Can Draymond Inexperienced maintain spite up from classic show for Warriors-Rockets?

It was a definitive Draymond Inexperienced on Thursday night time in Houston: good, exhausting, and fueled nearly fully by spite.

There was the defensive dominance, the offensive positivity, and, after all, some extracurricular actions. Within the third quarter, after taking a tumble, Inexperienced reached out and grabbed the ankle of a retreating Jabari Smith Jr. Why? Who is aware of. Maybe in a sport the Warriors had been controlling with far an excessive amount of ease, regardless of being shorthanded to the purpose the Rockets performed them with child gloves, it gave him the battle he craves.

Inexperienced wants the friction. He has at all times operated finest within the muck, turning manufactured slights into high-octane gas. In opposition to a Rockets staff that includes his previous pal Kevin Durant, towards a company that anybody who went by the salad days really, deeply loathes, Inexperienced dialed up the depth and placed on a defensive masterclass.

He even trash-talked a crucial Durant free-throw out of the cylinder with 30 seconds left in a one-point sport in additional time. Earlier than the try, he walked from beneath the ring to the free-throw line, mentioned one thing in Durant’s basic course, and stood there as Tari Easton feebly tried to face between the 2 Corridor of Famers.

“Classic Draymond,” Steve Kerr informed reporters after the sport. “The protection, the management, the pressure, the passing.”

It was.

It was additionally a evident, unwelcome reminder.

Whereas watching Inexperienced flip again the clock is undoubtedly entertaining for an evening, it highlights a stark actuality for Golden State:

Have a look at how a lot effort it takes for these Warriors simply to outlive a Thursday night time towards Houston in early March.

Have a look at how a lot power Inexperienced needed to expend simply to tug them throughout the end line.

After which remind your self how hardly ever we see something like that from Inexperienced nowadays.

At 36 years previous, the nightly grind of the NBA — dragging true 7-footers up and down the court docket like Roger Murdock — has, unsurprisingly, taken its toll. And being on a staff with out authentic title possibilities — and now with out Steph Curry — makes it laborious to activate the video games, a lot much less play at peak efficiency.

Three or 4 video games off, one sport on. In between, he fires off some sizzling takes on his eponymous podcast.

Is that this self-preservation for one thing better or just the grim actuality of an getting old participant whose post-prime decline introduced a steep, irrevocable decline?

(Are the takes coming from the identical power supply as his on-court sport?)