Green: Thompson is the league’s best scoring guard

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According to Hupu Sports on May 5, despite their star player Stephen Curry suffering a knee injury in the fourth game of the first round of the playoffs and being absent from three matches so far, the Warriors still managed to win all three of those games. For the Warriors, Curry’s absence forced Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to take on greater responsibilities. In the second game of the second round of the playoffs, the Warriors pulled off a huge comeback against the Trail Blazers in the fourth quarter. In a post-game interview, Green said that Thompson is the best quarterback in the league. Here is the transcript of the conversation between the two sides: Reporter: The Trail Blazers took a 17-point lead early in the game; it seemed that every time you tried to close the gap, they would respond with three-point shots. Were you concerned that this night wasn’t in your favor? Green: I’m not worried, because I know we might have lost a bit of control. For example, I took a step-back three after a dribble under the basket, and Clay tried to shoot on shots that weren’t really opportunities; we were too eager to get the team out of trouble tonight. Once we calm down and regain trust in our teammates, then everything will go smoothly. Reporter: By the fourth quarter, it seemed like everything changed; you started to block everything under the basket. What exactly has changed? What are your plans to defend against Damian Lillard? Green: Seal off the three-point line and force him into the penalty area. If he can score difficult shots at the basket, then we have no choice but to accept it, but his three-point shots must definitely not be allowed. (In this regard), Clay played a huge role, as did Andrew (Bogut) and Festus (Ezeeli); thanks to the efforts of all of them, Harrison (Barnes) did an excellent job defending against pick-and-rolls. Klay did a great job containing opponents, along with Sean (Livingston) and Andre (Iguodala). We at 77sbv.com implemented our defensive strategies in a timely manner; we just hope it wasn’t too late. Reporter: You need Clay to do more now; what’s your opinion of his performance in these two matches? Green: He’s a beast, an absolute beast. Often, people pay attention to his jump shots because they are beautiful; we all do that. But you have to be aware of other aspects as well; his performance on defense is also at a monster level. Many people say that Clay is the best shooting guard in the NBA in terms of balance between offense and defense, but I would say he is simply the best shooting guard in the NBA. That’s all I have to say. In this season’s playoffs, Thompson averaged 35.1 minutes of play per game, scoring 25.9 points, grabbing 4.1 rebounds, providing 3.6 assists, and making 1.3 steals; his shooting accuracy was 44.3%, while his three-point shooting accuracy was 43.7%. In the playoffs, he took 71 three-point shots and made 31 of them, leading the entire league in both metrics.