Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23) fights for the ball against Oklahoma City Thunder’s Enes Kanter (11) in the second quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference finals at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Okla., on Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
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Kerr also compared the incident to another groin strike involving Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka two years ago, when the Thunder forward drew no suspension.
“We all know we’re not ready to be done, and we can do it, just one game at a time, obviously and enjoy it”.
So Green kicks Adams in the groin and the National Basketball Association changes his foul from a “Flagrant 1” to a “Flagrant 2”. Green was driving to the basket and (inadvertently?) kicked Adams to the groin.
After Steven Adams copped a couple of painful shots below the belt, the only blow in game four was delivered to Golden State’s title hopes.
“He said, ‘Draymond, I’m not saying intentional”.
Rightfully, he gets the chance to do it. Count me among the contingent that doesn t believe Green meant to kick Adams, especially no there.
But of course, Green kicking Adams in the midsection wound up being a much bigger story than the Thunder kicking the Warriors in the mouth.
The play was part of an ongoing battle between Green, an undersized but rugged 6-foot-7 power forward, and Adams, who has asserted himself with physical play and is one of the main reasons the Thunder lead the series.
“Steven Adams on Draymond Green kick: ‘It happened before, mate”. They haven’t just lost the last two games. I know Rick Mahorn. In that way, the postseason started for Steve Kerr’s team long before it started for anybody else. But it seems like he was the one that was flailing, kicking his legs out and stuff yesterday. Both Stoudamire and Diaz were suspended in Game 5 and eventually cost them the National Basketball Association championship title. When you go up for a shot and a guy’s challenging, that happens all the time. You can’t keep kicking someone in their private areas, ‘ Westbrook on Green kick. “This is its own separate game and we’re going to have to go now on the road to play in a very hard environment against a great team”.
Livingston said the Warriors still know they can beat anybody, but he and his teammates clearly understand that they have to play almost perfectly the rest of the way. “I think our energy goes as my energy goes, and I’ve been terrible”.
Green was called for the flagrant with 5:57 left in the second quarter, and the Oklahoma City crowd chanted, “Kick him out!”
“Every competitive situation and every competitive challenge or game is its own separate identity and its own separate game”, Donovan said.
“Again, we have great respect for Golden State. We’ve just got to come out there and be who we are”, Kevin Durant said.
Curry suffered the knee injury in Game 4 of the Warriors’ first-round series against the Houston Rockets.
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After taking a few questions on the matter, Kerr said, “We’re going to move on from that”. I guess that’s like slapping both wrists.
