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Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors react after a play.

An exhausted Draymond Green took a playful jab at his former teammate Klay Thompson after the Golden State Warriors extended the NBA’s current hottest winning streak to five with a 118-104 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday.

“I’m sorry I’m giving y’all the lowest energy ever. I’m exhausted. I sound like Klay Thompson up here,” Green said in jest, eliciting laughter from the reporters.

A reporter followed up Green’s playful jab at Thompson: “Got a paper airplane?”

“I don’t even know how to make them,” Green replied. “I would make it and fly it across but I don’t know how to do it.”

Thompson left the Warriors in the offseason in a sign-and-trade to the Dallas Mavericks as he looked exasperated last season with his shooting struggles and what he perceived to be a disrespect to his contributions to the franchise’s four championship runs in their failed extension talks.

One of the reasons why Thompson chose to relocate to Dallas even on a discounted contract was the chance to compete for another championship which at that time made sense as the Mavericks were coming off a Finals run.

But in a twist of fate, Green and the Warriors are back in the mix for a potential championship run while Thompson and the Mavericks find themselves fighting for a slot in the play-in group after they shockingly traded Luka Dončić and the spate of injuries to their key players.

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Earlier in his postgame presser, Green praised second-year guard Brandin Podziemski for stepping up anew and capitalizing on Stephen Curry‘s hot scoring streak.

Curry has scored a total of 125 points over his last three games.

Podziemski, the young player who supplanted Thompson last season in the starting lineup which hastened his departure from the Warriors, scored 26 points against the Nuggets barely 24 hours after dropping 28 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I mean Steph’s success attracts attention from everybody. It’s always been that way,” Green said when asked if Podziemski has benefitted from playing alongside Curry.

“So I think we all benefit from Steph. It’s not just BP. Everybody who played with Steph over the last, I can speak for, 13 years has benefitted. And if you couldn’t benefit it’s your fault, it ain’t Steph Curry’s fault,” Green said.

In his last season with the Warriors, Thompson oftentimes failed to capitalize on playing off Curry. His inconsistent play and shooting slumps ultimately dipped his confidence leading to low vibes that sucked the energy out of the team.

‘Tired’ Draymond Green

“I’m exhausted,” Green told reporters. “I just want to go home, relax, go to sleep. I’m tired.”

Green’s voice sounded exasperated after battling LeBron James and Nikola Jokic on back-to-back nights.

Jokic led the Nuggets with 33 points on 13-of-17 shooting from the field in a losing effort.

“He’s tough to guard after five days off, a lot tougher to guard on the back-to-back where he’s sitting in San Francisco waiting on us to get back,” Green said of Jokic. “But I think for the most part, we did a good job saying that he’s 13-for-17. He got those threes going there in that third quarter. I think we kept a body on him, he hit some tough shots. That’s why he’s great but overall I think we did the job and got it done.

“So [Jokic] always a tough challenge. l was great on him in his minutes. He got nothing easy. We could live with it.”

Jokic shot 5-of-7 against Green as his primary defender, per NBA.com’s matchup tracker. But Green forced the three-time NBA MVP to half of his game-high turnovers.

The win pushed the Warriors record to 46-31, a full game clear of the play-in group and just half-game behind the Nuggets for the fourth seed in the stacked Western Conference, a remarkable climb from 11th before the Jimmy Butler trade.

They improved to 20-4 with Butler, who recorded 19 points, five steals and five assists against the Nuggets.

“It just confirms who we thought we were,” Green said of their hot streak with Butler. “We said from the time we got Jimmy, the sky’s is the limit for this team.”