Draymond Green’s outbursts the key to Warriors’ NBA win over Pelicans

Golden State forward Draymond Green was constantly yelling at his teammates to rile them up during the NBA game against the New Orleans Pelicans. PHOTO: AFP

SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green was furious with everybody on Tuesday night, but his Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr was happy with the forward’s intense emotions.

The Warriors erased a 20-point deficit to clinch a 120-109 National Basketball Association (NBA) home win over the New Orleans Pelicans, with Stephen Curry scoring 39 points as the team edged ahead of Minnesota into sixth place in the Western Conference.

The victory would not have been possible without Green, who had just eight points but was constantly yelling to rile up his teammates.

“We need his fire,” Kerr said.

“Draymond willed us to victory tonight. His frustration early with the way we were playing. Mad at the world. Yelling at everybody, their bench, our bench, me, and frankly we all deserved it.

“We looked dead those first 18 minutes of the game. We had to find some energy somewhere.”

Curry drained five of his eight three-pointers in the second half as the NBA champions came alive, surging past the Pelicans to win a sometimes sloppy, often scrappy contest and boost their chances of avoiding the play-in tournament for teams placed seventh to 10th in each conference.

Green and New Orleans’ Brandon Ingram received double technical fouls with 3min 45sec left in the second quarter, after they exchanged words in the wake of Green’s foul on the Pelicans player – which was upgraded to a flagrant.

His collision with Herbert Jones sparked more shoving, and with 14 turnovers in the testy first half, the Warriors were down 17 at the break.

They opened the third quarter on an 8-0 scoring run and had cut the deficit to four points going into the fourth.

Jordan Poole’s reverse lay-up early in the final period gave the Warriors their first lead since the first quarter, 95-94, and they did not trail again.

Poole scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, and Klay Thompson added 17 for the Warriors, whose record improved to 40-37.

“We started playing with some heart and intensity,” Green said of the difference in the second half, adding that his outbursts were “perfectly executed”.

Ingram led the Pelicans with 26 points and Trey Murphy added 21, but New Orleans coach Willie Green said his team’s lacklustre start to the third quarter was fatal.

“We started, I believe it was eight-zip,” he said.

“Two turnovers. You can’t give this team any life. Once they get going, once this building gets going, it’s tough to stop them.”

Elsewhere, the Boston Celtics’ chances of overtaking the Milwaukee Bucks for the top seed in the East took a hit with an ugly 130-111 loss to the lowly Washington Wizards.

Perhaps caught looking ahead to a Thursday clash with the Bucks, the Celtics were lackadaisical on defence, unable to stop a Wizards team missing two key players in Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 32 points for the Wizards and Deni Avdija added 25.

Jayson Tatum returned from a one-game absence to lead the Celtics with 28 points. Marcus Smart had four three-pointers in the first half, but overall, Boston connected on just 11 of 44 from three-point range.

They trailed by 13 at half-time and by as many as 23 in the second half.

“It was just one of those nights,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, whose team dropped to 52-24, behind the Bucks (54-21).

“Very rarely has that happened to our team. Just one of those off nights.”

Also in the East, Dejounte Murray starred late as the Atlanta Hawks edged the playoff-bound Cleveland Cavaliers 120-118.

He made three free throws to put the Hawks up 115-113 with 2:14 remaining, then came up with a steal and a basket that pushed the lead to four in the final minute.

Murray finished with 29 points to lead the Hawks, who remained tied with Toronto (38-38) for the eighth-best record in the East.

Atlanta withstood a 44-point effort from Donovan Mitchell, who tied LeBron James’s Cavaliers franchise record of 10 games of 40 or more points in a season. AFP

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