Early-morning Green text prompts huge game from Durant
Kevin Durant helped the Golden State Warriors take a 3-1 series lead over the New Orleans Pelicans, but he received some help beforehand.
Sometimes insomnia leads to good things as Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green showed team-mate Kevin Durant prior to Sunday's win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Green struggled to sleep after a sloppy game-three loss against the Pelicans on Friday, so he stayed up watching film.
Durant caught Green's eye, so he sent the All-Star an early-morning pick-me-up and it resulted in a game-high 38 points as the Warriors defeated the Pelicans 118-92.
"I just challenged him to be who he is. I had to tell him," Green said, via ESPN. "I didn't see him attacking or being aggressive enough on both ends of the floor like we need him to be. You know, I don't hold back.
"When I see something's wrong, I have to voice my opinion. There were no hard feelings. We're just trying to win a ballgame."
Durant got the message to give Golden State a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semi-final series.
"In short, [Draymond] said don't worry about s*** else but playing with force and being aggressive," Durant said. "And I tried to do that as much as possible today. I wasn't aggressive in game three and I knew that. It's good to know that teammates got your back. It was good to hear that from him."
Even though the Warriors have plenty of offensive weapons, Durant proved last season, during a dominant playoff run leading to an NBA championship, his ability to score directly affects Golden State.
"What we saw from him today, that's what we need," Green said. "He was engaged and scoring all over the place. He was changing the game. That's the impact he has when he's playing aggressive out there for us. That's what I love seeing."