The Golden State Warriors lost a game they should have won to the Milwaukee Bucks last Thursday, thanks in large part to a big revenge game from former guard Ryan Rollins.
Now veteran Draymond Green has admitted he tried to rattle and intimidate his former teammate during the game, but to no avail as Rollins dropped 32 points, four rebounds and eight assists in a surprise 120-110 victory for the Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Draymond Green failed in his attempts to intimidate Ryan Rollins
Green took to his podcast and talked about the performance of Rollins, stating that "Ryan's game, it was beautiful. Like, the pace that he played with, he never got sped up, he never got rattled."
Green went on to talk about how Rollins hit star point guard Stephen Curry hard as he tried to fake a screen which caught the attention of the former Defensive Player of the Year.
"So the next play down, Ryan drives in the lane and I come all the way off the corner and just like shoulder him. They call a foul they take it out on the side the next play down the court...I come with a screen and I whack him," Green said.
In talking to Rollins during the game after those collisions, Green told the 23-year-old he was going to come after him, yet the young guard wasn't afraid and didn't back down even though Draymond admitted he could have, and probably should have in his words, laid him out.
Finally, Green said that he was trying to rattle the young player but that Rollins did not allow himself to be shaken, which is definitely high praise coming from the veteran given a big part of his game is predicated on intimidating opponents and trying to get into the heads of other players.
We know he can go too far with it, but when Green is able to prevent himself from crossing the line and is simply an annoyance to the other team with his chirping and physicality on the court, he really can help win and swing games with his antics. At the same time, we have seen him cross that line and end up hurting the Warriors rather than aid them.
Kudos to Rollins for not letting Green get in his head. He had a career night against his former team, having initially been drafted by Golden State before being included in the trade with the Washington Wizards that sent Jordan Poole and other players to D.C. for Chris Paul.
That trade does not look great for the Warriors in retrospect, especially after Rollins torched them with the Bucks despite Green's best efforts to intimidate him.