The Warriors picked up a second straight victory on Monday, beating Orlando by 23 points to get back to .500 (15-15). As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, Golden State got exactly the kind of tag-team performance it wanted to see from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, who led the team with 26 and 21 points, respectively.
However, the big story of the night was a third-quarter spat between head coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green. The two men engaged in a heated argument in a team huddle during a timeout (Twitter video link), resulting in Green leaving the court and not playing for the game’s final 20 minutes, as Anthony Slater of ESPN details. Kerr said after the game that he and Green “had it out a little bit” and that it was the forward’s decision to head to the locker room to “cool off.”
“Tempers spilled over, and I thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green confirmed. “I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself.”
According to Slater, teammates Butler, Al Horford, and Buddy Hield checked on Green during the third quarter and the former Defensive Player of the Year returned to the bench in the fourth quarter. He remained on the sidelines for the rest of the night, with Kerr explaining to reporters that he didn’t seriously consider reinserting Green into the game.
“No, he wasn’t going back in,” Kerr said. “No. He left. He went back to the locker room. We moved forward, and the guys played great.”
Green’s play has been under a microscope lately due largely to his turnover issues — he committed a combined 13 turnovers in the Warriors’ two most recent losses, and Golden State has been outscored during his time on the court in his past six games (including by five points on Monday).
Still, Kerr said he thought Green played well in the first half vs. Orlando and stressed that the team “needs” the 35-year-old going forward. For his part, Green downplayed the incident and suggested he didn’t think there would be any lingering effects.
“We’ve been at this now for a long time,” Green said. “Sometimes you’re with people for a long time and there’s a level of comfort and s–t happens. We move forward.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Horford, who has played just once in the past month as he dealt with sciatica, could be back in action for the Christmas Day game vs. Dallas, Kerr said on Monday (Twitter link via Slater).
- Guard De’Anthony Melton has played between 15 and 21 minutes in each of his seven appearances since making his season debut following his recovery from an ACL tear. According to Kerr, Melton could play more than that if needed, but the head coach’s preference would be to keep him in that 20-minute range for now (Twitter link via Slater).
- In a profile for The Athletic, Nick Friedell takes a look at rookie Will Richard‘s path to the NBA, detailing how the guard transformed his body in high school and then capped off his college career with a national championship. “He’s a winner,” Butler said of his teammate. “He’s hella smart. But I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he’s going to do it. … It’s really hard to try to please everybody because you can be told five different things from five different people, and he’s the type of human being that’s going to try to do all five of those things that everybody’s telling him. They could totally contradict each other, but he’s a hellafied listener.”
- Kerr remains confident about the Warriors’ ability to contend in the Western Conference despite the team’s up-and-down start to the season, per Friedell. “Look, our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach,” Kerr said on Sunday. “But it can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum because everybody else is gonna go through tough stretches too.”
Once again the warriors played much better on the court without Green. Maybe Green is understanding his career is coimng to an end.
I wouldn’t say he is useless and his career is over, but he is old and getting gassed too early, he needs to be used as a burst player on defense for 15-20 MPG. He definitely needs to leave the starting lineup. A rebuilding team looking for future cap space will be interested in him, knowing he is gone after next year. His trade value is still pretty decent, and you just know the Pistons would be interested in him as long as he knows he isn’t getting 25+ MPG.
Current Jimmy is about as good as Draymond in his prime. Dray got lowkey replaced by Himmy.
Mavericks get Anfernee Simons, Buddy Hield, Haywood Highsmith, multiple picks
Celtics get Draymond Green
Kings get Kuminga
Nets get Malik Monk and a pick
Warriors get Anthony Davis
Celtics and Warriors try to make a deep playoff push, Nets use up their cap space and get a pick, Kings get younger and add athleticism, Mavericks cut payroll, add shooting, and jump start their rebuild with multiple picks and better ‘26 lotto odds.
Would be good but Mavs have been saying they do not want to trade AD.
It checks a lot of boxes for the teams involved, but that AD contract scares me as a Dubs fan.
That would be a all go in deal with fingers crossed on health
Why in the world would Boston want Draymond Green?
Good lord man.
They are pretty thin at 4/5 if they hope to make a playoff run.
Draymond, Buddy and Kuminga for Anthony Davis…. Stop fantasizing that these Warriors have any value… the sum of their parts does not equal Anthony Davis haha
Druuu its another one of those fantasy trades that will never happen. All of your questions are legit. Biggest one is Celtics would not want Green.
@Druuu literally thinks on-court value = trade value. Basic entry level stuff he is failing here, ya hate ta see it!! lol
I know they’re thin. They don’t want Green.
Yep….not a snowballs chance in hell Boston take on Draymond and his contract next season.
Where are the picks coming from? Mavs aren’t trading AD for that package unless there are 3-5 1st round picks involved. Kings are not giving up 1st rd picks for Kuminga, Celtics might trade a future protected 1st that they anticipate being in the 20’s, but not multiple for Green, what do the Warriors have left after the Butler deal? Not enough to entice Dallas.
Why would the Warriors want a guy who never plays?
Top Rookie center in NBA ……. Maxime Raynaud.
