Someone’s going to offer Draymond Green a max contract this summer, and the Warriors are going to decide if matching is worth dipping into the luxury tax. Before his restricted free agency, they are letting him do his thing, like when they went small today and ran away from a Clippers team still missing Blake Griffin.
Green led the way with 23 points and six dimes, playing the five-spot during stretches and generally allowing the Dubs to go super small since LA couldn’t trot out Blake and DJ at the same time.
After the game, Lisa Salters caught up with Green for the post-game interview on ABC, but they were rudely interrupted when Dahntay Jones came by and bumped Dray’s shoulder.
As you can see, Dray did a double-glance to see whether it was intentional, and it certainly looks like it.
After the game, Green was asked about the bump and had some fun at Jones’ expense:
“I think he wanted a reaction from me, but he don’t play. So me getting suspended and him getting suspended, it’s different. When you don’t play, that’s probably his role on that team. I’ve had that role once before in my career: couple years ago. But I can’t afford to feed into that where I get into it with him after the game — get fined, get suspended and hurt my team. When — if he gets suspended, they may not even notice.
“Getting bumped by him, I definitely expect that to be reviewed by the NBA. For him to look at me and look at me again, then bump me when I’m doing a post-game interview. That’s really smart, too, when it’s on ABC…he got some camera time, which he needed because there wasn’t much celebration from their bench today, so you didn’t see him much. So he got the camera time he was looking for, just expect [it] to be reviewed and see what happens.”
Amazing. We love how Green admitted his own role as instigator when he was a rookie with the Dubs and the stupidity of pulling such hijinks in front of a national TV audience. Like Green said, we’re guessing Adam Silver will take a chunk of cash from Jones as a result of the bump.
Stephen Curry pulled off one spectacular move, but he was just 3-of-9 for 12 points on the day, so it was a good thing Klay Thompson found his stroke again and Shaun Livingston had a season-high in the Dubs win. But it was Green who was the primary reason for the Warriors victory and any post-game chuckles at Dahntay’s expense.
If you’re not familiar with Jones, this isn’t the first time he’s been involved in an ugly moment on the court. Kobe Bryant can appreciate Green’s annoyance more than most.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7VFApndaGg
(video via Ethan Sherwood Strauss; vine via Steve Noah)
