The Golden State Warriors lost the only game Draymond Green missed this season to a bad team
By Nick Tylwalk
Perhaps some more hope for Cleveland Cavaliers fans, as we explore what occurred during the lone game Draymond Green missed during the 2015-16 NBA season.
As hard as he plays and as often as he skirts getting in trouble with his sometimes mercurial behavior, Draymond Green isn’t missing from the Golden State Warriors lineup very often. In fact, he was absent from just one game all season, and …
Draymond Green has missed one game this season. The Warriors lost it. To the Nuggets. https://t.co/bIC0ffVX8D
— Adi Joseph (@AdiJoseph) June 12, 2016
Sure enough, hitting up Basketball Reference as Joseph suggests finds that the Warriors lost to the Denver Nuggets back on January 13 when Golden State was 36-2 and Denver was a lowly 14-24 entering the contest. It was a slightly different GSW roster than the one Steve Kerr will field during Game 5 of the NBA finals, but it does hint at a few things we can expect without Draymond Green in the mix.
First, the Warriors won’t necessarily start Andre Iguodala, though he’ll likely log big minutes off the bench. Kerr will likely spread Green’s minutes around, and he’s already shown a surprising willingness to use unexpected players by using James McAdoo in this series.
Second, Stephen Curry may make up for Green’s absence by taking even more shots than usual. Against the Nuggets, the league’s MVP took 25 of his team’s 88 total attempts, converting more than half of them for a game-high 38 points.
But where Green was really missing against the Nuggets was on defense, as Danilo Gallinari torched the Warriors for 28 and got to the free throw line almost at will, with Darrell Arthur adding 18 on 8-for-11 shooting off the bench. If the Cavaliers have hope of taking advantage of the Green-less Warriors to extend the series, they will have to get the ball inside.
Even if the Cavs do cash in, Green is likely to be back with a vengeance in Game 6, though that one will be in Cleveland where the Cavaliers already managed to blow out the Warriors once in the NBA Finals (and yes, lost one too). There’s hope, at least, which is more than could be said in the immediate aftermath of Game 4.
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