The first round of the NBA Playoffs is finally over. The Los Angeles Lakers dispatched the Memphis Grizzlies in six games and now they look forward to the second round where they will take on the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
That Warriors trio has won four NBA Championships since 2015 with three of those coming at the expense of LeBron James during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers. But this Lakers team is much different than any of those Cleveland squads the Warriors played then and Green is aware of the challenge that lies ahead.
After the Warriors eliminated the Sacramento Kings in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon, Green would record the latest episode of The Draymond Green Show and gave his thoughts on the Lakers’ roster:
“Just my initial thoughts, obviously haven’t gotten the chance to watch film on them yet, but they’re playing very good basketball. D’Angelo at the point, Austin Reaves, whichever one you consider the point guard they both have a lot of ballhandling responsibilities. Austin Reaves has been playing lights out for the last two and a half months. D’Angelo Russell found his stroke those last couple games against Memphis. Rui Hachimura’s been playing great basketball, Jarred Vanderbilt swiss army knife, does it all.
“Obviously you got LeBron James at the 4, goes without saying. Anthony Davis at the 5, goes without saying. Troy Brown coming off the bench, Rui’s been coming off the bench as well giving these guys great minutes. Malik Beasley coming in shooting. Hasn’t found his stroke, but he’s a shooter and you got to respect that and at any moment you know he could get going. OG D-Ham. Saginaw matchup, baby. Looking forward to that.”
Green would continue on about the difficulties the Lakers present to the Warriors, especially with the size they play with and how unbelievable Anthony Davis has been so far in these playoffs:
“It’ll be a tough matchup. This team has been playing as good or better basketball as anybody in the league since the trade deadline. They are a complete team, the vibes around the team is great. They play a really good brand of basketball, they defend, they present some challenges on the offensive end as well. It’ll be up to us to meet that force with force. You know they’re gonna rebound the basketball they’ve done that incredibly well. And then also for us to get into the things we’re gonna need to get into from an offensive standpoint.
“You can’t allow them to turn you over and get out in transition, they’re tough in transition as anybody is. AD has been playing out of his mind defensively, I think he averaged five-and-a-half blocks a game last series over the course of six games. That’s incredible. It’s a really good team, it’ll be a tough matchup. They do play a lot of size and a lot of length. Jarred Vanderbilt’s guarding point guards at 6-9 so they play a lot of length.”
But ultimately, and expectedly, Green is very much looking forward to this upcoming series as is the entire basketball world:
“It’ll be a chess match as it always is. Steve Kerr is great in those. I always trust Steve in a chess match, he was great in this past series, he’s always been great so I’m looking forward to actually getting our game plan tomorrow. It’ll be a good series and then obviously you got Steph vs. LeBron. First time we’ve seen this since 2018 and it’s the very first time we’ve seen this before the NBA Finals.
“I’m not sure if there’s ever been a Warriors-Lakers matchup or meaningful matchup at any point in the playoffs. I’m excited about this. I’m really excited about this. It’s the Lakers. It’s Los Angeles. And it’s the mutha f***ing Dubs baby. You gotta love it. Gotta appreciate it. Bay Area stand up.”
With Game 1 to kick off the series on Tuesday at the Chase Center in San Francisco, all eyes will be glued to what has the chance to be an epic series.
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