MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Draymond Green didn’t believe he did anything wrong when his hand got caught up in a Grizzlies player’s jersey during Sunday’s game which resulted in him being ejected. But the league sided with the referees anyway.
The NBA will not reduce or rescind the Flagrant 2 foul assessed to Green in the first half of Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, league sources confirmed Monday morning.
Green was called for a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected late in the second quarter after it appeared he pulled on the collar of Brandon Clarke as he went for a basket, dragging the Grizzlies forward to the ground. In a pool report after the game, crew chief Kane Fitzgerald told Damichael Cole of The Commercial Appeal that the contact “was considered unnecessary and excessive,” adding that Green made “significant contact” to Clarke’s face.
Green pleaded to coach Steve Kerr and officials immediately after the incident, saying his hand got caught in Clarke’s jersey.
Green was sent to the locker room with 1:18 remaining in the first half, but not before antagonizing the Memphis crowd, high-fiving several teammates on the bench and calling for more chants and boos from the Memphis crowd as he walked off the floor. He finished with six points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in 17 minutes.
After the Warriors’ nail-biting 117-116 victor over the Grizzlies to take a 1-0 lead in the series, Green expressed optimism that his Flagrant 2 foul would be rescinded entirely or downgraded to a Flagrant 1 by the NBA, and mentioned the point accumulation system for flagrant fouls was the cause of his suspension from Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
But the NBA decided the referees made the right call.
“I have no reaction,” Kerr said in response to the league’s decision. “We’re powerless in this stuff so whatever the league decides, whatever the referees decide, that’s what stands and then we have to move on to the next game.”
Green now has two flagrant foul points against him, making him halfway to a possible automatic one-game suspension.
In the postseason, players receive two flagrant foul points for a Flagrant 2 foul and one for a Flagrant 1. Players who garner four flagrant foul points must serve an automatic one-game suspension.
Kerr was critical of the league’s flagrant foul point system in the playoffs, saying it doesn’t make sense how a player with a first-round exit is allotted the same amount of points as a player who makes it to the NBA Finals.
“One guy plays 25 games, the other guy plays four, and it’s the exact same rule,” Kerr said. “I’m not quite sure how or why that is the case. Regardless, it is what it is.”
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