The Warriors will have to play Game 5 of the NBA Finals without Draymond Green, who was suspended today when the league assessed him a flagrant 1 foul for an encounter with LeBron James in Game 4.
League officials called Green’s actions a “retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin” after he and James collided. The flagrant foul was Green’s fourth of the playoffs, which triggers an automatic one-game suspension.
“The cumulative points system is designed to deter flagrant fouls in our game,” NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe explained. “While Draymond Green’s actions in Game 4 do not merit a suspension as a standalone act, the number of flagrant points he has earned triggers a suspension for Game 5.”
Golden State has three double-digit wins in the series and has controlled the Finals except for a lopsided loss in Game 3. However, Green’s versatility is a major part of the Warriors’ effectiveness, and they won’t be the same team without him in the lineup.
That brings us to tonight’s question: Does Green’s absence in Game 5 give the Cavaliers a chance to win the series? The Warriors are returning home and will be aided by their raucous crowd, but the absence of Green gives Cleveland a fighting chance. If the Cavs can find a way to win Game 5 and then take Game 6 on their home court, that would set up a Game 7 next Sunday in Oakland. Is the series no longer a foregone conclusion, or will Golden State overcome Green’s absence and win the trophy Monday night?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
Pissed about the suspension, but what’s done is done. Looking towards Game 5, I think if the Warriors can lock in defensively and get open looks offensively, they have a very good chance of winning at home. Barnes and the bench will be the X factors here.
They’re not going to win the series, MIGHT have a shot at the game but the Warriors are the better team here. One of the greatest teams of all time, you can’t deny that one bit.
yeah I can deny it, the Warriors are not one of the best teams ever. they may have the best record ever but that’s because majority of the teams in the NBA right now suck.
A way for the league to get parity between the best and the fourth best teams in the league.
They’re not going to win the series, but I could see the series going to 7 now. But in regards to the suspension…good. It’s not a popular move and say what you will about it being the playoffs, but this is what the fourth time Green has had an incident involving another player’s groin/his flailing leg kicks? There comes a certain point where the NBA has to suspend him because he’s trying to see how much he can get away with. I know the first one was purely incidental (Green’s drive that resulted in him kneeing Adams in the groin) and the second one was questionable if he intended to or not. But after almost kicking Westbrook/Roberson in the head later in that series and aiming for the groin area on LeBron, something has to be done. Throw elbows, poke or punch in scrambles for a loose ball, or just playing physical is fine…but when a guy seems to be aiming for the groin or starts throwing leg kicks in the air because “he’s trying to sell the call” something has to be done.
Personally I think those things should just be fined. The fact that while it’s still unlikely it’s now possible the cavs win just because Lebron and draymond got into it is insane. A series, or even a fan really, should never be decided by personnel things
I think this wouldn’t have happened if James didn’t knock Green to the floor. That pull down by James sure as hell looked intentional with the ref standing there with his whistle up his rear end. Give James credit, it worked and now Green’s out. James will be going back to the Heat at season end. He’ll never get the ring playing for the Cavs.
What kills me is the replay clearly shows LeBron taking green to the floor (no flop here) and LeBron waiting for green to start standing up before going over him. LeBron is clearly behind green and the only time it’s legal to be on top of someone like that is coming down from rebounds. Green reacts to 270 lbs of cry baby making contact with his head. Then, after this entire sequence of events, LeBron tries to assault green, having to be physically restrained and green doesn’t do anything but try to walk away. LeBron clearly knew exactly what he was doing. Then, after the Gane lebron complains to the officials and goes on the news saying “I have kids”… the fact that the NBA interviewed LeBron before making the call should have real basketball fans heads spinning. I’m not defending greens antics, but this is simply not part of that. Everyone outside of Cleveland and maimi knows the league has a hard on for lebron, and this only further cements the proof.
agree
Hard on for Lebron??? You must have a different cable network than I do. Lebron is the least respected MVP the NBA has ever had. Defenses are allowed to hit him at will with NO fouls called on reprecussions. He’s had his nose broken (hit two different times on one drive to the rim vs Spurs) with no call. Nazr Muhammed (when with the Pacers) tried to tackle him, LBJ shrugs him off and the officials call LBJ for a technical. LBJ drives the hole against Hibbert, has both hands on the ball – Hibbert makes contact with the shooter, and LBJ gets called for a flagrant foul.
