Draymond Green returns to Oracle Arena, Demarcus Cousins recovers in Santa Cruz

“It’s now inevitable no one can beat the Warriors,” beat writer Mark Medina tells Logan Murdock as they open this week’s edition after a breezy 116-108 win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “If anyone was going to get their shots in, it was going to be earlier in the season.”

Logan Murdock counters with the observation that the Warriors’ victory against the Timberwolves was “one of their worse games” of the season and points to Coach Steve Kerr’s unhappiness with the team’s execution before conceding: “This team is too good right now.”

Medina and Murdock also review Draymond Green’s performance in his first game back after missing 13 of the past 15 games. Medina calls Green’s gameplay the most impressive even if his post-game stats may not reflect that. Murdock suggests Green’s buzzer-beating, first-half alley-oop pass to Klay Thompson to secure three points as the play of the game.

Medina gives context to Green’s return with talk of his wish to win Defensive Player of the Year for a second time.

“I think if you put truth serum into him, he would admit: He wasn’t playing the kind of defense last season that deserved being on the NBA Defensive First Team,” Medina said before reminding listeners that Coach Steve Kerr expressed anticipation more for Green’s potential conditioning restrictions than any minutes restrictions ahead of his return from injury recovery. “It’s not surprising that Draymond is playing like this.

“He came out as if he was playing yesterday. He did not miss a beat whatsoever.”

Murdock defined and paralleled Green’s story of the last two seasons to Andre Iguodala’s — who missed the Dec. 11 game against the Timberwolves for right hip tightness — as a struggle to “stay on the floor, and trying to sustain that … to maximize their talents.”

Shifting gears to discuss Demarcus Cousins’ injury recovery and recent assignment to Santa Cruz to practice with the Warriors’ G-League squad, Medina and Murdock compared Cousins’ experience to baseball teams sending players to practice with minor league teams.

“It was [Cousins] idea to go down there,” Murdock said. “He feels that the best way he’s going to get back is by five-on-five, full contact.”

Murdock then analyzed Cousins’ first practice with the Santa Cruz team and how it factors into his expectation to return to play with the Warriors by Christmas.