Draymond Green said NBA champions the Golden State Warriors must play smarter on defense following their loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Two-time reigning champions Golden State committed 29 fouls and fell 100-98 to the Nuggets on Sunday.

Warriors star Green called for improvement after Golden State's first loss of the season.

"Defense isn't really an emphasis anymore in this league," Green said. "So I think you're seeing it all around the league with these high scores.

"We know what the emphasis is. Just got to be better, and we haven't done that in three games. … It caught us."

The 28-year-old forward said the Warriors cannot "act like every foul call" is wrong throughout the game.

"The officials are going to get some wrong, that's just the nature of the beast, they're human, that's the game we play," Green said. "To clean that up, to combat that, we can't have the stupid ones because what they do is an inexact science.

"They're not going to get them all right, how do you combat that? Clean up our defense, stop using our hands as much, stop reaching. And right now, we're not doing a good job of that."

The Warriors, who have opened 2018-19 with wins in two of their first three games, will face the Phoenix Suns on Monday.