[Russo] Kawhi Leonard checked in with 8:16 to go in a 3-point game. He took a shot with 7:03 left. He has not attempted a shot since as the Warriors’ defense has done a downright fantastic job of crowding his space and forcing others to beat them.
Draymond really is him
Best defender of this generation. And that’s not a slight on anyone else he’s that consistently good even with having less to work with than others
His defensive IQ is insane. We probably won’t even make it to the playoffs but it was good seeing Steph & Dray give a vintage playoff performance, I don’t know how many more we’ll get to see but this was so much fun.
Theres a nonzero chance that was it, which is crazy to think
Too bad the NBA doesn’t really keep track of play in stats cos this was really cool to see they both can still muster it for a stretch
Makes zero sense to me that it doesn’t count as postseason stats.
The biggest flaw with the warriors is that people understand now that you don’t stop Steph, you stop Draymond from initiating, especially without another offensive threat.
If KPs online, it complicates things. If Jimmy was healthy and online, it complicates things, because it takes more than one person to take Draymond’s passing out the equation
I’d argue he’s the most versatile defender ever. A team of 5 Draymond would be the hardest to score on of any player imo.
But all five foul out after kicking Steven Adams in the groin.
There might be better pure 1v1 defenders but in the clutch moments of a big game there’s no player I’d rather have guarding the ball than Draymond. It’s rare for even great defenders to maintain their normal aggression in the clutch but Draymond amps that shit to 100 every single time and attacks the offense instead. Ridiculous IQ and confidence
And you can argue that on ball isn’t even his greatest defensive quality. Smartest defender of all time
Agree. Between the insane stops in this game tonight and crazy stop he had on Jokic in 2022 in the clutch of a playoff game, it’s impossible to deny that Draymond is the best defender of his generation, and one of the greatest situational defenders in league history.
I’m biased but i’ve been watching since the real early 2000s and i’ve never seen anyone better all around. Bowen was amazing to watch on the wings, dwight was a complete menace inside, ben wallace was a freak who confused me, and obviously timmy in the post, but other than the legends that i find hard to grade without watching (russell, olajuwon, etc) i can’t think of a more complete defender than dray
The additional layer that puts him over for me is how much more complicated offense is today, how many concepts have been evolved on and layered. Can the old guys adapt? Probably but they didn’t have the chance to. Dray is showing more on defense than anyone ever had to. Add in the offense friendly rule change and everything as well
Disgraceful. Called Kawhi a top 10 player all year and he just shit the bed when it mattered most
Gotta give draymond his flowers. Testament to how good he is
Dray gets his flowers for sure, he played like the all time great defender he is.
But my god it’s also a testament to how ass our roster is, they were throwing body’s at Kawhi all night and Benn is the only one who could make them pay.
There were possessions where kawhi got fuckin triple teamed and we walked away with no points lol
Honestly didn’t help that Garland couldn’t get into a rhythm since he was in foul trouble
Draymond is one of the best defenders ever
Kahwi is great but he’s no Steph.
Hes always been better than Steph, don’t disrespect Kawhi like that.
You’re right. He’s better, when he wants to be
lol
Eeewwww a casual highlight fan pretending to know ball
Kawhi doesn’t know how to score in 4th quarters
Ironically calling Kawhi better than Steph makes you a casual
shouldn’t he want to be better all the time?
Yeah he should. That’s the biggest thing people criticize him for besides being quiet
He was doubled and tripled every time he touched it
So was Steph all night still made shots and passed to make plays
Steph has been doubled and tripled every night for the past ten years without success.
Yea these people saying “no he wasn’t” either don’t know what a double team is or never watched an NBA game their whole lives
Not really Steph was clamped by DJJ 1 on 1 until the refs decided to stop calling the moving screens.
From what I saw Steph was crowded around, held, hit, slapped every time he touched the ball, couple of those screens didn’t even work for him cuz all 3 players got so caught up in the screen
You must’ve not watched the game that was literally just fucking on. Christ
Go look at curry’s arm lol scratches bruises, pretty sure most teams defend curry by double teaming him, look at the last 3 he took to put them over how many defenders do you See?
You’d be surprised how open an illegal screens can get you
Watch the game bro
I did and I was thinking the whole time Kawhi is way overpaid to be shut down by a great defender but not figure out a way to score even through a double team. Your complaints remind me of the video of Devin booker whining about no double teams in a scrimmage
You haven’t listened or watched anything. Yes, green was great, but he was helped with double and triple teams all fourth quarter. If you can’t see this then I don’t know what to tell you.
