Draymond Green Broke Down The Way He Guarded Russell Westbrook: ‘What That Does To You Mentally Is Tough’

The Los Angeles Clippers fell to 0-4 since the Russell Westbrook trade after losing to the Golden State Warriors, 115-91, on Thursday night. Westbrook had his worst game as a Clipper, scoring eight points on 3-for-12 shooting with six assists and no rebounds, in part due to the way that Draymond Green approached defending him.

In a clip that made its way around Twitter on Thursday, Green let Westbrook stand wide open when he was behind the three-point line, while the former Defensive Player of the Year patrolled the paint.

Westbrook’s struggles mixed with the fact that the Clippers shot 36 percent from the field are pretty good signs that this worked. After the game, Green spoke to the media and laid out why this was the approach.

“It’s very easy when a guy is sagging off like that, when a guy catches, you just rotate to him,” Green said. “And we didn’t want to do that, and I think the gameplan worked for us tonight. We got Russ to miss some shots. But I think when you have a gameplan like that, even more so — I know everyone always judges Russ’ jump shot, but what that does to you mentally is tough, and I think it was more so the mental of his shot. He’s been shooting the ball well, I think he’s shooting the three at like 33 or 34 percent, but mentally, that can get tough.”

Green said that while sagging off like that doesn’t necessarily get in a guy’s head, “it’ll make you think for sure, because you’re open every play, and you’re taught in basketball if you’re open, take the shot. But if you’re open every play, you kinda start questioning yourself.”

Steve Kerr also addressed this, telling the press that there is no better center fielder in the NBA than Green.