No Alexander, just the opposite. The league, via ESPN, has wanted to dump on LBJ, ever since he played out his contract with one team (Cleveland) and signed with another (Miami). Maybe if they could of saw the backlash from their idiotic televised ‘Decision’, they wouldn’t had to overcompensate afterwards.
Check out the coverage between the Heats 25+ game win streak and how it was reported, and the Warriors 25+ game win streak. HUGE difference.
Now tell me, if Raja Bell or Bruce Bowen had done to Kome, what Draymond did to LBJ, how would the media (and the public in general) reacted? For one, they wouldn’t have hesitated to call a technical/flagrant foul and probably kicked them out of the game
Hell, what if the person doing the kicking was Rasheed Wallace? I’ve seen him get a technical for staring at an official.
Lastly, what if a Knick or Piston would have taken 2 swings at His Errorness’ crotch, would we be debating if it was a foul, or how soft mj is??
I like Klay Thompson, but somebody needs to tell him that it wasn’t LBJ that suspended his teammate, if was the League – and it was WAY OVERDUE!!!
Does anyone else find it ironic that Kiki Vandeweghe issued this statement and he played in the league when all these “flagrant” fouls were just good hard playoff fouls?? I got a chuckle from this.
This is how Cavs team was built to have a shot at the trophy, by taking out opponent player. What a disgrace for the basketball fans and totally lost respect for LBJ. This Chump definitely tried everything to get his 3rd ring. Not Gonna go down as one of the great players, but in fact, will be one of the great player who played dirty at all cost.
Ok delusional bandwagon Warriors fan. Who else have the Cavs “taken out” this postseason to get there? LeBron baited Green into something that would cause him to get suspended, far less serious than Kelly Olynyk dislocating Kevin Love’s shoulder last postseason or Andrew Bogut attempting the same thing on Dwight Howard this postseason. You obviously just started watching basketball after game 4, because if you actually followed basketball you would know that LeBron has never been a dirty player. He doesn’t take cheap shots at other people, talk trash about other player’s families (like Kevin Garnett or Reggie Miller), or commit hard fouls. Is he soft, complain for calls a lot, and often flops/embellishes calls? Yeah, but almost every player complains for calls and embellishes calls as well. Every time Andre Iguodala gets called for a foul you would think he just got accused of murder the way he reacts. Draymond Green’s whole leg kick thing was a result of his so called “selling the call”. If you’re going to call someone out by claiming they would do anything to win a championship, you might as well call out the rest of the league because I guarantee you that almost every single player would do whatever they had to if it meant winning a championship.
Can we call a flagrant foul on a dead ball situation? i expect steph to bulldoze lebron
That would be the equivalent of a gnat hitting a brick wall
The guy is a repeat offender. He should’ve been suspended vs OKC. But obviously the league wanted GS in the finals
Its amazing to me how few people mention that the league gave Golden State the series by allowing Green and Iguodola to play small by pushing the league rules on slapping and kicking. Its not just those guys kicking and slapping. Bogut and Green push from behind every single rebound. Steve Kerr is not an idiot I am almost positive that he coaches them to play dirty. I guess if your not cheating your not trying.
Thank you! Bogut has been one of the dirtiest players in the league for a while. Its funny seeing all the Warriors fans complaining about LeBron when their team is filled with dirty players.
