Draymond Green’s ejection early in the second quarter of Saturday’s game wound up being a turning point for the Warriors, who rallied for a win over Phoenix, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. Golden State trailed by 11 points when its volatile leader was tossed for picking up a pair of quick technical fouls, but the sequence sparked a rally that led to the end of a three-game losing streak.
“Sometimes we take advantage of Draymond, what he does for us, and we count on him to clean up everything,” Gary Payton II said. “But once he’s out of there, we know we all got to come together and do it collectively. I think everybody felt that. And when we’re doing that as a unit, we can be pretty damn good.”
Green got his first technical for pushing Suns guard Collin Gillespie in transition (YouTube link). The next one came seconds later when Green taunted lead official Pat Fraher, resulting in an automatic ejection.
Phoenix scored 44 points and registered five dunks in the first quarter, according to Poole. The Warriors’ defensive effort picked up after the incident as they held the Suns to a combined 31.8% from the field in the second and third quarters.
“I think it woke us up,” Stephen Curry said. “Because we knew without him, we’re going to have to play even tougher, dig deeper down the rotation. I think everybody was kind of on alert and trying to have his back.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Coach Steve Kerr called Green’s ejection “weak” on the part of the officials and compared it to an incident from the teams’ prior matchup on Thursday, per Nick Friedell of The Athletic. Kerr is still fuming about a play late in that game where he claims Dillon Brooks hit Curry with a “premediated” punch to the stomach. Brooks was assessed a flagrant 1 foul after a video review, but wasn’t ejected. “How can you not be upset? This is a guy who broke Gary’s elbow in the playoffs, clotheslining him with one of the dirtiest plays I’ve ever seen,” Kerr said. “So it’s not like there’s not a track record there, and it’s right there, they look at it. I don’t know what the point of replay is if you’re not gonna kick a guy out for literally punching somebody. It’s bizarre to me that he was not, first of all, ejected from that game, and then suspended or fined. Nothing. Nothing.”
- In an interview with Zena Keita of “The Athletic Show,” Kerr expresses gratitude for being able to coach Curry and Green for so long, relays Jordy Fee-Platt of The Athletic. Kerr reveals that he nearly worked out a draft-day deal to bring Curry to Phoenix in 2009 when he was serving as general manager of the Suns. Kerr also states that even though he’s in the final year of his contract, he has no plans to retire while Curry is still active. “I will never leave Steph Curry,” he said.
- Rookie guard Will Richard contributed 20 points in the victory, but he only played because Kerr chose to end Buddy Hield‘s long streak of consecutive games, Poole notes in a separate story. Hield was a healthy scratch for the first time since joining the Warriors last season. “I told him beforehand, I feel terrible, he had a streak of 199 games in a row, it was one of the longest streaks in the league and one of the things I love about Buddy is he’s there for you every single night,” Kerr said. “He’s the greatest teammate ever and just an amazing spirit and a key part of our team, and it felt terrible not to play him, but I sat Will the last five or six games and we needed to get him back out there and you can see why. Buddy’s time will come back around, it always does. He has got the right attitude, he’s going to keep working and getting shots up and I know things will work out for him.”
Doncic entered the contest as the NBA’s leading scorer at 35.2 points per game, but he was noticeably off during the first half. He shot just 4-of-13 from the field and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc, finishing with 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and four turnovers in 19:34.