WOLSTAT: Green blocks shots like few other shooting guards

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Danny Green has not shot the ball at his usual level in these playoffs, but still managed the best net rating on the Raptors ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. How? Mostly because of his solid defence. Green is known mostly for his savvy positioning and quick hands (he even stole an in-bounds pass in Game 4), but he’s also a sneaky-good shot-blocker.

Green is one of only 15 players in NBA history 6-foot-6 or under to reach 500 blocks in their career and is ninth amongst players who primarily played shooting guard. Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade lead the way there.

“I never really focussed on it, it’s just something I’ve always done,” Green told the Toronto Sun earlier in the playoffs.

“I had to play defence, my (high school) coach wouldn’t allow it otherwise. That was just part … of me playing defence and stopping a guy. You really can’t teach timing that well, I think it’s just something I picked up watching my dad and my uncles play.

“My uncle was pretty good at shot-blocking and I thought it was pretty cool that he was able to like catch the ball or block it off the backboard or catch it on the backboard so I guess it was something when I was younger I just wanted to do, try to work on my timing, catching guys’ rhythms and figure out when they’re going up or where the ball is going to be,” Green said.

That continued at North Carolina and on into the NBA.

“As you get less athletic you find out how to get it before the gets to the rim or to the backboard. You catch it on the way up or on the way down, at its lowest point so you don’t have to get it so high,” Green said.

Green caught the ultra-athletic Eric Bledsoe with a superb block in Game 3 during the fourth quarter. It was a big play, seeing as that game went to double-overtime and since Bledsoe has really struggled to score and that play could have gotten him going. Green also thought he was robbed of one or two other blocks in that game (these eyes definitely saw at least one of those).

And he had a nice block on Malcolm Brogdon in the fourth quarter on Tuesday

Green said that over the years family members tried to talk him out of going after so many shots, but he wouldn’t hear it and then when he excelled as a Tar Heel, they agreed he should keep doing it.

“That’s when my dad kind of just let me do my own thing and my coaches too. Once they knew I could do it on that level, or continue to do it on that level they figured it was something that was a part of my game and I knew how to do it without hurting myself.”

Green leads all of the 6-foot-6 or under players in front of him on the blocks list in career three-point percentage and effective field goal percentage.

“It’s not really normal to see a shooter who shoots the ball (like him) block shots too. You don’t see it,” said Serge Ibaka, a three-time NBA blocked shots leader. “It surprises me though. I don’t really see him jump.

“Yes it’s different for me. It’s my job. I should be there to protect the basket. He don’t really have to do it. I think he just do it because he loves to play defence.

“It’s good when your guard can have that mentality of playing defence sometimes to help you. It just makes everything easier.”

BACK ON THE BOARDS

The glass was half full for the Raptors on Tuesday night.

Nick Nurse was asked before Game 4 about tweaking his team’s approach to offensive rebounding in order to get back quicker to prevent Milwaukee from running out.

“Yeah, I think so. I think way back at the beginning of this series, I said that our offence was probably the key to our defence,” Nurse said. “Taking care of the ball, getting a rhythm, shot selection. And then our decision on who went (to the offensive boards) and how many went and all those things. I think we’re kind of tweaking that each and every game as we see opportunities to go. We still want to go. We think we have some guys that can offensive rebound — Serge, Pascal (Siakam), Kawhi (Leonard), especially. And we’re big,” Nurse said.

“It’s got to be a quick decision. If you think you’ve got a legitimate shot at it, go for it. If you don’t, you’ve got to start making an assertive move to get back. Again, you know why. There isn’t a whole lot of dividend. If you go in there and you don’t get one, you’re paying the price on either end. If you go chase one and don’t get it and they get a transition three on you, you’re going to have to get two more offensive rebounds to make up for that. So the payoff on it is really all you’re thinking about. Is it paying off to go or not.”

The Raptors went after it in the first half of Game 4 and it helped the team get out to a halftime lead. Ibaka, in particular, was all over the offensive glass, with four of Toronto’s eight offensive rebounds.

KEEPING THEM CONFIDENT

Credit Nurse for continuously talking up both Green and Fred VanVleet, who have not been close to themselves from beyond the arc for some time now.

