According to Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors were “punked” by the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, a 120-90 shellacking at Quicken Loans Arena.
Green and the Dubs hold a 2-1 series lead—the defending champs are 13-1 this season following a loss—and have plenty of confidence heading into Game 4 tonight.
The fiery and talkative forward thinks effort and aggression outweigh strategy and lineups in this matchup for the championship.
Green: "One thing about this team, when we lose a game we get pissed off."
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) June 9, 2016
Green: "Everybody in the locker room knows we got punked. There is nothing to say."
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) June 9, 2016
Green: "Ain't no X or no O is going to win this series. I can assure you that. It's going to be who plays the hardest."
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) June 9, 2016
"We'll respond tomorrow. We've done it all year." – @KlayThompson on Game 4. #NBAFinals pic.twitter.com/JY5tPC82xh
— NBA (@NBA) June 9, 2016
Per the Mercury News:
These are the NBA Finals and, on Wednesday, the Warriors got blasted by a team they’re pretty sure shouldn’t be doing that to the Warriors. […] Which led to (Steve) Kerr immediately declaring that the Warriors played “soft” in the 30-point loss to Cleveland, and when I asked Green about that on Thursday, there was an emphatic echo.
“I think we were extremely soft,” Green said before the Warriors’ practice at Quicken Loans Arena. “We got bullied, punked, any other word that you can find for it. That’s pretty much what it was. And that’s why the game went the way it went. And everybody in that locker room knew we got punked. Ain’t too much to say.”
The Warriors are furious with themselves for the timid way they played Game 3 because — unlike the blowouts they absorbed in Oklahoma City last round — they do not believe Cleveland should’ve outclassed them like that. […] “We’ve got to be tougher,” Green said. “If we want to come out and play tough, we’ll win Game 4. We’ll go back home with a 3-1 lead. We want to come out and play soft like we did last night, we’ll be in a dogfight.”
