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The Draymond Green plus-minus discrepancy and how it underscores his continuing importance to the Warriors

The Warriors lost to the Lakers — in huge part due to Green’s time on the bench.

It was an epic double-overtime showdown between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers — one the Lakers edged out courtesy of LeBron James’ clutch free throws. James (36-20-12 on 57.1% on twos, 50% on threes on a 2-of-4 clip, and a perfect 6-of-6 at the line — 65.1% True Shooting) had another titanic clash with his eternal rival in Steph Curry (46-3-7 on 57.1% on twos, 40.9% on threes, and 3-of-3 at the line — 61.6% True Shooting), who made clutch shots in overtime, albeit not enough to get the Warriors over the hump.

But the one person who arguably made the difference between what could’ve been a Warriors win and what turned out to be the second one-point loss in as many games didn’t even reach 10 points.

Take this for data: The Warriors outscored the Lakers by a whopping 31 points during Draymond Green’s 45 minutes and 42 seconds on the floor. When he was on the bench, the Warriors got outscored by the Lakers by an equally whopping 32 points in a one-point loss.

Single-game plus-minus has a lot of noise behind it, which typically makes it an unreliable measurement by its lonesome. But in the aggregate, it can be indicative of true impact and value. We don’t need to go into a long anecdote about Green’s value to the team and how important it is that he stays on the floor and keeps himself available at all times — his body of work speaks for itself.