Green, Curry dismiss Grizzlies-warriors rivalry
The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors in the 2021 playin tournament to reach the playoffs. The Warriors returned the favor in last year’s Western Conference semifinals.
Despite all three games this season being on national television, Warriors forward Draymond Green won’t call it a rivalry. That runs counter to both coach Steve Kerr calling it one in January but Green thinks the matchup has been too one-sided to be considered a rivalry.
“One team has to win and the other team has to win. That’s what creates a rivalry, not because one team gets up for you and talks like they can beat you,” Green said after the Grizzlies won 131-110 Thursday in Memphis. “That doesn’t create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. Clearly we won four times and I think their organization has zero championships. So I can’t consider that a rivalry.
“Anybody can win in March ... I have a hard time getting out of my bed in March.”
The Warriors lead the season series 2-1 with the fourth game coming in Memphis next Saturday.
As for his encounter with Dillon Brooks in the second quarter when they got face-to-face and Brooks started jawing at him? Green dismissed that as well. He assumed Brooks was eager to play against the Warriors but he thought the way he acted wasn’t anything unusual or out of the ordinary.
It was a muted response compared to what Green gave on his podcast Wednesday. He called Brooks a clown and dissed him point-by-point for his comments last week that questioned Green’s value to the Warriors.
“He thought he would bait me like he gets baited. I get technical fouls when I want to get a technical foul. I don’t get baited into technical fouls,” said Green, whose 15 technical fouls this season are one less than Brooks. “So I think that’s probably a difference in 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. So one of us are baitable, one of us aren’t.”
Stephen Curry praised Green’s restraint in avoiding his 16th technical foul, which would’ve carried an automatic one-game ejection. Brooks had words for Curry during Thursday’s game as well but the only technical foul in the game came with 3:43 remaining after Jamychal Green was assessed for elbowing Santi Aldama in the throat.
Curry also agreed that the despite recent history, the Grizzlies and Warriors weren’t rivals given the one-sided nature of it. The Grizzlies won last season’s regular season series but starting with the playoffs, they’re 3-6 against the Warriors.
“I consider it a matchup of teams with history but that doesn’t meet that level of rivalry. The sample size isn’t big enough and one team has figured it out,” Curry said.