Stephen Curry's overtime-forcing shot in Denver kicked off the most-discussed Warriors opening night in years, and after the dust settled the people who actually closed the game — Draymond Green, Al Horford and Curry himself — used the postgame podium to explain why the new-look closing lineup actually held up. The win arrived on a night the franchise had braced for trouble, with the league's gambling news cycle hijacking the morning. By the time tip-off arrived, the basketball was the easier subject to talk about.
Green got to the heart of it without being prompted: the closing five had never run together in any meaningful way before, and the only thing they could reliably lean on was their own basketball IQ.
'I did think that was a possibility to be a closing lineup or a starting lineup or middle of the game lineup,' Green said. 'But I think what worked, we got proper spacing. We were able to get a lot of stops. We switched a lot, kept bodies on bodies, and that group was really able to come up with the rebounds.'
Green's framing of Curry was the most quotable section of the night.
'Yeah, he loved the moment,' Green said. 'That's just who he's been since I've known him. The bigger the moment, the more he rises. He's this quiet guy — we all know Steph, how he is — but he loves a show. So anytime it's a show to be put on, he's going to do it. He did that tonight in a major way.'
Green also flagged the part of the result he refused to spin: that the Warriors knew, without anyone calling a play, exactly what they wanted at the end of the fourth.
'It's not very unusual for us. We hardly ever cause stuff in my career. Steve usually calls something, but we just go,' Green said. 'Just going back to the experience — like we didn't need to call anything. We kind of just played off each other. You saw the matchup we wanted, get to that, get the space, and then let the next guy make the play.'
Green pinned the close-game composure on the same trait he had pointed to during their championship runs.
'Just having that much experience, you just kind of know what to do,' he said. 'There's no panic. I think that's the most important part. You get down those last few minutes of the game or in overtime, a lot of times people get sped up due to the pressure and lack of experience — and we don't lack that at all.'
For Al Horford, the night was a first taste of the kind of basketball he had signed up to chase. The veteran was deliberate about not over-claiming the result, but he didn't try to hide what it meant.
'It was nice to be a part of that,' Horford said. 'Steph hitting that shot to force overtime, and for us to find a way to win the game — it feels really good.'
Horford framed the wider context the same way he is known for framing big games.
'These are difficult shots that you need those to go down,' he said. 'And to be a part of that, it's pretty special. Playing these type of games, Denver is a great team, one of the best teams in our league, and for us to be able to find a way to win, that's pretty special.'
He pushed harder when the question moved to the personal stakes.
'I'm fortunate to be in this position,' Horford said. 'For these moments, it's what you play for. And understanding that we still have a long ways to go, but to be able to come here and take it — Denver was great tonight. Aaron Gordon was great, and everything they were doing to take their best shot, and still we found a way.'
Horford also pointed to the bench piece that mattered as much as anything Curry did, calling out a Jimmy Butler swing-three from the top of the key.
'Energy was great. Fans were really into it and helping us. It was just a very fun atmosphere and different guys coming in and contributing,' Horford said. 'Jimmy hits that big three from the top of the key, and that was also a special play. Just in general, all the guys coming in.'
Green also acknowledged his own pre-game distraction, after waking up to a cascade of league news he wasn't expecting.
'My reaction to the news, I was shocked,' Green said. 'I woke up to that news and I overslept for shoot-around. So when I woke up, I couldn't really check in on it because I was trying to get here. I got here and they're like, "Man, you see everything that happened?"'
Curry, when asked to assess what the Warriors actually had, played the same long-game card as Horford had.
'There's 80 games left, so you kind of understand, you don't want to get too ahead of yourself,' Curry said, 'but building blocks on an understanding of how to win, the selflessness of a team that can have eight or nine guys in a closing lineup realistically. I don't think that closing lineup — Al, Jimmy, Draymond, JK, and myself — had gotten any real reps in training camp.'
