Grizzlies broke ‘the code’ with dirty flagrant
Before Game 2 of the Warriors’ secondround series against the Grizzlies, coach
Steve Kerr said that he expected the game to be the most physical his team would play all year.
He was both right and wrong about that.
“That wasn’t physical. It was dirty,” Kerr told TNT after the first quarter.
The Warriors exited the cage match battered, bruised, down a member of their roster and tied in the series after the Grizzlies won 106-101.
Draymond Green played three quarters with his eye swollen shut after he took an elbow to the face. Both Steph
Curry and Jordan Poole spent more time on the floor than at the free-throw line.
But the true subject of Kerr’s ire came in the first quarter, when the Grizzlies’ Dillon Brooks, with no discernible intent to make a basketball play, came up from behind a leaping Gary Payton II, who was attempting a layup, and bashed him in the head while pushing him in the back.
Payton was understandably knocked off balance mid-flight and fell onto his left arm, fracturing his elbow in the process, in all likelihood ending his season.
“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “Playoff basketball is supposed to be physical . ... But there’s a code in this league. There’s a code that ... you never
put a guy’s season [or] career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in mid-air and clubbing them across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow.”
“The line is pretty clear,” Kerr continued. “You don’t hit a guy when he’s in midair, club him and break his elbow.
That’s where the line is.”
The Warriors might have lost the game and their starting two-guard Tuesday, but they now have a clear objective.
The Grizzlies broke
“the code” in Game 2. Not only did they revel in the tainted victory, but the team also put out a social media post advertising Game 5 tickets.
The player they chose to adorn the post?
None other than Brooks.
Yes, the Warriors now need to make the Grizzlies pay.
Not by going an eyefor-an-eye. Bloodlust looks good on no one.
But the Warriors need to end Memphis’ season in a manner equally unceremonious and sudden as the way Brooks ended Payton’s season Tuesday.
The Warriors have not lacked motivation in this
postseason, but Tuesday’s loss should be a galvanizing force for this team.
A little bit of anger and spite has gone a long way for the Dubs in past playoff series.
Now, any notion of this series being good-natured and respectful is over.
If, indeed, this series is young vs. old, then the Warriors need to use that old-man strength and put
the kiddos in their place.
Lessons need to be taught.
These young, brash and downright reckless Grizzlies need to be embarrassed on national television.
Because if they are not, don’t think for a second that they won’t try the Game 2 playbook again.
The Grizzlies know they cannot beat the Warriors
straight-up, so they have to go down low. And because Memphis is so inexperienced, its efforts to muck up games come across as brutish. Masters of the Dark Arts, these Grizzlies are not.
Do you know how I know the Grizzlies cannot beat the Warriors straightup?
Because Golden State shot 18 percent from the 3-point line in Game 2. The Warriors turned the ball over 18 times. Klay Thompson went 5-for19 from the floor and Memphis star Ja Morant scored 47 points.
And, still, Memphis won by only five points.
Would that margin have been the same had Payton been able to play more than three minutes?
What if Green had not been called for a foul — Morant flopped! — while trying to corral a crucial rebound with 50 seconds to play? That “foul” resulted in two points for Memphis and a 102-99 lead when the Warriors should have had the ball in a one-point game.
Don’t get me wrong, the Warriors didn’t deserve to win Tuesday. They should blame themselves first and foremost for the loss.
But there is truth in the margins. Basketball’s gray area says the Warriors played poorly and barely lost. That means something.
There is, however, no gray area when it comes to Brooks.
I wish I could trust the league office to do something with the Memphis wing before Game 3 — for them to sort it out and bring some closure to Tuesday’s event.
After all, it’s ludicrous that Green’s foul Sunday on Brandon Clarke and Brooks’ foul on Payton on Tuesday are considered equal.
Both were ruled Flagrant 2 fouls, resulting in ejection from the game, but I don’t know how anyone can say that what Brooks did was an accident.
It was a dirty play. There’s no other interpretation. And anything that happens after that dirty play is on Brooks. Payton didn’t break his own elbow.
It hardly seems appropriate that Payton be sitting on the sideline in a cast for the rest of this series (and beyond) while Brooks is able to play.
If that does come to pass — and I expect that to be the case, because the NBA has proven to be feckless on matters like this — then it’s on the Warriors to dish out a punishment on the hardwood.
They need to beat the Grizzlies so badly that Morant & Co. would wish to trade places with Payton.
The Warriors need to break the Grizzlies’ spirit like Brooks broke Payton’s elbow.
It won’t bring Payton back into the fold, but it’s the next-best thing.