Is there trouble in Warrior land?

When I saw the play unfold in the dying seconds of regulation, I thought it was uncharacteristic of the Golden State Warriors offense.

With about four seconds left, Draymond Green was able to grab the defensive rebound off a missed shot from the Los Angeles Clippers. You could see Durant who was just about four feet away asking for the ball, but nonetheless, Green tried to zoom past everybody only to be met by a phalanx of Clippers defenders at half-court, causing him to lose control of the ball as time expired sending the game into overtime.

At the periphery you see there were also some open teammates, one of which was dead shot Klay Thompson.

In itself, that play would have been brushed off as a singular exercise of bad judgement on the part of Green. But because they went on to lose the game it became exponentially magnified. And we are only 16 games into the regular season.

SUSPENSION. What happened afterwards at the locker room was kept a secret save for the information that there were words uttered that caused Draymond Green to be suspended by GSW management. Now understand that Green did not utter or direct these words towards the media or throw a punch at a teammate. Whatever he said in that locker room had to be pretty darn nasty to merit a one-game suspension without pay from his own team.

DURANT. Green reportedly said something about Durant’s contract, which did not sit well with everybody who heard the remark.

Remember that next year, Durant becomes a free agent. Could this tension between Green and Durant prove to be instrumental in making a decision whether he stays or not?

There is no doubt that if it came to a choice between the two, Durant would be the hands down winner and they would probably trade Green in order to make Durant happy.

Durant can be quite an enigma. He’s mercurial and mysterious. If the Warriors win a third championship, he just might look for another challenge by going to a different team where he will be the main guy.

But consider what could happen if they fail to become champions this year. Winning can be intoxicating. When you win, everything else doesn’t matter. But when you lose, the blaming and finger pointing becomes inevitable. Durant’s beef with Draymond can be contained. For now. But watch the fabric tear when they start to lose games.

LAST ROUNDS. Are on my sis-in-law Atty Renelda Chanco and my kumpare, Roger Lee, who recently celebrated their birthdays. Cheers!