The Golden State Warriors are facing a crisis moment, and Draymond Green is making it clear that comforting his teammates is not on his to-do list. After a brutal home loss that saw Stephen Curry injured, the veteran leader delivered a blistering assessment of his team’s heart and effort, signaling a major shift in his leadership approach.

This new reality was cemented during a 104-100 collapse against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. The loss dropped the Warriors to a perfectly average 10-10 record for the season. The defeat was compounded by star Stephen Curry limping off the court with a right quad contusion, an injury that requires an MRI to determine its severity.

When asked how he would keep team spirits high if Curry misses time, Green’s response was unequivocal. “I’m not a big keep the spirit up guy,” Green stated. “That ain’t my department. I mo*******k you. That’s somebody else’s area to keep spirits up. I do mine the opposite way.”

His frustration was squarely aimed at the team’s defensive failures, which he described in brutally honest terms. “Our defense is shit,” Green said. He dismissed the notion that their mid-tier defensive ranking told the entire story, emphasizing the feel of their play. “How do you feel when you’re out there? A letdown is a letdown. It’s bigger than the numbers.”

Green pinpointed the root of the problem as a lack of individual accountability. “The only way the team thing is gonna work is if we take on individual challenges. Right now, we are individually – I know everyone likes to twist words – I said WE are individually f——g awful,” he explained. He detailed a domino effect of failures starting at the point of attack.

“We get f—–g balled up. And then our rotations suck. I’m not helping great. So it’s a domino effect,” Green continued. “Point of attack must always be great. But when you get beat, there’s a point of attack. Then what happens? And right now we kind of suck at that.”

This is not a new sentiment from Green, who earlier in November questioned the team’s collective commitment. Back on November 12, after a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, he said, “I think everybody was committed to winning [last season] and doing that any way possible. Right now, it doesn’t feel that way.”

A Unified Front of Frustration

Green was not alone in his criticism. Veteran forward Jimmy Butler echoed the harsh evaluation in his own postgame comments, highlighting a lack of fundamental execution. “We don’t box out. We don’t go with the scouting report. We let anybody do whatever they want,” Butler said. “It’s just sad.”

Butler specifically called out the team’s tendency to let offensive struggles destroy their defensive focus. “A lot of our hustle and a lot of our everything is dictated by our offense,” he observed. “When we’re making shots, oh man, we’re celebrating… When we’re not, when the game’s not going our way, we put our heads down and we mope.”

The loss to the Rockets provided a perfect example of these issues. Despite Houston missing Kevin Durant, the Warriors allowed 25 offensive rebounds, giving the Rockets 17 more field goal attempts. Rocket guard Reed Sheppard took full advantage, scoring a career-high 31 points against Golden State’s porous perimeter defense.

With Curry’s status uncertain, Butler acknowledged that the challenge ahead becomes even greater. He stated that without the two-time MVP, the team would “have to be damn near perfect” to win games. For Draymond Green, however, the path forward is not about perfection, but about restoring a missing toughness, one forceful confrontation at a time.