They might be the two best outside shooters on the Raptors, but the results had not come. Yet, Nurse kept encouraged them. VanVleet drilled a pair of three-pointers in Game 4 and Green had rewarded Nurse’s faith (and a rare play-call) late in Game 3 by finally nailing one.

“I just told him, ‘dude, you’ve got to make one for us. You’ve got to hit one for us,’ ” Nurse said. “I liked his kind of body language and the way he looked me back and kind of said, ‘I’m going to.’ Then the next chance I got, I drew one up for him. I think there are certain guys that handle draw-ups and certain guys that don’t. There are certain guys that, when they’re 0-fer, you still believe in them because of their history and track record and their confidence.

“I think he still felt confidence. I think he hasn’t shot the ball very well the entire playoffs, but I guarantee you, I just talked to him a little bit ago, and he seems really confident to me right now. So that’s a good sign,” Nurse said before the game.

GIANNIS BOUNCES BACK

Milwaukee went into Game 4 against Toronto fully expecting Giannis Antetokounmpo to have a big turnaround following his worst game of the playoffs.

“Giannis is the MVP. He’s going to be resilient,” Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon said before the game. “He’s as resilient as they come. So when he has an off game, he’s going to come back and be (a force).”

Sure enough, Giannis came up rampaging, with a pair of vicious dunks and another score at the rim before the game was even a couple of minutes old.

Giannis averaged 35.5 points on 63.8% shooting the game after scoring 15 points or fewer this season.

“I think that’s just his mindset. He’s not going to let a setback mess him up or hold him down,” said Brook Lopez. “He’s just going to take it, learn from it and come back out ready to go the next game.”

Added head coach Mike Budenholzer: “He has a focus that’s maybe a little heightened. He’s always anxious to come back — as we talked about yesterday — and play. It’s one of the things among many, many things, that makes him great.”

Antetokounmpo had nearly as many points (11) in the first quarter as in the entire
Game 3 (12).

Budenholzer said he didn’t expect a couple of travel calls against Antetokounmpo to rein in his aggressiveness on Tuesday.

“It takes a lot to kind of alter him or change him. And so certainly the officials have a tough job with both sides, and they’re doing their jobs, and we have to play through it,” Budenholzer said.

Shooting was his only issue early on, as he shot an air ball on a free throw attempt for the second game in a row and also missed everything on a three-point attempt.

WARRIORS BOOK TICKET TO FIFTH STRAIGHT FINALS

LeBron’s historic Finals run might be over, but Golden State is back in familiar territory.

Even without Kevin Durant, the Warriors consistently rallied from big deficits to sweep the Portland Trail Blazers, with Stephen Curry setting an NBA record by averaging 36.5 points a game in the four games. Now, this decade’s dynastic group will compete for the title for the fifth straight time, looking for a fourth championship and third in a row.

“I mean, it’s incredible,” Draymond Green said after finishing off his spectacular series against the Blazers. “To be to five straight Finals, I don’t even know what to say about it. This is what you play for. This is our goal every year and to get here five straight times is special.

“Saying that, we know we still have more work to do. The goal is never to get to the Finals; the goal is to go win.”

Golden State will now get nearly 11/2 weeks off as it awaits the Toronto-Milwaukee winner in the East.

“With these nine days off, we definitely want to get our guys back healthy. We want to get DeMarcus (Cousins) and Kevin and Andre (Iguodala), need those guys, going into the Finals and that’s our hope that we can get all these of those guys back,” he said.

That has to be a scary thought for either the Raptors or Bucks considering how dominant Golden State has looked regardless of who has been out of the lineup.

“We’ve had guys step up this entire time and we’re going to look forward to those guys continuing to step up, no matter what happens with the injuries that we have,” Green said.

Both Green and Curry notched triple-doubles in the final game against the Blazers. Green had another in Game 3.

“Yeah, 18 and 14 and 11, gets a few steals and a couple blocks. That’s unbelievable,” said Klay Thompson. “We’re going to need him to play with this kind of moxie and do an all-around game this next round, because the challenge we face is pretty big, especially starting the series on the road.”

Thompson joked that he’d spend the time off meditating and taking advantage of the downtime because “the NBA Finals, having experience with it, it’s such an emotional roller coaster, that it’s nice to get away from the game a little bit before it starts because emotions run high, and it takes a lot out of you.”