Midway through the second quarter of the Timberwolves blowing out the Warriors in Game 2 of this series, Draymond Green picked up a technical foul. It’s the same way he has picked up a lot of technical fouls over the years (and got his fourth in Game 7 vs. Houston), Naz Reid commits a reach-in foul going for the steal, Green wants to sell the call so the referee sees it, and in doing do flails his arms, but Green’s elbow catches Reid in the face.
That was Green’s fifth technical foul in nine postseason games. Once he gets to seven technicals, he faces an automatic one-game suspension.
Green was also involved in a verbal incident with a fan, where Green was on a stationary bike, staying warm, and a fan engaged with Green and used a racial slur toward him (which can be seen in some videos of the incident). That fan was ejected, as he should have been.
After the game, Green said the referees have an agenda when it comes to him.
“I’m not an angry Black man,” Green said, via Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “I’m a very successful, educated Black man, with a great family. And I’m great at basketball. Great at what I do. The agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was thinking more about his team needing Green if it is going to get out of this series, one where the Warriors will be without Stephen Curry for at least a couple more games.
“(Draymond’s) gonna have to be careful now…” Kerr said.
“It’s just a habit he has when somebody fouls him, and he’s smart. So I think it was Reid reached and on the reach, Draymond kind of swiped through and drew the foul. But he does have a habit of sort of flailing his arm to try to make sure the ref sees it, and he made contact, and that’s what led to the tech.”
Green has been down this road before, he has missed games do to too many technicals in the postseason. The most famous of those came in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, when his absence was part of what cost Golden State that game and started Cleveland’s comeback from 3-1 down to win the title. This year’s Warriors don’t have the margin for error to be without Green for a stretch.
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