Warriors ahead Draymond Green was ejected from a sport for the third time this season on Tuesday, incomes a flagrant 2 foul for putting Suns middle Jusuf Nurkic within the head through the third quarter of Phoenix’s win (Twitter video link by way of TSN Sports activities).
The NBA is predicted to evaluation the incident earlier than the Warriors’ sport towards the Clippers on Thursday and can possible droop Inexperienced for a second time this fall, according to Anthony Slater and Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. The previous Defensive Participant of the 12 months was previously suspended 5 video games for placing Rudy Gobert in a headlock, with the league citing Inexperienced’s “historical past of unsportsmanlike acts” when saying that penalty.
“I’m not one to apologize for issues I imply to do, however I do apologize to Jusuf as a result of I didn’t intend to hit him,” Inexperienced mentioned after the sport, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “I promote calls with my arms…so I used to be promoting the decision…and I swung and sadly I hit him.
“You guys have recognized me lengthy sufficient, if I supposed to do one thing, I’m not apologizing. However I did make contact with him, so I do apologize. It’s a tough hit.”
Though the blow despatched Nurkic to the ground, the large man was capable of end the sport. After the victory, he informed reporters that the play had “nothing to do with basketball,” whereas Suns head coach Frank Vogel referred to it as “reckless (and) harmful,” in line with Andrews.
“I’m delicate to our guys getting hit on performs like that,” Vogel mentioned. “I didn’t prefer it. The refs did what they needed to do. The league will do what they should do.”
One other suspension for Inexperienced might end in extra enjoying time for younger gamers like Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and maybe Trayce Jackson-Davis, in addition to veterans Dario Saric and Kevon Looney.
Each Kuminga and Saric, in addition to rookie Brandin Podziemski, have been a part of Golden State’s closing lineup on Tuesday, alongside Stephen Curry and Chris Paul, with Inexperienced unavailable and starters Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Looney on the bench.
Thompson, whose scoring and taking pictures numbers this season are nicely beneath his profession norms, informed reporters after the sport that it was “unusual” to be benched down the stretch, however he didn’t query head coach Steve Kerr‘s choice.
“I performed like crap,” Thompson mentioned, per Andrews. “For those who’ve ever performed basketball earlier than, you realize what you might be able to. You at all times need to be on the market competing. That’s simply info…however I deserved to be benched. I’ve been enjoying like crap. Twenty video games in, I haven’t discovered a rhythm.”