The Golden State Warriors looked to have Game 1 of the NBA Finals won for about three and a half quarters. Then the Boston Celtics went on a spectacular run that sealed the deal for their squad.
Understandably, on Friday morning, everyone had the same question: how did the Warriors manage to fumble the outing away like that?
Minnesota Timberwolves guard-turned-NBA analyst Patrick Beverley appeared on ESPN and offered his thoughts.
As far as he is concerned, one Warriors player really dropped the ball in Game 1.
“I’m gonna (look at) the person who played the second-most minutes in the fourth quarter, Draymond Green,” Beverley said.
“Obviously he’s been playing well throughout the playoffs coming back from an injury. But tonight, you see in the fourth quarter (he had) two turnovers and three fouls. Obviously we’re not looking for him to score 30 points, but his job is to impact winning at an elite level, especially at winning time.”
Green, who never shies away from telling it how it is, didn’t seem to put much stock into Boston’s big win.
“We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes. We’ll be fine.” pic.twitter.com/4en6N9hQNO
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) June 3, 2022
“They stayed within striking distance,” Green said. “And they made shots late. We’ll be fine, we’ll figure out ways we can stop them from getting those threes. We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes.
“They hit 21 threes, and Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Derrick White combined for 15 of them.”
While Green’s general point about Smart, Horford and White being unlikely to repeat their performances in Game 2 isn’t wholly inaccurate, it does omit one particularly important person: Jayson Tatum.
Tatum went 3-of-17 from the field on Thursday. The smart money is on him not struggling like that again.
It will be fascinating to see how Game 2 ultimately shakes out between the Warriors and Celtics. If Boston steals that one, too – Golden State will be in big trouble going forward.
As for Beverley — whether he is slandering all-time greats, calling people out for ‘fake’ injuries or chasing down opposing NBA players in parking lots, he keeps it pretty real.
The video speaks for itself. https://t.co/9cpZ1oqPZ6
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 3, 2022
So him being unafraid of Green’s wrath by openly criticizing him is not overly-surprising.
Will Green respond?
Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
