Draymond Green returned to the court after a 16-game absence Friday night. It was not a night to remember for the Warriors. They lost 116-107 to the back half of the Memphis Grizzlies' roster.
Green was not shy about talking about how poor the Warriors' defense was Monday night. They allowed 57 bench points, 40 free throws and seven double-digit scorers to a Memphis Grizzlies team without Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart, Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke, or Derrick Rose.
The Warriors forward said his team is lacking pride on defense, and that's a polite way of describing the fall off in defensive performance.
"It falls off with having pride," Green said. "You've got to have pride in yourself as a man...
"Our close-outs was too soft. Our rotations were too slow. So it's just no pride. Like, until every guy takes pride in themselves and wants to stop the guy in front of them, we'll suck...
"Turnovers are what they are. But we can't guard nobody. Until we guard, we'll lose."
Green was asked what the remedy to the defensive performance is, if there is a remedy.
He said it begins with individual players caring about their own defense in one-on-one situation.
"It starts with the person on the ball, and everybody else behind them," Green said. "It's everybody. It's not just one person. Individuals make up a team, and individually our defense sucks, so in turn, our team defense sucks."
So... can this be solved? Maybe, Green said, if the Warriors start caring.
"If we got guys that will take pride in themselves and play defense, one through 17 or however many guys we got, then it is solvable," Green said. "If guys won't take pride in defense, it's not. It's very simple. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
"You gotta take pride in your one-on-one matchup. I think every guy they had damn near beat their season average.
"It starts with one-on-one defense and if you take pride in one-on-one defense, then the team defense will automatically get better, right?
"Like you worry about to trap, the box and the help side and all of that stuff, but if you don't take pride in one-on-one defense, every guy, a shell, a trap, the box, none of that stuff matters? So either we take pride, or it'll be the same old story."
Green came off the bench Monday, and was on a minutes restriction in a 7-point, 7-rebound, 4-assist, 1-steal performance with 3 turnovers. He played 24 minutes and was one of just three Warriors players with a positive plus-minus (+1) along with Andrew Wiggins (+9) and Lester Quinones (+1).
The loss moves Golden State to 18-22 ahead of a Wednesday matchup in Utah with the Jazz.