Atlanta Hawks: John Collins gave the “best defender ever” a basketball lesson
The Atlanta Hawks had a comfortable win against the Golden State Warriors. Admittedly they were without Steph Curry who missed the game through injury. They did, however, have the “best defender ever in the NBA” Draymond Green.
To say that this is ludicrous is understating just how wrong he is. There have been so many good defenders in the history of the NBA that Green is clearly overstating his abilities. After this statement, he ran into John Collins a couple of games later and the fourth-year man proved how wrong Green was.
Admittedly this was the second game of a back-to-back for the Warriors but the best defender ever in the NBA would have done a better job on Collins. In fact, Collins had a career-best 38 points on the night and was scoring from everywhere.
How the Atlanta Hawks benefitted from John Collins career night
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The best defender to ever play the game was not able to stop Collins in the first half. He went a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor on the way to 17 points before the main break. He put on a clinic of how to take advantage of Green and his lack of size.
While Green was able to play small-ball center in the championship years for the Warriors. that was with strong defensive players around him. Collins exposed Green’s lack of one-on-one defense by taking him into the paint, shooting from the mid-range, and also connecting from deep.
Collins was too much to handle, the Warriors continually fouled him, sending him to the line seven times where he made six of them. Collins ended up with the stat line of 38 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and a steal. He shot the ball at 73.7 percent from the floor, 80 percent from deep, and 85.7 percent from the line.
It got so bad for Green in the second half that he barely played on Collins. Surely if you are the best defender ever, you want to take the best player on the night as your defensive assignment. Green let Kevon Looney, James Wiseman and Eric Paschall defend Collins for the rest of the game.
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Collins is not the best power forward in the league, he is up there, but he is not on the same level as the likes of Anthony Davis. Tonight against Draymond Green, he looked like prime LeBron James or better. He certainly looked like a max-contract type player tonight