Danny Green on Stopping the Clippers: "You don’t want other guys getting off"
Danny Green believes he's found a way to contain the Clippers in the playoffs.
The biggest topic of the 2019-2020 NBA Season is a potential Clippers-Lakers playoff matchup. It's been discussed endless times, and remains to be a hot topic during quarantine. ESPN's First Take had Danny Green on the show discuss stopping Kawhi Leonard, and the Clippers.
“It’s not just him that is unstoppable,” Green said. “There’s a lot of guys in this league that you’re not going to stop, you can contain them. So the best bet, especially in the playoffs, is try to contain most teams‘ All-Stars or their superstars, and limit their role players."
Most fans clamor over the idea of 1 on 1 defense. They like to find the metrics on how well certain players guard other players, solely for hyped-up statements. In actuality, defense is usually a team effort. Green knows it'll be a team effort to limit Kawhi's touches.
"We do the best we can as a group, not just individually, but to contain him, and limit his touches as much as possible," Green said. "Limit his makes, and obviously hope he has an off day."
Danny Green believes the Lakers' biggest key to success is limiting the Clippers' role players. While the team has Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, they also have two potential 6th men of the year in Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams. On top of that, the Clippers have a sharpshooting threat in Landry Shamet.
“You don’t want other guys going off," Green said. "Obviously we want to try to limit Paul, Lou Williams and Trez. I think the difference makers in the playoffs is really not them. It’s the guys that step up, the X-Factors. There’s two or three roles players on each team that can change a series.”
While that statement is true, never forget that the Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors were carried by LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard having historic playoff runs. Winning a championship is a team effort, but superstars have to step up.
Do you agree with Danny Green?
