarter, in much the same way Pelicans star Anthony Davis’ 35 points do not accurately reflect the defensive job Green and the Warriors overall did on him.

Make no mistake: The Warriors respect The Brow.

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But they do not fear it.

The highlights are sure to include one of Davis’ four blocked shots and at least one of his five dunks, but whatever concerns the Warriors had about their performance, how they defended Davis was not one of them. Twenty of his points came on 7-of-10 shooting in the fourth quarter when the Warriors happily switched defensive assignments in order to deny three-point shots, leaving Davis being guarded at various times by Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala, along with Green.

“I thought we were good on Davis,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “That’s one thing we talked about before the series. We’re not worried about (him) scoring a lot of points. We’re worried about making sure we cover other areas.”

That this was Davis’ first taste of postseason play was apparent in the early going. The ball slipped out of his hands on the very first possession—poked away by Green—and a defensive miscommunication with Tyreke Evans resulted in a wide-open three by Barnes that erased the Pelicans’ 4-2 lead, their last of the game.

“I tried to describe what it’s like to him,” said point guard Jrue Holiday, who went to the playoffs twice with the Philadelphia 76ers. “The first time was like a high. But there’s nothing I can tell him. He just has to do it.”

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At times, you could practically see the cluster of thought bubbles over Davis’ head as he tried to figure out how to do that. With Green crowding him and the Warriors forcing him to switch onto quicker, smaller players, Davis was clearly winded heading to the locker room with just 11 points and one rebound at halftime.

“I’ve got to find a way to get the ball more effectively,” said Davis, who finished with one assist and five turnovers.

It’s a testament to his talent and IQ that he was already making adjustments as the game unfolded. Where he was turning the corner on Green and getting his shot stuffed by center Andrew Bogut trying to go to the rim in the first half, he beat Leandro Barbosa and then dropped a floater over Bogut in the second.

“It’s tough,” Davis said. “You see Draymond there and Bogut just waiting for me to come. So you’ve just got to make adjustments and go back and watch film to see how we can be better as a unit, try to counter what they do.”

“The playoffs are so different,” Davis said. “You don’t get a lot of the calls you normally get. It’s a lot more physical. So there is a lot of adjusting that you have to do.”

This is not the first playoff appearance for the Warriors’ leading star, Steph Curry, and that was evident, too.

If Davis was a first-time driver over-revving here and grinding the clutch there, Curry was shifting effortlessly to slip in and out of traffic at just the right times. He did not shoot particularly well—4-of-13 from long range, 4-of-7 from the free-throw line—but he provided a burst whenever the Warriors needed it and finished with a smooth 34 points.

The difference between the two was crystallized in one play that closed the first-half scoring. Curry, in his inimitable only-as-fast-as-I-have-to-go pace, got out on a fast break. Davis, who already had displayed his fatigue on the previous few possessions, angled from behind hoping to use his massive wingspan to pin Curry’s shot at the rim.

Only instead of a layup on the right side of the basket, Curry elected to throw up an underhanded reverse, switching the ball to his left hand. Davis reached for Curry’s right hand, clumsily hitting him on the shoulder a split-second after the ball left his other hand.

The shot glanced off the backboard above the square and floated so high it seemed as if the referee already was signaling the foul to the scorer’s table before the ball came back down through the net. The three-point play completed, and the Warriors went into halftime with a 59-41 lead.

“I knew he was chasing me down once I got past half court,” Curry said. “In that situation, if you go up softer and expose the ball, he’s probably going to get a hand on it. So I got contact, and I was able to get the ball to my left hand.”

Curry’s three-point shot early in the fourth quarter, opening the lead back to 14 after a 7-0 run by the Pelicans cut it to 11, was another momentum shifter. Davis tried to answer, but he front-rimmed a jumper from the top of the key.

“In those situations you obviously want to get the crowd back into it and there is a weird kind of tension,” Curry said. “But in the playoffs, you’ve got to expect anything. Whenever you’re on the floor, just try to make an impact.”

Green did the same. In the third quarter, he drew a charging foul on Davis and then drained a three over him, prompting Davis to momentarily slump his shoulders and drop his head.

“That’s the plan, to try to wear him down,” Green said of Davis. “No one’s expecting him to quit. He carries a lot for that team.”

As does Green. This is his third trip to the playoffs, but first as the full-time starting power forward.

If the Warriors get past the Pelicans, he still has some combination of Zach Randolph, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and/or Blake Griffin awaiting, hence the dozens of ice bags and the protracted massage session.

How long were his massages last year? “Twenty-five minutes,” he said.

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David Wesley, former NBA shooting guard who now is a color commentator for the Pelicans, remembers his first playoff game with the Charlotte Hornets vs. Derek Harper and the New York Knicks. “I was exhausted and beat up and I didn’t even play that much,” he said. “The hype, the anxiety, the fun—it all adds up.”

In that sense, Davis’ biggest victory is that he’s getting his first taste of postseason action, however long it may last.

“That’s the best thing about this,” Wesley said. “Once you’ve been through something, it’s like anything: You can say, ‘I’ve been here before.’ The build-up, publicity, interviews, how you’re going to play defense or go at certain guys, you don’t have to think as much about any of that. You just go back to playing basketball. This gives him a chance to see what it’s all about.”

Not just see—but also feel.

Green can hobble into the night knowing that ice and a massage will take care of his aches.

Davis’ anguish won’t be as easy to get rid of until he’s back on the court Monday night, hoping to translate Saturday’s lessons into a different outcome.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.