Game 5 woes show just how badly the Warriors need Draymond Green (Ball Don’t Lie)

OAKLAND — Draymond Green's suspension for Game 5 of the NBA Finals raised questions regarding not just how the Golden State Warriors could close out the Cleveland Cavaliers without him, but what the record-setting team would even look like without its most versatile player and vocal leader. The answer in Monday night's 112-97 loss was nearly as loud as the Oracle Arena crowd — still dangerous, but obviously more limited and well below the level they have set as one of the best teams in NBA history. The impact of Green's absence should not come as a great surprise. There are good reasons why the possibility of his suspension and Sunday's announcement of the same dominated the run-up to Game 5. Green is the league's most multi-talented player not named LeBron James, an elite defender who is arguably just as valuable as a facilitator who frees up Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to go on reputation-making scoring runs. The Warriors were both defensively vulnerable and lacking offensively in ways they usually are not, and the absence of the player who largely animates their system had a lot to do with it.