Warriors’ Green suspended game
Golden State’s Draymond Green stepping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis was an action the league considered excessive, dangerous and worthy of suspension, NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars said Wednesday,
Dumars — whose job duties include being one of the NBA’S major decision-makers for player discipline matters — shed light on what went into the decision to suspend Green for a playoff game, and why Sabonis’ actions didn’t merit further sanctioning.
“This was not some snapof-the-finger decision to do little was expected save for misses and miscues, has bordered on revelatory. Like a human defibrillator, jump-starting a chronically chill Clippers team, the former Lawndale Leuzinger High Olympian, UCLA Bruin and Los Angeles Laker has been
On Tuesday, he made up for Game 1’s way-off night (3 for 19 while saving the day defensively) by going 9 for 16 for 28 points, including 2 for 3 from 3-point range and also 8 for 8 from the freethrow line.
And you know Clippers coach Tyronn Lue is dreaming up some adjustments
Likely something intended to clog up the midrange marauding Suns, even though, at that distance, it’ll be a matter of containing rather than stopping them. And maybe that means fewer tiny lineups and more size at forward, incorporating 6-foot-7 Robert Covington or, yes, 6-8 Marcus Morris Sr.
Ideally, there might be something to facilitate additional 3-point attempts, three being more than two and all that math.
And certainly, something to rev up the Clippers’ depth, their one supposed clear advantage, on paper, which was negligible Tuesday. The Clippers’ supplementary cast of shooters — Nicolas Batum, Norman Powell and Bones Hyland — combined to go oh-fer: An ohfor-heaven’s-sake 0 for 11.
Problems to most, music to T-lue.
Warriors lost to fall into a 2-0 series hole.
Green will serve the suspension tonight against the visiting Kings in Game 3.
BROWN COACH OF THE YEAR >>
Sacramento coach Mike Brown on Wednesday was named a unanimous winner as the NBA’S Coach of the Year. It seemed an easy call after his first season in Sacramento saw the Kings make the playoffs for the first time since 2006. All 100 voters from a panel of reporters and broadcasters had Brown atop their ballot.
“These honors don’t come around often, so you’re very appreciative of them,” Brown said on TNT.
“I just love the back and forth, the chess match,” Lue said before the series began. “Playing against really good teams and really good competition, you get a chance to take their best shot and then you get a chance to come back and adjust and make adjustments and see how they do. I like this time of the year.”
He’ll like it even more if they can get George back. No, there’s been no indication from the team that he’ll return before the series is through. But he was on full display before shootaround Tuesday, going through drills and working on his conditioning.
But even without him, and even against these KD Suns, the Clippers are telling us we were wrong: It’s not a wrap.
“Our confidence is great,” Lue said. “We come in, play in a hostile environment, won one, lost one. We was in the game until like the last six minutes. We’re very confident. Some things we can clean up and do better, and we’ll be ready to go.”
That inward focus sounds a lot like Leonard’s response back on Feb. 8, when he was asked about the stunning trade going down that would send Durant to Phoenix. Immune to the speculative current running through the place that night, Leonard shrugged: “I have to focus on what we gotta do.”
Same energy now. It’s everyone else’s expectation that might be shifting.