Green doesn’t take bait, ‘knew what time it was’
Dillon Brooks snatched an inbounds pass intended for Klay Thompson, then skated past Draymond Green late in the second quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ 131-110 loss Thursday night in Memphis.
After Brooks made the bucket, he got up close and personal with Green, jawing in his face as the Warriors’ forward tried to ignore it.
Head coach Steve Kerr and his staff watched the exchange unfold from the bench with stoic faces. Given all the spicy banter between Brooks and Green in the week leading up to the game, tension filled FedExForum.
“He knew what time it was,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said of Green. “He was very aware of the conversations, the back and forth, Dillon trying to do what Dillon does. He knew what was up coming into the night.”
Green, one technical foul away from an NBA-mandated one-game suspension, didn’t react to Brooks’ advances. In fact, no technical fouls were given Thursday night. Both teams mostly kept their composure.
After the game, the league’s most entertaining beef kept going.
“He thought he would bait me like he gets baited,” Green said. “I get technical fouls when I want to get technical fouls. I don’t get baited into technical fouls. So I think that’s probably the difference between me and him. If I do that to him, it’d be a double tech, because he’d respond. But it’s not a double tech, because I didn’t respond. One of us are baitable. One of us aren’t.”
Brooks finished with 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting with four rebounds and six assists. Green had 16 points, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Brooks said he was not bothered by Green’s comments on his Wednesday podcast, on which he said Brooks’ teammates don’t like playing with him. Brooks also took a shot at Green for punching teammate Jordan Poole in the preseason.
“I know I’m a better player than him,” Brooks said. “I can do the same stuff that he does. That’s easy. That’s just showing up to work. Me, I try to score. I try to figure out plays. I try to call out plays for my team. Just the fact that he was trying to pin my teammates against me, that was a low blow. So that’s what type of player he is.
“These are my guys. We grew it all together. I ain’t out there getting in physical altercations with my teammates. I sit there and talk to them, try to not break them down, but build them up.”
The Warriors, 2-1 against the Grizzlies this season, will face them again in Memphis next Saturday. And although Golden State has lost by a combined 60 points in its past two trips to FedExForum, it still isn’t enough for Green to call these matchups a true rivalry.
“One team has to win, and then another team has to win,” Green said. “That’s what creates a rivalry. Not because one team gets up for you and talk like they can beat you and then not. That doesn’t create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. Clearly, we’ve won four times, and I think their organization has zero championships, so I can’t consider that a rivalry.”
Poole’s technical foul rescinded:
The technical foul Poole got in the fourth quarter of Golden State’s loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday has been rescinded by the league.
Poole’s original offense was a simple bounce pass to referee Josh Tiven after he picked up a foul on Jaylin Williams. With the reversal, Poole has 11 technical fouls this season instead of 12.