Draymond Green Says Warriors 'F--king Sucked' in Blowout Loss vs. Clippers
Draymond Green was blunt about the Golden State Warriors' performance in their season-opening 141-122 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.
According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Green said: "I'm not a moral victory kind of guy. We f--king sucked."
With Kevin Durant no longer on the team and Klay Thompson out long term after tearing his ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals, the Dubs didn't look like a club that had been to five straight Finals. The Kawhi Leonard-led Clippers used a balanced attack, with seven players scoring in double figures, to improve to 2-0.
Two-time MVP Stephen Curry and newcomer D'Angelo Russell led the way for Golden State with 23 and 20 points, respectively, while Green finished with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Defensively, Golden State allowed L.A. to shoot 62.5 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from three. Green—the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year—and Russell tied for a team-worst minus-35 plus/minus.
Per ESPN's Nick Friedell, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said:
"This is not a one-off—this is the reality. There's going to be nights like this this year. You've got to play through it, you've got to keep fighting and keep getting better. That's the plan. ...
"It doesn't feel very good. Losing stinks. It's no fun. This is more the reality of the NBA. ... The last five years we've been living in a world that isn't supposed to exist. Five years of, if I remember, the best record anybody's ever had over five years. So this is reality, nine guys 23 or younger, and we're starting over in many respects."
As a positive, six of seven bench players had a plus/minus of even or better. Kerr also got 14 points apiece out of Eric Paschall and Jacob Evans off the bench.
As a negative, big man Kevon Looney left early with hamstring tightness, and the Warriors are already thin up front, with Willie Cauley-Stein out to start the year with a left mid-foot strain. Thompson, meanwhile, is likely out the entire season, but there's always a chance he makes it back late in the year.
In a Western Conference that includes several championship contenders—Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets—the Warriors need to turn things around quickly in order to compete.
