Draymond Green received another technical foul Thursday night and, after the Warriors’ 117-93 loss to the Timberwolves evened their Western Conference semifinals series at a game apiece, suggested there was a smear campaign against him.
“The agenda to continue to keep making me look like an angry black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous,” Green told reporters in the locker room in his only comments following the Game 2 loss that featured him picking up his fifth tech of the postseason.
Two more would earn Green a one-game suspension. He also has two flagrant fouls and is two away from those resulting in the same punishment.
“He’s gonna have to be careful now,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s gonna have to stay composed. Obviously, we need him. I’m confident that he will because he knows the circumstances.”
A potent mix of athleticism, basketball IQ and emotion, Green has proudly described himself as a “habitual line stepper,” and Kerr acknowledged after the latest incident, “That’s part of Draymond.” He runs their offense and their defense and sometimes runs a little hot, too.
“Same thing that makes him such a competitor and a winner puts him over the top sometimes. We know that,” Kerr said. “It’s our job to try to help him stay poised, stay composed. But it’s a competition, and it’s so meaningful to him that occasionally he goes over the line.”
So incensed was Green midway through the second quarter Thursday that Kerr said he felt the need to sub him out and let him cool down. At one point, the injured Stephen Curry appeared to try to calm him. But it wasn’t his temper that Tony Brothers teed him up for. Green fumed and continued to plead his case after Brothers announced the outcome of the video review that determined he committed a “hostile act” when he swung his arms and hit Naz Reid after being fouled on the perimeter.
Reid was whistled for a common foul when he reached around with his right arm, attempting to steal the ball. Green then flailed his arms upward — a similar motion to the one that earned him another technical in the first round against the Rockets and that he has displayed in the past — and Reid fell to the floor, holding his face.
“It’s just a habit he has,” Kerr said. “When somebody fouls him, he’s smart. I think Reid reached, and on the reach Draymond kind of swiped through and drew the foul. But he does have a habit of sort of flailing his arm to try to make sure the ref sees it. He made contact and that’s what led to the tech.”
Green spent the next six minutes on the bench and eventually finished with nine points, five assists and three rebounds in 29 minutes.
Jimmy Butler III heard what Green said in the locker room and was asked if he also believed Green’s reputation was playing a role.
“I’m in agreeance,” Butler said. “It’s not like he’s doing it on purpose. He’s trying to sell a call or something like that. Somebody just got hit. … It’s crazy. Every time he does something, it ends up being a review.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Green’s actions earned him a postseason suspension. He picked up four flagrant “points” (one for a level-one foul, two for a level-two) in 2016 that forced him to miss Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He also sat out a game against the Kings in 2023 after stepping on Domantas Sabonis.
Green held himself accountable for letting his emotions get the best of him during their loss in Game 6 last series and turned in a masterful defensive performance the following game to advance. Green promised his teammates after Game 6 that he wouldn’t let it happen again, and it will he will have to show similar restraint the rest of the Warriors’ playoff run, however far they go.
“He knows he got five. He knows how much we need him now more than ever,” Butler said. “So I don’t think he gets to seven.”
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