Draymond Green entertained plenty of questions at Golden State’s shootaround Tuesday, just none pertaining to the NBA’s having upgraded his kick to the groin of Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams to a flagrant-2 foul the previous day. Meanwhile, after the Golden State Warriors won Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals with an 118-91 score to even the series, everyone thought that the Thunder was a one-hit wonder after winning Game 1.
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Despite Adams rolling his ankle during the first quarter of the Thunders’ win against Golden State on Wednesday, Slater said that won’t keep him out of game five in Oakland.
Draymond Green has denied kicking the Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams in the groin on goal on Sunday night, and has launched into an attack on Russell Westbrook’s “acting”. Adams is one of my favorite players in the league, and the league needs to make sure that he’s not injured just because he plays hard. Green was driving to the basket against Adams when Green stopped and lifted his leg, causing him to kick Adams in the groin.
“I didn’t even really think about it”, Durant said. Though the Thunder felt it was intentional, Green and Warriors coach Steve Kerr said they believed the flagrant would actually be rescinded by the league.
We can all save a lot of yelling if we acknowledge that Durant is correct; the National Basketball Association was not going to run the risk of shortening this series by suspending one of the Warriors’ best players. Either way, Draymond Green pooped out what could perhaps have been his worst game as a professional basketball player for 37 minutes and 48 seconds of the 2016 Western Conference Finals.
Durant wasn’t surprised upon learning Green would not be suspended. But it still hurts, no matter how many times it has happened to you. I didn’t think twice about Draymond Green not playing.
Green, meanwhile, is expected to be booed much as he was in Game 3 when he heard it from Thunder fans every time he touched the ball. “I have to be better as a leader of this team, and I’ve got to be a leader”. That was nearly as good as in Game 3, when that fivesome outscored the Warriors 45-15. So then I looked at the replay, like, ‘Uh oh’. There is inadvertent contact all the time on plays. “I’m not sure how anyone can say I did that on goal”.
Said Stephen Curry: “He’s mentally strong, so nothing that happened last night is going to affect Game 4 except light a fire probably”.
But the Warriors’ “Death Lineup” was demolished by various Thunder units in Game 3, so it will take more than just a lineup switch for the Warriors.
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Green scored six points, made 1 of 9 shots and committed 4 turnovers in the game.
