Written by Ethan Sherwood Strauss at ESPN.com
Golden State All-Star forward Draymond Green did not mince words when asked about the Portland Trail Blazers’ chances in the aftermath of their Game 4 loss to the Warriors on Monday night.
After Golden State’s 132-125 overtime win, which gave the Warriors a 3-1 advantage in the Western Conference semifinals, Green was asked whether he thought the Blazers were done.
“Do I think they’re done? Of course I think they’re done,” he said.
“If I don’t think they’re done, I don’t know who else is going to think it,” he continued. “We’re going home with a 3-1 lead. It’s up to us to close it out. And I trust my teammates, I trust our team to come out ready to go and close this series out. Of course I think they’re done. It’s time for us to close the series. We did what we needed to do; we came on the road and got one win. We took care of home court. Now it’s time for us to do it again.”
Game 5 is Wednesday in Oakland, California.
Of Portland ultimately losing after taking a 16-2 lead to start the game, Green said, “That’s a gut punch [the Blazers] caught tonight.”
But asked whether he has developed a respect for the Blazers in this series, he said, “We’ll talk about that on Wednesday. We’ve got another game in this series.”
Blazers star Damian Lillard said before Green’s remarks that they aren’t done fighting.
“We want to go out there and make sure they respect us, make sure they understand it’s not going to be what everybody thinks it’s going to be,” Lillard said. “It’s not going to be no rolling over, it’s not going to be no out here being scared, it’s not going to be any of that.”
Green also was asked about a prediction of victory for Monday night’s game.
“I didn’t predict that. I told you we were going to win,” he said.
He said he wasn’t worried about giving the Blazers extra motivation.
“I wanted to give them bulletin-board material,” he said.
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