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Austin Rivers Reveals How Draymond Green Has Hurt Them This Series: “He’s Beating Up Jokic”

The Denver Nuggets were unable to steal a game on the road against the Golden State Warriors, dropping them to 0-2 in their first-round playoff series. 

Nikola Jokic has filled up the stat-sheet, but his numbers have obviously gone down across the board these playoffs. Through the first two games, he’s been putting up 25.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game on an inefficient 46.7% shooting from the field to go along with a -45 plus/minus rating.

The Serbian center has had a hard time matching up against the Warriors, and this is due in large part to Warriors defensive anchor Draymond Green. According to Austin Rivers, Jokic’s teammate, the 32-year old Dubs big man has really been hurting Jokic and the Nuggets.

“Draymond has really been hurting us. People aren’t really noticing that. Draymond has really hurt us. He’s just controlling tempo, he’s getting them all these shots, he’s beating up Jok,” Rivers explained, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

Austin Rivers: “Draymond has really been hurting us. People aren’t really noticing that. Draymond has really hurt us. He’s just controlling tempo, he’s getting them all these shots, he’s beating up Jok.”

— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) April 20, 2022