Whatever you guys need to say to make you feel good, or you could just accept that the Warriors are a historic team, and the Cavs shouldn’t even be in the finals. Probably would have lost to the trail blazers
The Warriors are a historic team, I won’t deny that, but to say the Cavs shouldn’t be in the finals is crazy. But whatever you need to say to justify yourself man, you probably started following basketball after the Warriors won the title last year…but say whatever you need to say to try and justify your NBA knowledge. Have fun following the team this year and next year because in three years, the Warriors are not nearly going to be as good as they are now.
He coaches them to play to the level that the refs are allowing and they are letting a ton of B.S. go in this series, as they did at the end of the OKC-GSW series. It’s been pretty appalling – the finals are getting called totally differently than the regular season. And it’s gone both ways, although it probably hurts the Cavs more. I hope the league says enough is enough tonight.
Now its all in LeBron. If he doesnt win tonight, after such an effort to provoke a key opposing player, then he is going to catch a lot of flack. He is a dirty player who sets illegal picks at least twice a game without calls, so i feel this was a calculated maneuver. Green should not have taken the bait.
Lebron ‘provoked’ an opposing player. Yep, that same player has been provoked all season. Yep, that same player ‘can’t change his game, gotta be me’, Yep, that same player who’s behavior is going to make it harder for his team to close out the series. Yep, that guy??
Yes, you don’t provoke Ghandi, you provoke the hot head, that is how it works…this was intentional, and wouldn’t have worked against other players.
Watching the Warriors play, it doesn’t look like you have to do much to ‘provoke’ Green. What did Adams or Cantor do to ‘provoke’ him? What did Westbrook do? For that matter, what did Lebron do to ‘provoke’ Green, fight threw a screen? Is it provoking someone, because the smaller weaker player fell to the ground – is that the justification for taking two swings at someone’s junk? Please, Green’s attitude needs to change, you can be competitive and not act like an ass on the court. Don’t let the media hand you that crap.
I could talk about societal changes over the last 7 years, but most of you would get lost in the conversation.
By the way, how Adams handled Green’s antics was way superior to what I would have done in those situations.
Illegal picks/screens? Every player does that. Kevin Garnett is notorious for setting illegal screens but never getting called for them. You want a dirty player, look at Andrew Bogut. The guy is one of the dirtiest players in the league yet never gets called for anything. Perfect example would be from this postseason against the Rockets. After a missed shot, Dwight Howard went up for a rebound. Bogut knew he wasn’t going to get the rebound so he locked Howard’s arm with his own and pulled down, similar to what Kelly Olynyk did to Kevin Love last year. Bogut was called for a foul, but he still deliberately tried to injure a guy. LeBron baited Green, but its not like he tried to injure a guy like Bogut has or how Green has with his flailing leg kicks while he tries to “sell the call”.
You miss the point. This was clearly intentional, and actually smart basketball. Get in a guy’s head and get him suspended. LeBron does get away with dangerous picks all the time; not saying no one else does, just that LeBron very rarely gets called on it. Mission was accomplished, GSW is now short a man for tonight’s game. We’ll see if LeBron and the Cavs can take advantage of it. If they don’t, they will go down as a disappointment, and no one can blame this year on injuries, the Cavs are at full roster.
How will they go down as a disapponintment? If the Warriors are as good as you seemingly claim they are, Green’s suspension shouldn’t affect the team. I love how if the Warriors lose its because Green was suspended, but if the Cavs lose its because they are a disappointment. A series is more than one game. To say that the Cavs losing this game, and thus the series, makes them a disappointment is absurd. The Cavs are the underdog in this series, to say that they become a huge disappointment because they lost a series that the betting odds said they should of lost makes no sense.
So not only Lebron, but 6 or 7 other players got in Green’s head, and Lebron had it all planned to play out where Green’s last out of control action happened in the Championship series with Cleveland, WOW! If he had that kind of power, Cleveland would already have a Championship. And for Klay, it wasn’t Lebron’s feelings getting hurt, no, it was the league that suspended Green, not Lebron. Oh, but Lebron stepped over him! Now who’s feelings are getting hurt?