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During his stellar rookie season, Kristaps Porzingis quickly established himself as a blossoming young star and had more ups than downs. Two of those low points for Porzingis came against Golden State as Draymond Green's tenacious defense threw the Knicks big man off his game and he wilted under the Warriors All-Star's bullying.

In the Knicks' two losses to the Warriors last season, Porzingis averaged eight points on a dismal 21.1 percent shooting. For a frame of reference, Porzingis averaged 14.3 points on 42.1 percent shooting last season.

Those lackluster performances against Green and the Warriors have haunted Porzingis, which is why he is looking forward to facing off against the All-Star big man on Thursday.

From Marc Berman of the New York Post:

Both games he played really well defensively against me,'' Porzingis said. "So he's one of the top defenders in the league. It's going to be a challenge ... but I'm really looking forward to it.

"We didn't really talk about nothing. But after games like that, you don't even need anybody to talk to you. I want to go out there. Last season, right after the game was over I was thinking when was the next time we were going to get a chance to play against them. I'm ready for him."

Porzingis being motivated to go up against an All-Star is great to see out of a young developing player. There is one big problem, though. Green lives for comments like this and gets fired up even more than usual because of them.

Just ask Damian Lillard and the Blazers, who Green and the Warriors blew out after the Portland guard questioned their defense without Andrew Bogut. Or ask the Milwaukee Bucks, who tested Green's defense with the game on the line. And it's not just defense. If you question Green's offense, he will make you pay, as the Utah Jazz found out this season.

Green just feeds off any type of criticism or comment about his individual game or the Warriors in general. So while Porzingis rightly should be ready to go up against Green, based on precedence, he probably should have kept his thoughts to himself.