LOS ANGELES — Draymond Green knew the Lakers were going to sag off him. Practically every team does it, but no one deploys the strategy as pronounced as Los Angeles. The Lakers want Green to shoot. They want to dare him to beat them.
So he did. By shooting with confidence, Green torched the Lakers not with his game-wrecking defense, but with his 3-point stroke. The veteran hit his first five 3-pointers, finishing 5-for-7.
“When he makes 3s, it changes our team,” rookie Brandin Podziemski said.
In his first game with at least five 3s since 2017, Green propelled a historic shooting night for Golden State. He’s shooting a career-high 39.5% from behind the arc this year as opponents continue to leave him open. In Crypto.com Arena, he made the Lakers pay for disregarding his shot.
“I just wanted to come out and not hesitate, just shoot,” Green said.
For the past several years, Green was incapable of even doing that. His percentages were down, which depleted his confidence. His body was certainly strong and rugged enough to anchor elite defenses, but had chinks in the armor that stiffened him up as a scorer.
Even though his volume is still low, Green’s accuracy as a 3-point shooter is an outlier in his career. The type of outlier that doesn’t come randomly. Sure enough, when asked about the work he’s put into his jumper, Green rattled off a list of people who helped him get right — both mentally and physically.
There’s Travis Walton, a former college teammate and close friend of Green’s, who helped the big man work on the base of his jump shot.
There’s Rick Celebrini, the team’s director of sports medicine and performance, helping Green stretch and strengthen his hips.
There’s James Mayhew, Green’s personal performance trainer he worked intensely with this past summer.
There’s Danielle Langford, a Warriors physiotherapist who travels with the team and teaches Green pilates.
The product of all that collaboration behind the scenes is Green’s jump shot.
“It’s been a whole process,” Green said.
Before Tuesday night, Green hit five 3-pointers in a game 14 times in his career. Each instance happened between 2014 and 2017. Back then, Green attempted an average of three triples per game. He wasn’t necessarily a floor-spacer, but he wasn’t a total non-shooter, either.
From the 2017-18 campaign to last year, he shot 29% from 3. As he misfired, his attempts cratered. Defenses left him open, and he refused to shoot, which can clog up Golden State’s motion offense.
In those years, Green’s hips were “messed up,” he said. He has a natural forward landing spot in his shot, but it appeared extra pronounced in those years because he was overcompensating.
“Just doing a bunch of things to kind of get my body moving the right way,” Green said. “Get my shot all in one motion. It was kind of like hitchy, but I was just trying to create power because I couldn’t get the power from my hips.”
Take this miss from January 2021. He launches forward, and his upper body isn’t as connected to his lower half as it should be. He gathers the ball away from his body and pauses at the top of his release
Compare it to his 3s against the Lakers. They’re much smoother. He’s jumping more straight up and down to maintain balance. With apparently improved hip mobility, he can generate power more easily.
“Just staying in the gym, putting the work in and taking what the defense gives me.”
Draymond reveals what sparked his 3-point outburst against the Lakers pic.twitter.com/s1CbPewT9t
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 10, 2024
That change — even if it appears slight — only happens after hours in empty gyms, training rooms and on yoga mats.
“It’s been incredible to see him at the facility,” Podziemski said. “Even when he was suspended and not able to play, the work he was putting in — it’s paying off right now. I think the basketball gods reward those who put the effort and the time in.”
Beyond any mechanical tweak or physical gain, Green needed to regain his confidence. All the work he put in helped in that respect, but he needed more than that. Again, he needed a group effort.
“I put the work in all summer, and then came into the season trusting it,” Green said. “I think one of the biggest things for me was going into training camp and hitting shots and then seeing the confidence my teammates gained in me. Once, it got to a point where we were doing mini camps, when I shot a 3 and Steph would just take off running back. And it’d go in, and that’s the best feeling in the world, when he has that confidence in me.”
Green’s teammates’ belief in him manifested in himself. It certainly showed in Los Angeles.
There were more factors against the Lakers that allowed for Green’s breakout. Their sagging defense on Green is typically executed by the much more dynamic Anthony Davis, who missed the game due to headaches and nausea. Plus, Steph Curry and Chris Paul’s playmaking brilliance also created great looks for Green; Golden State had 37 assists on 47 made field goals.
But Green’s willingness to let it fly opened up the floor for the Warriors. It spread the Lakers’ defense out. With Green shooting the way he did, Golden State had deep threats all over.
Tuesday’s performance isn’t going to change much. Teams are still going to sag off Green when he has the ball behind the arc. They’ll always prefer him taking a shot instead of Steph Curry or Klay Thompson. Yet as those shots continue to be there for him, he’ll need to take — and make — enough of them to keep defenses honest and space the floor.
“It really helps when Draymond is just, without hesitation, shooting that shot,” Thompson said. “The guy has great form, great shooter. He really was a catalyst in the first half to a big night scoring.”