It was tough sledding for the Golden State Warriors without Draymond Green — but if you’ve been following this team for years now, you should’ve expected that.
Green missed 30 games due to a back injury. In those 30 games, the Warriors went 17-13 — still a winning record. But their offense (113.8 ORTG) drifted just outside the top 10 over that period. Their defense initially kept things afloat even without their best defender, but eventually suffered a precipitous decline.
Their efficiency on that end without Green (110.8 DRTG) turned them into a league-average defense, rather than the historic numbers they were putting up during the first half of the season.