{"id":611073,"date":"2026-04-16T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611073\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:41:10","slug":"draymond-green-dominates-kawhi-leonard-secures-warriors-playoff-spot-with-key-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/611073\/","title":{"rendered":"Draymond Green Dominates Kawhi Leonard, Secures Warriors’ Playoff Spot with Key Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Draymond Green<\/a> came out with a statement performance on Wednesday night for the Golden State Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former Defensive Player of the Year was a key piece of the Warriors’ dynasty that won four championships in eight years. However, criticism of Green has grown louder over the years as he enters the tail end of his decorated career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Green proved on Wednesday that he is still one of the best defenders in the NBA<\/a>. This is after he shut Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> superstar Kawhi Leonard<\/a> down in the fourth quarter of their winner-take-all play-in showdown.<\/p>\n

Thanks in part to Green\u2019s heroics on the defensive end, the Warriors secured a season-saving 126-121 comeback victory at Intuit Dome on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\"USA:<\/p>\n

USA: Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (2) controls the ball against Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23).\u00a9 Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

After scoring 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting in the first three quarters, Leonard managed just two points in the final frame. Green\u2019s lockdown defense limited the Clippers star to just two attempts, while also forcing Leonard to commit two crucial turnovers.<\/p>\n

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Leonard gave Green his flowers<\/a> after the game, declaring the Warriors veteran a \u201cHall of Fame defender.\u201d Green, on the other hand, had nothing but high praise for Leonard.<\/p>\n

\u201cKawhi is one of the greatest in our league,\u201d Green said, via Clippers reporter Joey Linn<\/a>. \u201cI wanted to try to limit the shots he gets. The thing about Kawhi, you think you got him stopped \u2026 but he can always raise up and get his shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 I got the utmost respect for Kawhi Leonard. \u2026 I appreciate playing against the all-time greats. Kawhi is one of the greatest our game has ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Green also said that he does not \u201cthink there\u2019s a player in our league who doesn\u2019t respect Kawhi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green finished Wednesday\u2019s win with seven points, six rebounds, nine assists and four steals. However, what he did against Leonard, especially in the fourth quarter, goes way beyond the box score.<\/p>\n

Leonard and the Clippers\u2019 season is over. As for the Warriors, they will face the Phoenix Suns<\/a> on Friday in another play-in game. The winner of that matchup will book a spot in the NBA playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

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Related: Steph Curry Leaves No Doubt on His Opinion of Kawhi Leonard<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Draymond Green came out with a statement performance on Wednesday night for the Golden State Warriors. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,7901,5552,1175,7236,7185,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-611073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-draymond-green","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-kawhi-leonard","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-phoenix-suns","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}