Draymond Green blasts Warriors after Rockets loss: ‘Our defense is s**t’

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Draymond Green blasts Warriors after Rockets loss: ‘Our defense is s**t’

Kenzo Fukuda, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Thu, Nov 27, 2025 ·

6 min read

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The post Draymond Green blasts Warriors after Rockets loss: 'Our defense is s**t' appeared first on ClutchPoints .

SAN FRANCISCO – The Golden State Warriors ' narrow 104-100 loss to the Kevin Durant-less Houston Rockets covered familiar territory for them. It was another game in which the Warriors got destroyed on the boards. Another game in which they allowed a score-first guard to burn them every which way, in this case, it was Reed Sheppard , who finished with 31 points. It was yet another game in which the defensive rotations were late, defenders got blown by, and communication lapsed.

In short, it was another defensive letdown, even if the score and defensive ratings don't exactly convey it. And Draymond Green was not afraid to say it. In the locker room, after the game, Green did not sugarcoat his assessment of the Warriors' defense about a quarter of the way into the season.

"Our defense is s**t," Green said. "It's not necessarily the numbers, it's like, how do you feel when you're out there, you know? It's just letdown after letdown; it's bigger than the numbers. You know what I'm saying? Defense is about demeanor. So if you have letdown after letdown, it kills your demeanor, kills your bravado, and then you're just a soft team."

To Green's point, while the Warriors' 112.1 defensive rating conveys a top-10 defense in the NBA, the eye test begs to differ. The eye test shows Sheppard getting everything he can eat with little resistance to stop him. The eye test shows wide-open threes on blown coverages or untimely offensive rebounds. Defensive rating doesn't convey how the Warriors know they lack "KYP" otherwise known as "Know your personnel," something Curry brought up when they allowed Utah's Keyonte George to walk into some easy triples the game before.

"It's bigger than the numbers," Green continued, pacing in place. "What does the other team feel when you're defending? Right now, they don't feel no force, even if you're getting stops. Like, yeah, we got great coaches, we're going to have a good scheme, but what about the force? Right now, we don't have that."

Jimmy Butler echoed Draymond Green 's sentiment

Green's assessment of the Dubs' defense isn't an isolated one. Jimmy Butler echoed his teammate's sentiments. Butler told reporters he feels like the team is making things harder on themselves.

"We don't box out, we don't go with the scouting report, we let anybody do whatever they want. Open shots, get into the paint, free throws. It's just sad," Butler listed off.

When asked what he views as the root cause of those self-inflicted wounds, Butler shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. Honestly, I don't care either," Butler said. "I just think we need to be out there doing what we're supposed to be doing as players. I don't care what Steve [Kerr] says, it's not on him and it's not on the coaches."

To make his point, Butler pointed to the whiteboard hidden behind the press conference banner, emphasizing that the coaches lay out the game plan in straightforward, organized terms.

"We got to go out there and execute man. Don't listen to Steve when he says, 'This is on me and [I] got to be better.' Nah it's on these guys in the locker room."

Where do Warriors go from here?

Green and Butler aren't saying anything new when they point to the self-inflicted wounds and flat demeanor on defense. The two said similar things after their blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder . Green cited the team-wide lack of commitment to winning , and Butler pointed to the effort coming and going with their mood. And even when they said those things it was something that they had already kind of said. Just a few games earlier, Green blamed himself for the failures of the defense, and Butler cited the team needing to find a competitive edge.

So when asked how the Warriors can find the "force" they seem to be lacking, Green said something that's been emphasized before.

"It requires individuals, all of us as individuals, taking on your challenge," Green answered.

"If you take on your challenge, then you can make the team thing work. But the only way the team thing works is if we take on the individual challenge. And right now, we are individually– and I know everyone likes to twist words– I said we are individually f****** awful."

For Butler, he pointed out how their hustle and effort seem to be dictated by however the offense is doing.

"A lot of our hustle, and a lot of our everything, is dictated upon offense. When we're making shots, oh man, we're celebrating, we're cheering, we're doing all those things. When we're not or when the game is not going our way, we put our head down and we mope. And then we don't box out, we don't get back, we foul. We do all the bad things. But when things are going good, some people call it frontrunning, but when it's going good, it's all smiles."

The answer to the Warriors' defensive issues may be to muster up some resiliency when things are going wrong. But Green made it clear, he's not the kind of guy to lift people's spirits up, his leadership operates in a very different way.

"I'm not a big keep the spirit up guy. That ain't the department I sell in. I motherf*** you," Green said when a reporter asked how the team will keep morale up should Steph Curry miss time.

"That's somebody else's area to keep the spirits up, I do my leadership in the opposite way."

Golden State will look to fix their defense with a rematch against the bottom-tier New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night.

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