Kristaps Porzingis on squaring off against Draymond Green: 'I'm ready for him'
Two nights after tangling with the player the Phoenix Suns hope can “become our Draymond Green,” Kristaps Porzingis sounds eager to mix it up with the real thing.
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The New York Knicks continue a five-game West Coast road swing on Thursday, visiting Oracle Arena to take on the league-leading Golden State Warriors. The Dubs steamrolled the Knicks in both of their meetings last season, hammering New York by 21 at Madison Square Garden in January and cruising to a 36-point victory in Oakland in March.
Porzingis, then what Knicks color commentator Walt “Clyde” Frazier would call a “precocious neophyte” (read: rookie), struggled in both meetings with the then-defending NBA champs, averaging just eight points and 6.5 rebounds in 23 minutes per contest. The pain was particularly acute at Oracle, where Porzingis missed 10 of his 11 field goal attempts, scored just two points, and saw the Knicks outscored by 24 points in his 26 minutes of work.
The common thread in those performances: the defense of Warriors power forward Draymond Green, whose physicality and aggressiveness helped stifle the 7-foot-3 20-year-old into two of the rougher outings of a largely successful freshman campaign. But that was last year.
Porzingis is now a featured performer for the ‘Bockers, one of only six NBA players averaging at least 20 points, seven rebounds, one assist and one block per game — the other five: Anthony Davis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMarcus Cousins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Kevin Durant, who declared KP “a unicorn” last January and who hitched up with Green and company this past summer — and a star on the rise who has already produced nearly as many 20-plus-point games this season (13) as he did last season (14) in only 25 games. And while the Knicks enter Oracle as heavy underdogs against a Warriors team that boasts the league’s best record at 22-4 and the NBA’s second-best offense, behind only the scorching Toronto Raptors, Porzingis is ready to measure his growth against one of the game’s very best defenders, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post:
“Both games he played really well defensively against me,’’ Porzingis said. “So he’s one of the top defenders in the league. It’s going to be a challenge … but I’m really looking forward to it.
“We didn’t really talk about nothing. But after games like that, you don’t even need anybody to talk to you. I want to go out there. Last season, right after the game was over I was thinking when was the next time we were going to get a chance to play against them. I’m ready for him.”
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Porzingis’ frontcourt partner, Carmelo Anthony, saw Green’s defensive mettle up close and personal during their time together on the gold-medal-winning U.S. men’s basketball team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and he expects the fiery Warriors forward to try to make the second-year big man uncomfortable early and often. From Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:
“He’s going to try to be physical with him, he’s going to talk the way Draymond talks. Don’t feed into it,” Anthony said. “It’s just Draymond’s passion for the game of basketball. It’s nothing personal. I’ve dealt with it all summer. Just be ready for that. I’m pretty sure it’s a matchup Draymond is looking forward to. And as a competitor like KP, he’s looking forward to that matchup.”
While Green has established himself as one of the sport’s premier defensive forces, finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and earning All-Defensive First Team nods after each of the past two seasons, Porzingis’ combination of size and skill make him the kind of player who could give the Warriors serious problems.
With the help of the service of downhill runners Derrick Rose (who will miss Thursday’s game as he continues to work through back spasms) and Brandon Jennings, and some more varied offensive spice from breath-of-fresh-air new head coach Jeff Hornacek, Porzingis has developed in Year 2 into a nightly matchup nightmare, a pick-and-pop marvel lofting unblockable 3-point shots 5 1/2 times a game and drilling them at a 40 percent clip who’s growing increasingly comfortable with attacking onrushing closeouts by putting the ball on the floor, gaining the lane and finishing with a flourish. He’s not yet strong enough to move a bull like Green off his spots, but he’s got an ever-expanding repertoire of shots in his bag and ways to unleash them, which make him a tough cover for even the league’s most gifted and versatile defenders.
Moreover, each of Golden State’s four losses this season have featured strong performances by big men who can shoot from outside, bulldoze their way to the rim, control the glass, or do all three. LaMarcus Aldridge hit the Warriors for 26 points and 14 rebounds on opening night. The trio of Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr. and Tarik Black combined for 40 points and 28 rebounds a week later. Ryan Anderson popped for 29 to go with a brutalizing double-double for Montrezl Harrell on Dec. 1, and the Grizzlies offered an all-hands-on-deck mauling from the group of Marc Gasol, JaMychal Green, Zach Randolph and Jarell Martin in Memphis last Saturday.
The Warriors have also struggled with other talented interior players even in games they won thanks to their superior firepower, as big men like Towns and Rudy Gobert have had big nights against a frontcourt rotation still figuring out how to navigate the absences of former stalwarts Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli. Perhaps no opponent’s been as nasty a nemesis as the Pelicans’ Davis, whose superlative inside-out game has produced an average of 35.3 points on 60.3 percent shooting to go with 12.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists in three meetings with the Dubs this season.
That said, the Warriors won all three of those games, including Tuesday night’s contest in New Orleans, which saw Green shut the door on the Pelicans’ comeback effort by stripping Davis on a post-up in the closing seconds to preserve Golden State’s 22nd win. (The NBA later said Green should have been called for a foul for putting two hands on Davis’ back as he posted up; the union representing NBA referees disputes that after-the-fact assessment.) It was the third time in less than a month that Green had made a final-minute defensive play to snuff out an opponent’s hopes, adding to his eventual DPoY sizzle reel and sending a message to anyone watching that, when the Warriors need stops, he’s the man to get them.
“I love playing defense,” Green said after the game. “So when it comes to a situation where you’ve got to get a stop to win the game, I enjoy that moment.”
With Rose and Anthony both ruled out for Thursday’s game, the onus will be on Porzingis to provide plenty of offensive fireworks if the Knicks are to have any chance of competing with the deeper, stronger Warriors on their home court. He says he’s ready for the task; we know Green will be waiting for him.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!