Ticked: Sports Day Events Summary Clip, 15.1/Sport1
After 16 games out, Draymond Green finally returned to Golden State's roster Monday night, but the return of the best defensive player on the team, and the biggest leader and most vocal player on the team, didn't help. The Warriors lost 116-107 to Memphis' missing roster, which included the following nine players: Jaren Jackson Jr., Xavier Tillman, Zaire Williams, Luke Kennard, Vince Williams, Santi Aldama, David Ruddy, J.J. Jackson and Jacob Gilliard.
Draymond came off the bench, got 24 minutes and answered with 7 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, with only Andrew Wiggins (+1) recording a better plus-minus rating. But it wasn't enough. Golden State hit just 9 threes (compared to its opponent's 10), got to the line only 20 times (compared to its opponent's 10), and once again looked tired, old and gray. With a 40-22 record, they are currently ranked 18th in the West, a game and a half away from 12th place heading into the play-in.
"Individual players make up a team, and as individuals our defense is bad, so our team defense is bad as well," Green analyzed. "If we have players who take pride in how they play defense, then that's solvable. If players don't take pride in how they play defense, it's unsolvable. It's very simple. You should take pride in it and not allow your opponent to shoot at you. We were too slow, and until every player wants to stop the player in front of him, we'll be bad."
Of his comeback, Draymond said: "It was fun to be back on the court. I guess my minutes will go up, in the meantime I'll try to do my best to help the team and bring them some energy."
After missing 11 of the last 12 games with a finger injury to his foot, Jimmy Butler came back, in a big way, with 31 points in Miami's 95:96 win over Brooklyn. "We're fine," the star said of his team, which has also suffered injuries to Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo this season. "You have to keep playing the right basketball. We've always found a way to win games and we'll continue to do so. But it's nice if we're all on the court together" — as happened tonight, for only the ninth time this season.
Another player who returned tonight is Joel Embiid, who picked up where he left off before his recent absence — a 17th consecutive game with at least 30 points. This time it ended with 41 and 10 rebounds in a win over Houston. The league's new rules state that to win one of the individual awards, a player must play more than 65 games in a season, so Embiid can only afford to miss eight more games if he wants to be in the MVP race. "It doesn't matter," he said, "My goal is to be healthy at the end of the season. I've already won. If I get a chance to win again then I'll go for it, but I won't push myself."
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