OAKLAND, Calif. LeBron James made a point before the NBA Finals of explaining what an underdog in life he was "growing up in the inner city, having a single-parent household."There's no question what an underdog Stephen Curry was in basketball, a skinny kid hardly recruited and happy to get a mid-major ride to nearby Davidson.Draymond Green has it going on both counts.Green is an underdog in life and in basketball, and he has emerged from it with an edge that James and Curry can't even understand, much less duplicate.Now that Golden State has romped to a 2-0 series lead, it's undeniable how important it is to have this true rabble-rouser by one's side in the NBA Finals.It would also be so very Draymond to ascend to Finals MVP mere days after he let up and let down his Golden State Warriors team in the middle of the Western Conference Finals, which he bluntly and proudly described as "the first time in my life I didn't respond to critics."Since Green said those words, the Warriors haven't lost.It happened after Golden State's Game 4 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Warriors reeled off three consecutive victories to avoid elimination and stun the Thunder; they've now handled the Cleveland Cavaliers easily twice to start the NBA Finals, as Green dominated the 110-77 Game 2 thrashing Sunday night.Green is Golden State's intangible. His boldness rises above Curry's niceness, Klay Thompson's quiet and even Steve Kerr's good nature. Green gives the Warriors their edge, and he drives this team in unquantifiable ways.Green is being celebrated for scoring 28 points in Game 2, but his hitting open three-pointers is gravy. The most impressive thing he did Sunday night wasn't make shots or even play his usual excellent on-ball defense.The help defense Green provided on James' drives was sheer basketball brilliance, full of awareness, timing, quickness and fearlessness.It's the stuff that often goes unnoticed, which is why Green doesn't pass the eye test for being an NBA superstar. But he has worked to improve his obvious skills while embracing all the dirty work that Cleveland's Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love mistakenly believe could soil their images.In Game 1, Green's defensive rotations were so quick that sometimes he got where he needed to be before the Cavaliers could even swing the ball over there. One time Love was so shocked to catch the pass and look up to find Green in front of him on the baseline that Love froze as if he'd just seen an apparition.These are the great basketball things Green does. He does other things, too, that some like and some don't.He might say something offensive; he definitely will do something offensive. He's willing to dance along that treacherous line to bring value any way he can, which is the deep-down underdog in him.It's an edge that James desperately needs in Cleveland. He had it with a fiercely competitive co-star in Dwyane Wade, who also played the role of hard-driving Kobe Bryant when Shaquille O'Neal was winning next to him in Miami.James either grossly misunderstood the personalities of Irving and Love, misread how easy it would be to add that mental and physical toughness around him in Cleveland or flat-out undervalued those qualities in evaluating what wins.Since James is a good guy and not a step-on-your-throat type, it follows that he doesn't immediately think that edginess is that important.Green on Golden State is proving it again, however.Whether it's his perpetually hoarse yet loud voice booming through the locker room or his eagerness to get into Steven Adams' face, ponytail or groin the last series, Green adds spice to the mix. For as much as the old-schoolers sneer at all of Golden State's jump shots, no one ever calls these guys "soft" with Green on the team.He gets his bravado from his mother, who raised him as the youngest of three around violence, poverty and crack houses in Saginaw, Michigan, and isn't afraid to raise her own ruckus now on Twitter in ardent support of the Warriors.Green's size made him a desired recruit en route to Michigan State, but the NBA assigned him in the clear underdog category when he went unselected in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft.He worked his way up from a guy who couldn't be trusted to dribble or shoot into the All-Star he is now. Even still, he can barely bench-press 235 poundsyet in the heat of competition he summons power from somewhere that allows him to stand up to and often push around the biggest, baddest dudes in the league.Green's unique physicality has set a tone in this series, too.The Cavaliers' big takeaway from watching video of Game 1 was the need to be more physical. It was discussed at length in a team meeting how the Cavs had to push the envelope of what the referees were allowing, as even Curry was being physical with his bumps on James to slow him down on switches.In Game 2, the Cavs set some hard screens on Curry early on. James was baited into a couple of jumpers over smaller defenders but mostly did try to muscle to the rim (though he was shocked into a traveling violation and a fall to the ground on one drive that saw Green rotate into the lane aggressively).Nothing Cleveland did, though, came anywhere close to the merciless thing Green did midway through the second quarter.After Love was felled by Harrison Barnes' inadvertent elbow to the head and lay vulnerably under the Cleveland basket, play continued because Golden State maintained possession. Green got the ball at the top of the key and drove toward the basketand Love.No sportsmanlike settling for a jumper. No hesitation upon seeing the chance to blow by the bigger Tristan Thompson.Green drove to the hoop and got fouled by Thompson while making the shot, perhaps veering slightly left at the very end to avoid stomping on Love. But make no mistakeGreen brought the action to a truly dangerous place.It was Thompson who pulled up first, stopping short for fear of stepping on Love. Thompson had little choice but to let Green go by and try to bump him off course.Thompson was so annoyed by the play that he didn't even check on Love's health. Thompson glanced down at Love, turned his back on him and walked up the lane.Green, meanwhile, did his trademark double-arm flex pose.The guy who can't bench 235 in the weight room had proved yet again to be a strongman on the court.Part of it is real strength.More of it is the attitude to go for the kill.In an alternate universe, we're all talking right now about what a jerk move it was for Green to go barreling toward the fallen Love, how Thompson and Green's combined weight of nearly 500 pounds almost came crashing down on Love's already hurt head. It could've been a bigger controversy than Green's Game 3 low blow on Adams that got critics howling and left Green temporarily tentative.He's making up for that with a response that is still ongoing, even though he's one flagrant-foul point away from a one-game playoff suspension. Kerr discussed it with Green and said he trusts Green's basketball savvy.But Green said he's not about to be careful.He's going to be him.And so he goes, and so he is.It's that edge that has the Warriors in clear sight of another title.Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
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