If you can read I never said kawhi wasn’t double teamed, also if someone’s double teamed usually means someone else is open, kawhi has no court vision nothing else except making open shots evidenced by ur repeated reminders he was double teamed which no one here ever disagreed with
These conversations are stupid and waste of time off that first sentence. Fucking hell
Have no good takes to refute with so turns to insults seems pretty par for the course 😂
No he wasn’t. He had a catch and shoot every time. Without Horford going crazy in the fourth warriors lose.
So many missed foul calls on curry, all I saw were people tryna swarm curry as he touched the ball you’re delusional if you don’t think teams double teaming curry it’s their only tactic against him
And no missed calls on Draymond against Kawhi? Or come on bro, just stop.
Difference is curry scored 36 with those missed calls, kawhi scored 19 with those missed calls. Also Darius garland is a phenomenal defender too still couldn’t do jack against Steph mf curry
They had pretty good denial on Steph too but it’s just not the same on a guard as a wing. Kawhi can’t use screens the way Steph can, and the guys setting them on the Clippers aren’t the same level as Draymond and Horford.
Literally any non blowout comes down to “if X player doesnt do Y, they lose” brain dead take
Literally any game comes down to a player making plays. So not a braindead take.
Lmfao dumbass
Exactly kawhi couldn’t make any plays other than suck his thumb becaue of Double team dudes washed just like your takes
Your comment doesnt even make sense?
If Kawhi doesnt go scoreless, the Clips would’ve likely won.
If draymond had hurt his knee worse, perhaps the Clippers win
If the warriors hit their free throws, they mightve made it closer sooner or won.
And on and on so the bitching about Horford getting open looks and making them like its some fluke is weird
Dudes willing to die on the hill of kawhi was double teamed, we’re aware we watched the game and also had to read it like 8 times in this thread becaue you can’t come up with anything else to say
You’d be surprised how much space an illegal screen can create, that’s why it’s supposed to be illegal
Refs called 4 or 5 on the Warriors this game and half of them weren’t moving
Nah Draymond did his job its just the Warriors day today
Kawhi is still top 5, no need to be reactionary.
You need to learn what shit the bed means
Hint: it doesn’t apply in this situation
Yeah 1 FG in the 4th quarter seems close to it
Because of how much he was swarmed. That’s the point
Dude you can’t have 1 FG in the 4th quarter as your team’s star player. It wasn’t like he was making some insane plays out there either. Lebron, KD, Steph, Jokic, Shai, Luka would get shit on if they did this. That’s just how it is, man
Steph also was swarmed all night still made shots and play made consistently
Steph is coming off screens, they’re not the same style
That’s how the warriors have played for the past 10 years and the answer to it is double and triple team curry asap, still doesn’t let it slow him down
I’d bet money he’s googling what a screen is right now 😂
Uh you okay?
The warriors ran nice plays for him, Ty Lue didn’t for Kawhi, just iso ball on double teams
Franchise star not scoring a single bucket until garbage time of the 4th quarter of a do or die game, is definitely shitting the bed
Not if you’re getting double and triple teamed so much that you can’t take a shot
Forgot it’s the time of year where casuals start watching and pretending to know ball. I shouldn’t have to explain this
What about Kawhi getting stripped multiple times by Dray in single coverage? Stop making excuses for the guy lol he choked
Lol
He’ll look like Brian Scalabrine all year but as soon as Steph is healthy and then lights are brighter he always locks the hell in.
draymond had him in clamps woah
actually insane he turned into 2016 draymond
Kawhi had the Cancun tickets pre-booked
Helps that Kawhi was doubled all game hence no shot attempts in the 4th, Ty Lue should have put Batum in for spacing.
Fr. I was actually shocked that Batum barely played. He usually kills us with those no dip 3s
I was bouta say they blitzed him every pnr and had a backshadow every iso. Was more team effort than draymond
Draymond and another player. He was doubled every time he touched the ball
Everyone will forget this and claim he clears prime Curry and Durant next time he has a great game
It’s the Kawhi cycle only his great moments are remembered when he doesn’t play well it’s forgotten
He has the weirdest HOF resume
Nothing in volume stats, no MVPs, three all nba first team, but has two finals MVPs and two rings
DPOY as well. Could have been an Olympic gold medal as well in 2024 had he been healthy.
Some rings ain’t like other rings too. I’ll explain later.
This is ironic
You are doing the same thing dunking on him now during one bad moment
Using this game as an argument if the discussion is talking about primes is dumb as hell
Every single one of his playoff failures gets overlooked. His biggest accomplishment is beating Curry without Klay and without Durant
They were starting Quinn cook in the finals who was out of the league in 2 years
Without Klay? He played games 1,90% of game 2, 4, 5, and 85% of game 6
Also saying that’s his biggest accomplishment completely disregards the run the had to even get there and to win a championship for a country.
Injuries are also literally part of the game so we going to make fun of every championship since almost all of them has an injury that benefits them?
