“Draymond Green gave up a wide-open layup for a Damian Lillard 3”: Mikal Bridges tries to justify the Warriors star getting bailed out by the Team USA guard in win over Iran

Draymond Green passed up a wide-open layup to get a shot from Damian Lillard outside the arc and Mikal Bridges backs up the decision. 

Just as Rob Perez predicted, Team Iran was in the unfortunate position of being the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for Team USA as they attempted to assert themselves as the favorites to win Gold at Tokyo 2020 after an embarrassing loss to France. Damian Lillard led all scorers with 21 points as he shot 7-13 from beyond the arc. 

It was an all-around effort for Team USA on the offensive end of the floor as guys like Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Jayson Tatum, Zach Lavine, all contributed in the scoring department, eventually leading to a 54-point win margin between the States and Iran. Damian Lillard achieved something that only 3 other players in Team USA history have and that’s drain 7+ threes in an Olympics game.

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En route to being just 3 shy of Carmelo Anthony’s record, Draymond Green got Damian Lillard a wide-open look from beyond the arc. The manner in which he did so however, has many criticizing him. 

Mikal Bridges defends Draymond Green on his decision to pass up a wide-open look to eventually find Damian Lillard. 

The ideology of ‘3 being greater than 2’ has never been more prevalent than in the 2020s as Draymond Green had an interesting highlight as USA steamrolled Iran to go 1-1 in their group stage. A moment in-game saw Green get into the lane with quite literally no defender around him for a wide-open layup, and pass up the shot to the perimeter. 

This eventually led to an extra pass being made for a wide open three from Khris Middleton that he drained, but this sequence started a whole other conversation. Should Green have taken it to the rack for an easy deuce or is getting more shots from the perimeter the way to go? Mikal Bridges stands with the latter.

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His train of thought is simple as any decision is justified if it results in a made bucket. Dame was clearly red-hot from beyond the arc and perhaps, in that moment, Draymond felt as though a layup from him was a lower percentage shot than a Lillard 3-pointer.