Beal ejected after fight with Green
OAKLAND, CALIF. — Golden State lost its emotional leader when Draymond Green was ejected shortly before halftime. The defending champs were sloppy again, even forgetting several plays after one timeout and still somehow won — but it has hardly been easy so far.
Kevin Durant had 31 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to help rally the Warriors from 18 points down and beat the Wizards 120-117 on Friday night, a game marred by a fight between Green and Washington's Bradley Beal that led to both being tossed.
Stephen Curry added 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds, hitting two 3s and two free throws in the final minute of the third quarter to get Golden State within 97-87 heading into the final 12 minutes. Then Klay Thompson and Durant made 3s early in the fourth for a four-point game. Thompson scored 18 points.
Durant's jumper with 1:20 to go put Golden State up by five, but the Warriors still needed his two free throws with 9.4 seconds left. John Wall missed an off-balance 3 then Washington couldn't capitalize on one final chance.
David West made two straight baskets for the Warriors midway through the fourth but Otto Porter Jr. hit consecutive 3-pointers for the Wizards, answering a 3 by Durant with a baseline dagger on the way to 29 points for the Wizards.
With 19.5 seconds left in the second quarter, Beal held the front of Green's jersey with his left hand while grabbing Green around the jaw with his right. That enraged Green, who threw his right arm in frustration and wrapped arms with Beal as if hugging, then other players joined the scrum.
“It was a scuffle. I'm not going to go into details about it. I'll do that with the league tomorrow,” Beal said. “We just got into it and things got out of hand and we both got ejected. I told my teammates I can't put myself in a situation like that to leave them out there to battle out against a tough team without me out there.”
Green had to be pulled away from the skirmish by Andre Iguodala and Warriors security personnel. Green was tossed after getting his second technical foul. The back of his uniform was torn from near his right shoulder down to his waist.
“I thought Draymond defended himself and bit the bullet of being ejected for the game,” West said.
Green was hit with his first technical at the 8:05 mark of the second quarter for arguing an offensive foul call. TV: SATURDAY’S RESULTS Okla. City 101, CHICAGO 69 NEW ORL. 123, Cleveland 101 Boston 96, MIAMI 90 MEMPHIS 103, Houston 89 Philadelphia 112, DALLAs 110 UTAH 96, L.A. LAKERS 81 Phoenix at Portland, late Detroit at L.A. Clippers, late SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE Milwaukee at Atlanta, 3:30 San Antonio at Indiana, 4:30 Denver at Brooklyn, 6 Orlando at Charlotte, 6 Washington at Sacramento, 6 New York at Cleveland, 7 Detroit at Golden State, 8:30 MONDAY’S SCHEDULE San Antonio at Boston, 7:30 Minnesota at Miami, 7:30 Denver at New York, 7:30 Philadelphia at Houston, 8 Charlotte at Memphis, 8 Orlando at New Orleans, 8 Dallas at Utah, 9 Toronto at Portland, 10 Golden St. at L.A. Clip., 10:30 TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE Sacramento at Indiana, 8 Phoenix at Brooklyn, 8:30 FRIDAY’S RESULTS ORLANDO 114, San Antonio 87 Houston 109, CHARLOTTE 93 Denver 105, ATLANTA 100 NEW YORK 107, Brooklyn 86 MINNESOTA 119, Ok. City 116 Toronto 101, L.A. LAKERS 92 GOLDEN STATE 120, Wash 117 CALENDAR Feb. 8: Trade deadline. PLAYER ,TM Capela, HOU Adams, OKC Gobert, UTA Poeltl, TOR Randle, LAL Nance Jr., LAL Kanter, NYK Anttknmpo, MIL James, CLE Vucevic, ORL Howard, CHA Gordon, ORL Gortat, WAS Snell, MIL Sabonis, IND Towns, MIN 38 32 30 20 22 26 25 68 55 46 28 25 29 20 22 58 51 .745 46 .696 44 .682 30 .667 33 .667 40 .650 39 .641 109 .624 90 .611 76 .605 47 .596 42 .595 49 .592 34 .588 38 .579 101 .574