Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green doubles down on risky tactic in blowout loss

Golden State Warriors' forward Draymond Green has doubled down on his and the team's decision to throw a risky and somewhat strange tactic at the Boston Celtics in Sunday's blowout loss.

Green came out as the primary defender on Celtics' forward Jaylen Brown, but to say the 34-year-old was actually defending the three-time All-Star may be a stretch. Green deliberately left Brown open from beyond the arc, daring the 27-year-old to take and make as many three-pointers as he wanted.

Draymond Green has explained the Golden State Warriors' reasoning behind their defense on Jaylen Brown in Sunday's 140-88 defeat

The decision backfired spectacularly, with Brown nailing five threes on his way to 19 points within the first seven minutes of the game. His burst catapulted a ridiculous Boston run that saw a 61-17 advantage over the last 18 minutes of the first-half.

Speaking on his podcast on Tuesday, Green explained how he and the Warriors had hoped that the tactic would take the Celtics out of their offensive groove.

"You implement that defensive game plan because you feel like he's going to take it upon himself to shoot more and more and more and more and take their offense out of rhythm. Take their offense out of rhythm, makes it a lot easier to beat them"

- Draymond Green

While Green went on to say that you usually employ such a move against worst shooters than Brown, he reiterated that the Celtics' star had entered the game as a 34% shooter and claimed he wasn't "overly worried" about him hitting a bunch of threes.

Green also referred to Sunday's game as a "free hit" at the end of a four-game road-trip. Golden State certainly played like a team who were content with winning the first three games, eventually falling 140-88 in one of the most lopsided contests of the NBA season.

The game was also the Warriors' third in four days and seventh in 10 days following the All-Star break. Would they have employed such a risky game plan in a higher stakes setting such as the playoffs? We won't know unless the two teams were to meet again in a repeat of the 2022 NBA Finals.