I mean, he had an all time raptors squad w most guys still playing now that played box & 1 and curry still somehow dropped 40ish while starting quinn cook, Jonas jerebko and Alfonso mckinnie. The run was fantastic, can’t hate that, but let’s not pretend he beat anything close to the real warriors team.
Also, still 100% fuck (some/many) raptors fans for cheering when KD went down, never gonna forget that one
Something something Zaza kawhi injury. Stones in a glass house
Wish he didn’t get hurt but cmon. maybe they win game 1 but if you think that spurs team wins a 7 game series you’re delusional sorry
Facts. Rinse and repeat with him. When he plays well, all praise and talk about how he should be MVP, if only he were healthy his entire career, blah, blah, blah, but when he plays badly, it’s silent. Been going on his entire Clippers tenure.
I was really scared of “playoff Kawhi” last season when the Clippers played the Nuggets. Then Kawhi only went off in game 2 & didn’t do much else the rest of the series except playing like your average all star.
I get what you mean by people forget when he doesn’t really perform to his reputation.
They literally doubled and tripled him every possession in the last 8 minutes. Needs a supporting cast
He cannot operate out of a double team. They doubled curry and he made it work. It’s his weakness.
No other star player gets doubled and tripled.
Curry gets double and tripled constantly you are delusional
I was being sarcastic
Tbh same with curry but he curry has way more great moments
If anything with Curry it’s the opposite he got constant choker allegations until 2022 just because of one terrible series (2016 Finals)
“Terrible” is a stretch but yeah def below his standards
Dray put on a clinic fr
Funny seeing people say Kawhi shit the bed. From my pov I saw Kerr draw up a master class gameplan and Draymond execute it.
They were not letting Kawhi get a shot off, if they were gonna lose this game to Benedict fucking Mathurin so be it. Props to the Warriors.
I agree. I don’t think anyone in here watched the game. Dray was his primary defender, but he got doubled as soon as he tried to move anywhere. It was a good game plan, and Dray did a great job. Acting like he was 1 on 1 like Bruce Bowen or Tony Allen is wild.
Curry gets doubled all the time and finds ways to beat it, because that’s what real superstars do
Good teams run sets and actions to get their stars open. The clippers didn’t run anything to get Kawhi some space. That’s a coaching problem. Also, the clippers successfully got the ball out of Curry’s hands in the fourth. Al Horford punished them with FOUR 3s while Gui Santos and Porzingis combined for 10 points. Curry hit the dagger, but those 3 guys are why they came back. They forced someone other than Curry to best them, and those guys did.
People forget how good he was even if he is a dirty player. He’s all time great
“Top 5 player in the league”, everyone can stop pretending about his mythical peak now
He will catch no flack for this performance, just watch
They’ll just point to his playoff run 7 years ago
He’s lucky he plays for the insignificant ass Clippers
He would’ve had a much bigger spotlight on him if he went to the Lakers in 2019 instead. Interesting thought.
Sitting out every other game on the Lakers would have caused widespread protests
I mean, they doubled and tripled him every possession in the fourth quarter. Why would they do that?
No they didn’t, Draymond had him 1 on 1 most of the time
Lmfao. Did you watch the fucking game?
Yes? He literally gave up in the 4th, there was a fast break with Guis, and he just lets him straight through. Draymond completely destroyed him in the 4th
Going to back to taking illegal payments again
No playoff aspirations.
Draymond shut him down
holy shit draymond turned back the time
Draymond did what Adam Silver was afraid to to and shut Kawhi Leonard down for the season
“Be careful not to choke on your Aspirations, director” - Darth Vader
Draymond had him in hell
Reminder that JK stans in warriors sub wanted draymond to be traded
I’m sure Kuminga woulda put up 30 tonight if Kerr would set him free!
30 on 30 shots
Draymond is hell of a defender
Horrific choke but he’ll get a pass for this as usual since he gets held to a lower standard than any other star ever
The perks of being a mute
Dirk was quiet and everyone knows his 1st round loss in his MVP season.
Right. If SGA or KD did this it would be all anyone discussed for months
Probably cos people know those two definitely read the discourse online. Kawhi is already off grid for the summer living on twigs and berries.
Dude got absolutely punked in the 4th
Draymond embarrassed him
Lue with absurd play calling to not get him open or bringing a second guy to the ball and letting Kawhi get double teamed
Gotta give Draymond credit, did it without kicking anyone too
Tree payments only good through 3rd quarter.
Kawhi is Draymond son
Dray had the clamps on the so-called new king of LA. 😂
Draymond had Kawhi in a straitjacket
Sucks to suck Kawhi
Not a huge Draymond fan but watching him make nephew’s life hell was a good time.
