Kings Take 2-0 Lead Versus Warriors, Draymond Green Makes Another Dirty Play
If you watch people and teams objectively, they will show and tell you who they are.
The Sacramento Kings proved to be one of the NBA's best teams throughout the regular season; meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors went 11-30 on the road, ranked last in the league in turnovers, and ranked 28th in the league in fouls committed. Draymond Green--who earned a reputation as a dirty player by repeatedly striking opposing players below the belt and above the neck before topping himself by punching out his teammate Jordan Poole during practice before this season started--led Golden State's foul parade this season and he also ranked second in the league with 17 technical fouls.
What should one expect in a Kings-Warriors playoff series? One should expect the Kings to play well, and the Warriors to play poorly on the road while turning the ball over and committing a lot of fouls.
The Kings won game one, 126-123, on Saturday night, and the Kings won game two, 114-106, last night. The Warriors committed 51 fouls and 35 turnovers in those two games, while the Kings committed 48 fouls and 27 turnovers.
With 7:03 remaining in the fourth quarter of game two and the Kings leading 91-87, Green and Domantas Sabonis became tangled up while battling for a rebound. Sabonis fell to the floor and he grabbed Green's foot. Green then stomped on Sabonis twice while Sabonis was on the floor. As Sabonis writhed in pain, Green yelled obscenities to the Sacramento fans and waved his arms in the air to show how proud he was of his dirty play.
The referees discussed the sequence before issuing a technical foul to Sabonis for the foot grab and a flagrant foul 2 (with automatic ejection) to Green for the stomping. After the game, an unrepentant Green took no responsibility for his actions and blamed Sabonis for everything. Green has a penchant for striking people when they are not looking or when they are lying on the ground. He fancies himself to be a tough guy, but I cannot recall ever seeing him square up face to face and challenge a player who is his size or bigger; he likes to pick on people who are smaller, or who are in compromised positions.
I do not condone fighting in basketball games, but it would be fascinating to teleport Green to earlier eras when fighting in NBA games was much more tolerated. I rather doubt that Green would square off against Charles Oakley, Maurice Lucas, or Willis Reed--and I think that Green would get a most unpleasant surprise if he believed that smaller guys like Alvin Robertson or Calvin Murphy would be easy targets for bullying. Green is a classic "hold me back" guy who runs his mouth, takes cheap shots, and knows that he is not going to have to fight a grown man on even terms.
Green appears to have serious emotional issues that negatively impact his behavior, and hurt his team's chances to win. I have no patience for anyone who suggests that the Warriors would have won the 2016 NBA Finals if Green had not been suspended for game five, and I have no patience for anyone who suggests that the Warriors would have beaten the Kings last night if Green had not been ejected. Being suspended and ejected is an essential part of who Green is. If you posit that Green's defense, rebounding, and passing help the Warriors to win, then you also have to accept that Green's emotional volatility damages the Warriors and hurts their winning chances. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all part of the Draymond Green experience.
Every player is defined by certain characteristics. Michael Jordan came up big in clutch moments. James Harden chokes in clutch moments. Draymond Green lacks self control and gets tossed from games. When players do the things that they have repeatedly done before, it is foolish to act surprised or to say that the outcome would have been different if the players had not done the things that they typically do. Yes, the Chicago Bulls would have won fewer championships if Jordan had not been a dominant player--but Jordan was a dominant player throughout his career. Yes, James Harden's teams would have been more successful if he had not choked so much (or if he had accepted a lesser role behind players who do not choke)--but Harden has been a playoff choker throughout his career. Yes, Draymond Green's teams might have won more games if he had not been ejected and suspended so often--but he has been a volatile player prone to being ejected and suspended throughout his career.
Green's dirty play and Golden State's predictable road collapses take nothing away from how great the Kings have been. De'Aaron Fox is averaging 31.0 ppg and 7.0 apg in this series, while Malik Monk has poured in 25.0 ppg off of the bench. Sabonis has been strong in the paint with 18.0 ppg and 12.5 rpg. Notice that Sabonis did not run his mouth after Green stomped on him, nor did Sabonis puff out his chest and do the fake "hold me back" routine; he just kept attacking the paint. Over the past few years, it has been interesting to watch American players who have grown up in one of the wealthiest countries in the world try to challenge and bully European players who they assume to be soft--but guys like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Domantas Sabonis have repeatedly proven that they are not soft.
Although the Kings are in command of this series now, it should be emphasized that this season Golden State has been much better at home than on the road, so it would not be shocking if the Warriors won one or both of their two upcoming home games in this series; that would not change the reality that the Kings should be favored to win this series, because the Kings are the better, more consistent team. One cautionary note for Warriors' fans: the Kings are a very good road team, so home wins are possible but far from guaranteed for Golden State in this series.
Labels: De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors, Malik Monk, Sacramento Kings
posted by David Friedman @ 4:11 PM
1 Comments:
After Game one, I came to the realization that Steph Curry is not in the ranks of one of the most clutch players of all-time. He is more of an avalanche player who buries teams in the third quarters, mostly. OTOH, Fox outplayed Curry in crunch-time, and for the game. I couldn't believe how good of a shooter he was - thought he was just an athlete.
The Sacramento Kings treated this game like it was Game 7. They hammered the Warriors on the boards with 17 offensive rebounds, just made them look small. That is the Warriors' biggest weakness: size and strength.
That being said... they were only one bucket away from winning the game. Klay Thompson actually passed up a transition layup for a Wiggins corner 3, when they were down by 1 point. That was low-IQ basketball. Wiggins could have even pump-faked the 3 and gone in for a drive or a midrange shot which would have had a better chance at being the game winner.
This is where the 3 point mentality actually hurts the team circumstantially in the clutch.
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