Ball of energy Green isn’t backing down from Barkley, rivals
forward Draymond Green, perpetual force of nature, stormed into another realm Tuesday night.
Green had been leaving his imprint all over the NBA playseason offs even before Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against New Orleans. His diverse skills — scoring, rebounding and passing with characteristic vigor — helped the Warriors weather Stephen Curry’s absence for six postWarriors games.
Then, with Curry back, Green unleashed his full repertoire Tuesday night. He twisted the outcome in his team’s favor with 20 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds; barked at referee Mike Callahan after a debatable foul call; offered heated words to New Orleans players Anthony Davis and Nikola Mirotic; and got into a lively, face-to-face tiff with Rajon Rondo as the teams left the court at halftime.
That prompted TNT analyst Charles Barkley to declare on the air, “I want someone to punch him in the face.” His sidekick, Kenny Smith, replied, “You don’t like Draymond?” to which Barkley said, “I want to punch him in the face so bad.”
Green, not surprisingly,
Utah had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter Wednesday night when Donovan Mitchell missed a jumper and sailed above three Rockets to grab the rebound and finish with a nifty one-handed slam.
His teammates went wild, cheering and pretending to fall backward on each other in awe.
Joe Ingles led the Jazz with a career-high 27 points, but it was the rookie guard who provided the highlight of the night as the Jazz evened the Western Conference semifinals 1-1 with a 116-108 win in Houston.
Ingles made a career-best seven three-pointers and Mitchell added 17 points and a franchise-rookie-record 11 assists for his first game this postseason in which he scored fewer than 20 points and didn’t lead the team in scoring.
He still provided an emotional boost to his team with his highlight-reel play. He smiled broadly when it was mentioned postgame, and said he simply was trying to get the rebound on his miss when he made a split-second decision.
“I just happened to be up there,” he said. “So I said: ‘Why come down with it?’ ”
The Jazz squandered a huge early lead before using a big fourth quarter to regain control and head home for Game 3 on Friday in Utah with a chance to take a series lead over the topseeded Rockets.
Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni said Mitchell was the key to the win even though he didn’t lead the team in scoring.
“He was breaking us down,” D’Antoni said. “He was getting in there and was finding guys in the corner. He’s a handful, whether he’s finishing or not.”
After trailing by 25 points at halftime of the 110-96 loss in the series opener, the Jazz bolted to an early lead in this one and led by as many as 19 in the first half.
“Last game, we came out completely opposite. Tonight, they kind of caught us offguard,” Houston’s James Harden said. “We adjusted to it in that second quarter, but we can’t get down 19 no matter who we’re playing.”
Houston regained the lead in the third quarter but couldn’t keep pace with the Jazz in the fourth as its normally potent offense went cold.
Harden had 32 points and 11 assists and Chris Paul added 23 points as Houston fell to the Jazz for the first time this season after winning the first five.
Utah head coach Quin Snyder was pleased at his team’s balanced scoring effort on a night in which six players finished in double figures, and he raved about the contribution of Ingles.
“Every time Joe has needed to step up his game, he has been able to,” Snyder said.
Houston was up by two early in the fourth quarter, but Utah scored eight straight points on three-pointers from Dante Exum and Jae Crowder before Mitchell’s dunk made it 100-94.
Harden made a basket after that before Utah scored another eight straight points, with two three-pointers from Ingles, to make it 108-96 with 4½ minutes left.
Harden ended a 2½-minute Houston scoring drought with a three-pointer about a minute later that was the start of a 9-3 run that cut the Rockets’ deficit to 111-105 with 1:46 left. Rudy Gobert made one of two freethrow tries before Exum put it out of reach with a dunk.
After taking just four shots in Game 1 and finishing with 11 points, Gobert got going early Wednesday and had 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting by halftime. He was mostly quiet after the break, and finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Briefly: The Suns have hired Utah assistant Igor Kokoskov as their head coach. The 46year-old Serbian becomes the first NBA head coach born and raised outside North America. He served as a Phoenix assistant from 2008 to 2013 . ... Thunder general manager Sam Presti said that head coach Billy Donovan’s job is safe despite a disappointing season.