Barber: Draymond Green revs up Warriors' 110-99 win over Trail Blazers

PORTLAND, Oregon - Run, Warriors, run. Run because it makes your brand of basketball more fun to watch. Run because it makes you better.

I'm not handing down any revelations here. During the Steve Kerr era, the Warriors have always been an up-tempo team. But the rest of the NBA has emulated them, and even surpassed them in some instances. Golden State led the league in pace in 2014-15, was second in 2015-16, fourth in 2016-17 and fifth in 2018-19. This year the Warriors were 10th in pace - faster than most teams, but not exceptional.

But this is still a dangerous team when it gets moving up and down the court, even if the Warriors forget that sometimes.

After Golden State's 110-99 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals Saturday, I asked backup shooting guard Quinn Cook what pace means to his team.

“Everything,” Cook said. “Everything.”

Yet there were stretches in each of the past two games when the Warriors stagnated against Portland. It can happen when you have great shooters like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who don't need fast breaks to score. And it can happen when you're sending a lot of inexperienced players onto the court, as Kerr did Saturday when he started Damian Jones at center and gave heavy minutes to guys like Alfonzo McKinnie and Jordan Bell. Players like that are less likely to force the action.

Pace wasn't the only reason the Warriors trailed the Trail Blazers 66-53 at halftime Saturday. They weren't shooting well from outside, and they were allowing Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard, a career 5.6-point scorer, to look like Hakeem Olajuwon.

But Draymond Green know what the Warriors needed. He knew they had to get moving. So he lit a fire, just as he had in Game 2. He grabbed rebounds and ran, or grabbed rebounds and immediately looked to pass the ball upcourt. Heck, he did it sometimes even when the Blazers put the ball through the net.

Green does a lot of things well, and all of them were on display in Game 2. He finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals. On this night, though, it wasn't anything quantifiable that defined his game. It was the way he jump-started and accelerated the Warriors.

“Everybody knows Draymond's the heart and soul of the team,” Bell said. “He seen what we were lacking, so he kind of just took initiative on the game, and started making easy plays, pushing the ball in transition. Obviously they're bigger than us with our bigs, so we have to use our speed to our advantage.”

Green didn't ramp up the game by himself. But as Bell alluded, he's the engine.

“He was the difference maker,” Portland coach Terry Stotts conceded. “What he did, he kept them going, even though we had a lead in the first half. His energy, the way he was pushing the ball kept them going.”

At one point after the game, when the glum Moda Center fans had vacated the arena and the players were dressed, Green and Klay Thompson were scheduled to share the podium. But Thompson entered the room alone and wasn't inclined to wait for his power forward. He was hungry, and in front of the microphone isn't his favorite place to be.

For once, Green was holding things up instead of moving them along. But soon he followed Thompson onto the riser. When it was my turn, I asked Green how he knows when it's time to pick up the pace.

“When you're playing against a set defense every time, it's tough,” he said. “For me, it's not necessarily to push it to score every time. It's just to kind of get the pace where we want to get the defense on their heels and then allow him (as he gestured at Thompson) and Steph to do what they do. But you can kind of feel when our offense is kind of getting bogged down, or another team is starting to make a run.”

“He don't say nothing, he just grabs the rebound,” Bell said. “Like Draymond, you just have to read what he's doing. He's one of the leaders - he is the leader of the team, emotionally. So whatever you see him doing, you just copy. If you see him slowing it down, obviously he sees something that we need to slow down - probably moving a little too fast, making too many turnovers. But when you see him moving the pace, there's a reason for it.”

“Just his voice. His presence,” Cook said. “He's always pushing the pace. He's a coach on the floor. He sees everything. And he's always giving us energy when we need it. He's talking trash to us, talking trash to the other team. Building us up, he's always building us up.”

With Green willing his teammates to be more aggressive, the Warriors seized the game in the third quarter. They outscored the Blazers 29-13 in the period, outrebounded them 15-9 and got to the free-throw line eight times. And here's the really interesting stat from that quarter: The Warriors were just 2 of 6 from the 3-point line. This wasn't Curry and Thompson lobbing grenades. It was a determined team getting to the rack.

Golden State was up 82-79 after three quarters, and Portland would never recover.

By speeding up the game, the Warriors returned to their true nature. And they took advantage of a Trail Blazers vulnerability.

The Blazers are tired. It's hard to blame them, really. They battled the Nuggets in a grueling seven-game series that finished Sunday in Denver, and flew to Oakland to face the Warriors (who had two extra days of rest) in Game 1 of this series Tuesday.

Portland relies heavily on its two best players, the backcourt tandem of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Entering Saturday's game, Lillard had averaged 40.5 minutes in 14 games this postseason. McCollum had averaged 39.5.

After halftime of Game 3, they looked gassed. McCollum made 2 of 10 3-point attempts and missed five free throws. Lillard went 3 of 9 from 3-point range.

Kerr wouldn't acknowledge that the Trail Blazers are worn down. He doesn't need to produce any material for the bulletin board. But Lillard leaked some truth.

“Everybody's tired,” the Oakland native said. “It's the third round of the playoffs after a long season. Our last series, I got a lot of attention. … I mean, I feel fine enough to go out there and play 40 minutes like I have been, but, you know, it's definitely tiring.”

That's what the Warriors do to an opponent - even a brilliant one - when they're playing their game. When they're playing Draymond Green's game.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.