And yet, longtime assistant coach Ron Adams pointed to Green’s intelligence as perhaps his greatest strength and the biggest reason he – along with Cleveland’s Evan Mobley and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels – is a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award.

In big moments, athletes often say they zone out the crowd noise and focus on the task at hand. That wasn't the case for the Golden State Warriors late in the Houston Rockets' 109-94 Game 2 victory that evened the two teams' first-round playoff series.

Houston guard Jalen Green led all scorers with 38 points while four other Rockets chipped in with double figures. Stephen Curry's relatively quiet 20-point outing led the Warriors, as co-star Jimmy Butler only played eight minutes before exiting with an injury stemming from a scary fall.