SAN FRANCISCO — Once again, Draymond Green found himself in the middle of some heated action with the opposing team on Tuesday night.
In the second quarter of an intense contest against the New Orleans Pelicans with playoff implications, Green got tangled up with Brandon Ingram before making some aggressive moves with his legs and feet toward Herb Jones just a few minutes later.
Technically, the two incidents happened just 21 seconds apart from each other in the box score, but the whole sequence took about 10 minutes to unfold as the referees went to video review twice. Both times, the Warriors and Pelicans had to be separated before a true scuffle could break out.
Draymond was served a Flagrant 1 foul before him and Ingram got double technicals in the first dust-up at the 3:44 mark in the first half. Green and Ingram got in each other’s face before Draymond eventually started chirping with Pelicans veteran CJ McCollum near the scorer’s table, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr tried to calm down his emotional team leader.
A couple possessions later, Green bowled over Jones then his left foot made contact with Jones’ head as he fell to the floor. Green then almost got Jones in an armbar while his feet flailed near the head of the Pelicans guard a couple more times. After the refs went to replay, the call stood as a simple charge violation against Green.
Clearly, New Orleans didn’t like either foul by Draymond, who walked around the court clapping and trying to egg on the crowd during the awkward breaks. The lull seemed to take the air out of the building, as the Pelicans finished the first half on a 13-5 run to take a 63-46 lead into the break at intermission.
Draymond has already been suspended for a game after racking up 16 technicals in the regular season for the first time in his career, but he’s never gonna turn off his competitive fire. He's usually intense, but also might have been playing with a chip on his shoulder after making a costly late turnover in Sunday's loss.
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