Postgame: Kings put Warriors on the ropes, Green ejected
First time in their careers that the core is down 0-2 in a playoff series
There was another late opportunity with a Wiggins three that went off the side of the backboard. An astonishing parade of boneheaded turnovers as the Golden State Warriors worked their way to 22 turnovers on the night. In an ironic twist, the Warriors aren’t too small any more, now they’re too slow. 26 fouls.
That works out to a turnover rate of almost 22% - meaning the team ended around a fifth of their possessions by coughing it up. And as it was in the first game, the Warriors got outworked in the paint by the Kings. They lost it by 16 points in game one, and then by 14 points tonight. Again, Sacramento dominated the offensive glass.
But the biggest deal is the ejection of Draymond Green. He was assessed a Flagrant 2 and ejected on a play that will be given the Zapruder film treatment over the next couple of days… years maybe.
Sabonis slid in and took a charge against Curry that was barely overturned. Then there was another play where he ricocheted off Green out of bounds (also overturned). But the play that may have broken the series wide open occurred with him laying on the court.
With seven minutes or so left in the game, the Kings missed a short runner that rimmed out. In the ensuing scrum, Klay Thompson and Sabonis went down in a heap. Sabonis makes the veteran Chris Paul-esque decision to grab Green’s leg with two arms in a sort of sleeper hold. Green, trying to step over Sabonis cannot. His foot - still firmly wrapped in a two-armed embrace by Sabonis) comes down instead in the chest of Sabonis. Refs whistle.
The feeling of dread blooms up immediately.
I’m probably not alone in the flashbacks that blossomed into my imagination as we waited for the results of the replay review to come back. Obviously, there would be zero benefit of doubt applied here. Equally obvious is that this ejection will come with a media circus and a strong potential for league intervention. Really solid veteran play by Sabonis to put Green’s ankle in a sleeper hold, it may well have laid the dynasty out too.
Green, in his postgame availability said that the refs indicted the flagrant foul was because he “stomped down too hard.” Which is fair enough, but ignores the causality of the whole chain of events.
The series swings back to San Francisco down 0-2. Gambling on taking a ton of threes, getting blitzed constantly by quicker players, and now with Green potentially being held out, this is it. That’s about all the slack the Warriors had to give. It’s do or die on Thursday.
Damn that beam.
Kerr baked a cake this year and he used salt instead of sugar and gluten-free flour. Mike Brown is coaching his guys hard, getting in their faces when they do wrong, then pats them on the ass and sends them back in the game while he cheers them on. Kerr pulls a guy out, says, "Go have a seat on the bench and since you may be on the bench for the next week, why don't you have a piece of my special passive-aggressive salty ass untrusting unbelieving no faith hopeless belittling shame blaming cake."
A great team is built on trust. Trust is like gluten and its what binds a team. It is that trust that helped us win 4 Chips. It's trust that the Kings have in each other. And if you play with trust, you can play with joy. But someone mixed up the salt and sugar in the pantry kitchen this year. (Yo, where Dray at?) And every player on this team has had a big bite out of that jaw-locking salty dry ass cake. It's hard to communicate on defense or cheer on your team when your jaw is locked up. Can we get 3 story picture of JK on the side of the Chase Center with him on the bench in game 2 with salty cake face. Our new motto for 2023-2024: Strength in Ingredients.
F!
In Dray's defense, objectively speaking, and knowing he had other options, pushing off the way he did with his right foot was = to the pressure he felt he needed to remove his ankle from Sabonis's grasp. If he's not being held, he can get off of Sabonis with a quick side step without the stomp. So he is gonna fall or he is gonna push off. And man, Draymond just couldn't resist stealing a hot cookie off the cookie tray.