Lillard, McCollum embrace Draymond's trash talk

Draymond Green was in peak playoff form Sunday afternoon, in terms of both his play and his motormouthed mind games.

Green was allegedly (and unsurprisingly) talking copious amounts of trash to the Portland Trail Blazers' backcourt tandem of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum during his Golden State Warriors' 121-109 Game 1 win. But rather than get flustered, Lillard and McCollum embraced the trash talk, and dished some of it back.

"For me, it's just going to make me raise the level of my game because I take it as a challenge," Lillard told reporters after the game, according to ESPN's Chris Haynes. "I'm going to take exception to it, and I'm going to say something back. That's what it's going to be, as long as that's how he's approaching it - it's going to be coming right back."

McCollum, who chirped Green for a missed dunk during the game - telling the Warriors forward he needed to "do some calf raises" - says it's all above board.

"It's a game we all love," McCollum said. "We come out here, represent our teams, representing our hometowns where everybody's from. And where I'm from, if you talk trash, then I'm going to talk trash to you. It's not disrespectful. We're not talking about nobody's mamas or nothing bad."

Whatever kind of psychological warfare Green, Lillard, and McCollum were playing with each other throughout, it didn't seem to have its intended effect. They were arguably the three best performers in the game, with the Blazers duo combining for 75 points (including a playoff career-high 41 from McCollum) and Green going for a near-triple-double and a game-high plus-15 rating in a monstrous two-way outing.

Perhaps that's why they seemed so amenable to the trash talk in retrospect. If the upshot is all of them bringing the best out in each other, then so much the better.

"I think the league has softened up a lot, and it's not like that, so you've got to have a rough guy like him out there," Lillard said.

"I think it's necessary."