Draymond Green played with a technical foul and didn’t back down from any Celtics opponent.
Draymond Green’s intensity on the court may have played a role in the Golden State Warriors’ 107-88 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, depending on who you ask.
Green received a technical foul after a brief skirmish with Celtics forward Grant Williams and continued to antagonize his opponents even with the prospect of potentially getting ejected from the game with another tech on the table.
The Warriors forward would get into another incident with Jaylen Brown in the second quarter. Brown took a shot and Green closed out hard, knocking the Celtics guard to the ground. Green had his legs on Brown and after Brown pushed Green’s legs off him, the two got into a brief brouhaha.
After the game, Brown addressed what he thought was an “illegal play.”
“I’m just trying to play basketball. I feel like that was an illegal play. I felt like that could have been called, but they let it go,” he said, via NBC Sports Boston.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do there. Some guy has his legs on top of your head, and then he tried to pull my pants down. I don’t know what that’s about. But that’s what Draymond Green does. He does whatever it takes to win. He’ll pull you and grab you, and muck the game up. That’s what he does for that team. It’s nothing to be surprised about.”
Green’s teammate Stephen Curry praised his intensity immediately after the win.
“He was just being himself. Finding different ways to impact the game on both sides of the floor,” Curry said. “Sometimes it shows up in the stat sheet across the board, sometimes you just feel his energy, his focus and his passion and that gives us a lot of life.”
Green had nine points, seven assists and five rebounds. His counterpart, Al Horford, denied Green had any influence on the game.
“No impact. I mean he’s going to do what he does, we’re not worried about it. We’re going to do what we do, focus on us and we just didn’t get it done tonight. We’ll be better at home in Game 3,” Horford added, via NESN.
Curry had 29 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals to help Golden State bounce back from a Game 1 loss and take the even series back to the East Coast.
Game 3 between the Warriors and Celtics will be Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET in Boston.
