Friday NBA Roundup: No Doubt Draymond Green Is the League’s Most Unique Player

Kevin Durant doesn’t want to talk anymore about his first return trip to Oklahoma City, which is due up on Saturday night.

“I ain’t got nothing for y’all!” Durant said after the Golden State Warriors’ 123-92 annihilation of the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, per Bleacher Report’s Erik Malinowski.

Draymond Green, on the other hand, has never shied away from the spotlight, for better or worse. On Friday, he spent less time lighting a fire under Durant and more time shielding him from attention, intentionally or otherwise, by putting together one of the most remarkable performances in NBA history.

Green finished the Warriors’ 122-107 win over the Memphis Grizzlies with the first triple-double on record without double-digit points (four points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 steals, five blocks). According to ESPN Stats & Info, he’s just the second player ever to log double figures in boards, dimes and thefts.

And had he been slightly more prolific on the scoreboard—or doubled his swat total—he would’ve joined Alvin Robertson, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon with the fourth known quadruple-double in league history (the NBA started tracking blocks and steals in 1973-74).

One more point, and Green would’ve had himself a 5×5—five or more in each of the five major statistical categories. Instead, he became the first player ever to fall short of that mark on points, per FanRag Sports.

Not that Golden State needed Green to score more.

Klay Thompson caught fire early, scoring 14 points in the first quarter, and stayed hot, hitting 8-of-15 from three amid a 36-point night. Stephen Curry chipped in 18 points and five assists. Andre Iguodala poured in 15 of his 22 points in the first half. And Durant did his part, putting up 24 points and nailing 11-of-14 from the free-throw line.

But it was Green, at a game-best plus-26, who glued those efforts together and turned defense into offense—sometimes literally.

He didn’t single-handedly hold the Grizzlies to 39.1 percent shooting, though he did plenty to pester Marc Gasol into 4-of-14 from the field with four turnovers. He wasn’t solely responsible for the Warriors piling up 30 or more assists a league-best 35th time, though his unselfishness on that end is nothing if not contagious.

Green has long been the engine that drives the Warriors’ two-way dominance. This season, he’s driven what looks to be the most efficient offense in NBA history and a defense that sits within sniffing distance of first place, just behind the San Antonio Spurs.

Those feats are practically par for the course with a team as talented as Golden State. Last season, the Warriors led the league in offensive efficiency and finished fourth on the defensive end while winning an NBA-record 73 regular-season games. The year prior, they wound up second in offense and first in defense en route to the franchise’s first championship in 40 years.

Green was integral to both runs—for better and, in the case of the 2016 Finals, for worse—and will be just as critical to Golden State’s pursuit of another banner in 2017. On a club loaded with sharpshooting limbs, he’s the connective tissue that keeps it all together. He does the dirty work while his superstar teammates razzle and dazzle with their fun finesse. He’s the instigator, the pot stirrer, on a squad known best for its nice guys and carefully manicured public personas.

Taking the heat doesn’t make Green a martyr, not when he’s brought some of the past negativity toward him on himself. But every title-worthy team needs that dude—to do the little things and some big things and all the other things that may or may not show up on the stat sheet.

Green won’t be able to protect Durant from whatever vitriol he may hear in OKC. Nor can he guarantee another Larry O’Brien Trophy for Golden State, especially if his signature rage reaches beyond even his own control.

But, for one night at least, he soaked up plenty of shine as only Green can: by doing everything other than putting a leather ball through a hoop at a high rate, and doing it better than anyone in basketball.

Source: BleacherReport