Amazing how 4 yr college players are looked at today. Warriors could sure use him now.
Will Richard another older rookie. Was a great find at #56. Amazing really. It’s crazy when your age is held against you in the draft.
#11 pick Cedrick Coward another older rookie is a top rookie this yr. Excellent pick
yawn….Sounds like somebody has a big crush on Raynaud. You would think a supposed expert like Al would not get so worked over a handful of games in the NBA. let’s see how he does against a big center on a good team in the first half not in garbage ball time on a bad team.
To draft the top big Man in ANY draft is a big deal. To pass on him at #42. Is asinine. You’re the ones who get worked up. I just put out facts. You got the hate responsees ……
Agree with Al here. Raynaud was an obvious stud on offense. My understanding was that teams had concerns about his D. Time will tell whether Raynaud or Richard are the “better” NBA talent, but a quality big is a scarcer commodity than a quality shooting guard.
Al is just being butt-hurt here in his need to feel superior. Raynaud has definitely taken advantage of Sabonis being injured. But, it has only been like 10 games of a rookie season that he started out in the GLeague. To say he is better than those taken before him is silly. A couple of them are behind other established centers. Sorber is out for the season.
The Warriors already have their project center, Post. He is coming along quite well. He was a better defender coming out of college. Do the Warriors really need two project centers on their roster.
Al thinks Raynaud can fulfill their need for a veteran center. The Warriors were after Claxton and Kornet. Do you think Raynaud is equal to those two?
Raynaud could have perfectly good NBA career. But, passing over him wasn’t the worst decision.
I kind of agree, but I think the comparison is with Will Richard and Toohey, because that’s what they traded down for. Now that Toohey is gone, it’s just Richard. The cost of checking Toohey out had some minimal value, but it’s really about whether taking Will Richard instead of Raynaud was a smart move. They both look like guys that will play in the league for a while so…. Only time will tell.
Actually, this isn’t the first time he has brought this up. If the the Warriors were a lottery bound team, then I could see them going after Raynaud. But, on a playoff bound team, it doesn’t make sense. Big men need to play to workout their mistakes. It would be Wiseman all over again.
Except for the fact that Wiseman was an epic fail. They burned a number two draft pick on the guy and he is not an NBA starter. Arguably the worst of the 1-15 in that draft, and he was number two! That huge miss will cost the Warriors in ways that are hard to measure. In fact it is hurting them right now. Raynaud looks like a better player than Wiseman will ever be, and it is not due to Wiseman’s lack of development and chances with the Ws. They would have let him play, if he wasn’t hurt and didn’t actually suck. He had his chances.
I find it funny that Al makes a big deal of warriors passing him by but so did the other 30 teams. He could be the starting Knick player right now but they traded way all their picks for a 3rd of 4th best player on their team. Knicks could have used him over broken down Robinson. Another bad move by the Knicks.
Look up how Quinten Post played last night.
Al how did you make this comment not realizing Quentin Post is also a 4 yr college guy? Lol you sabotaged yourself. GSW already DOES have a 4 year guy who has been learning how to play defense from Jimmy “best teammate in the NBA” Butler.
Adam Silver and company made such a fuss about Barkley and Shaq being (correctly) negative about the NBA product on TV… Why would he ever want a reminder of the repetitive trashy and dirty things Draymond Green has been allowed to get away with on an NBA court? Green should never touch national NBA media ever again. He’s horrible for the NBA and every party involved will be happier, safer and better at basketball when he is gone
I don’t remember the fuss that Silver made, can you refresh my memory?
Silver never made a fuss, @Druu just doesn’t have a clue about ball. Not one.
I bet you cut the crust off your sandwiches
“(correctly) negative about the NBA product” – absolute clown take. God your takes are so bad dude, like, why bother?
Can’t wait for Draymond to be out of the league. GSW should suspend him a game for abandoning his team.
You should be thanking him for 4 rings….bad fan alert!
Why would I thank him? He has done some great things athletically. But he’s proven to be an idiot. Kerr and GSW should hold him accountable.
I don’t disagree overall, Kerr has always never done any aspect of his job well, and letting Draymond have the run of the house has been the worst aspect of Kerr’s “coaching”, but “Can’t wait for Draymond to be out of the league” is a bit on the nose. Like “thanks for the rings, but I hate you!” lol
I don’t hate the man. I don’t know him outside of basketball. As a basketball player, he is a colossal jerk and a dirty player. I’ll be glad when he retires.
Funny how it works on the dubs. Draymond will not be disciplined. It’s too late for all that. They got to make it work with Dray. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Funny how Kerr caused Melton’s injury last year by noticing he is an undersized guard and therefore in Kerr’s broken brain, he MUST get 30+ mins a game, when Melton simply cannot go more than 15-20 MPG before he gets hurt again. I would hope Kerr keeps him in that 15-20 range until the playoffs.
Moses Moody last night: 20 points, 2 blocks, 0 turnovers, +23.
An idiot who doesn’t know ball: “This guy sucks”.
Also an idiot who doesn’t know ball … Moody has the talent of an all star.
Old Davey was awfully quiet when Moody put up 5 and 3 points the last two games.