Stray jacket like the ones you put on pets that roam the neighborhood?
Draymond owned him
Draymond had him looking like Ben McLemore out there
Kawhi just had to fill-in the shoes Harden left in LA.
Draymond had him in hell lol. This shit was a great watch
Best defensive game Draymond played all season
he was looking fr washed this season shoutout to him
He got Draymon’d.
Warriors defense aka Draymond Green
Draymond’s leg fell off and he just twisted that thing back on and kept clamping Kawhi.
Fuckin love the Kawhi hate keep it goin
Steph still better.
I thought yall said dray was washed?!?
Draymond being DPOY late in the game
Kawhi? More like Kawhere
The debate between Kawhi and Deni is over
Kwahi’s tree planting company is starting operations in Cancun tomorrow
Raptors really made this guy look good
Reddit is so predictable.
Idiotic take
That Raptors team was 17-5 without Kawhi that season, he’s just the cherry on top that pushed them over the edge
Lmao they never accomplished anything without him and instantly win their only title with him
Brain dead take not too late to delete
Yikes, too many idiotic takes like yours in this thread.
Refs let them play in the playoffs
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Al horford saved them lmfao
Curry drops 27 in the 2nd half and Kawhi can’t even touch the ball lmao
Might be the best I’ve seen Kawhi defended. Shout out to Dray.
Good thing they funneled all that money to him
Draymond got him in Tartarus
Another no-show job in the 4th for Kawhi just like his Aspiration endorsements lol
I thank Jesus that Uncle Dennis was a piece of shit that poisoned the #2 and Spurs relationship that sent him out and so thankful the Spurs didn’t play this choke artist the supermax. HOLY SHIT!
Bandwagon fans that been screaming to trade Draymond for months will all of a sudden become fans of him 😂
2 points that came when the game was pretty much over but if this was kd he’d be crucified
Uncle Dennis couldn’t fix that.
I know it’s the kings but awhile Back he took over that fourth quarter. No team could stop him
Not sure why the fire was out tonight
Clippers always gonna clip
I’ve had to watch people compare this guy to MJ since he became a Clipper
Kawhi aspiring to go to Galveston
Now suspend him like he’s already supposed to have been
Kawhi had a great game early on, he was cooking us. It’s just that Draymond locked his ass up past the half. Great offense, better defense
Love the defense but this scares me for the Warriors. The Clips had 3 20 pt scorers in that game with Kawhi locked up in the 2nd half and they had to get everything they can get from Steph, KP, Horford, and Gui. This is likely not gonna happen in the playoffs or ever again. OKC is a pipedream. I would have wanted them to lose to have 10% chance in the Top 4 but I feel like the Warriors think that is a pipedream too and probably would want to package that pick.
Draymond Green should be in the title
Dray has a good game and people forget what a jerk he is.
Depending on how the Aspiration saga unfolds, Kawhi Era could end with a bang! Unfortunately that bang was a Steph Curry 3.
Draymond clamped that dude up. The job he did on Kawhi has to be appreciated.
Such a fraud, Dray had him in San Quentin
And then they started calling him better than Jaylen Brown
I mean Kawhi still was better this season this game doesn’t really change that
He wasn’t but whatever makes you sleep better
Kawhi was absolutely better, not even close.
Jaylen had an elite supporting cast behind him destroying teams whenever hes off the court. Meanwhile the Clippers were awful without Kawhi all year.
Clippers were actually better with Kawhi on the court versus Boston with Brown on the court.
Brown had White, Pritchard and Queta while Kawhi had Harden, Garland and Zubac bro do you hear yourself?
Also any argument citing Derrick White as a better player than Brown is disregarded.
Celtics with Brown on court: +6.5 pts/100 (bunch of players above him)
Celtics with Brown off court: +10.7 pts/100 (highest on team)
Kawhi on court: +7.5⁄100 (highest among big min players)
Kawhi off court: -6.3⁄100 (lowest on team)
NetRtg isnt end all be all - but when you have these INSANE differentials its obviously meaningful. Celtics were juggernaut with Brown off the court - thats a fact. Doesn’t mean theyre better without Brown, but they played insanely well in a large sample without him.
And those same players/coaching play with Brown as well much of the time.
The opposite was true for Kawhi.
Naming a couple players like that means everything is just stupidly simplistic
Jaylen Brown is genuinely one of the most overrated players in the league. He hasn’t even been doing much defensively this year and people called him the second best two way player in the league.
Based on what? Kawhi was significantly more efficient and even though he isn’t who he was defensively anymore I still think he was a better defender than JB.
Probably cause Brown led his team to 14 more wins with an inferior supporting cast. And you’re absolutely right that Kawhi lost a step defensively cause he let Brown drop 50 on him the one time they played