Draymond Green earned his first ejection of the season after two technical fouls in the Warriors’ Saturday night 118-100 loss to the Cavaliers.
The second foul came following a review several minutes after the foul occurred, but it wasn’t a surprise to Green, who is no stranger to ejections, as it marks as his 17th ejection in 11 NBA seasons.
“I am the same person that got suspended from the NBA Finals for flagrant fouls that were all called from after the game,” Green told ESPN following the defeat. “Nothing surprises me.”
Green’s first technical of the night occurred in the first quarter after he argued with a referee and his second happened with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter when the Warriors were trailing by 10.
Donovan Mitchell charged at Green and intentionally pushed him in retaliation for Green stripping the ball from Mitchell on the previous play, causing the two to tumble to the ground.
Following Mitchell’s push, Green stood in his face while a referee tried to intervene to prevent the two players from a possible fight.
Both were later separated but continued to yell at one another while the officials reviewed the play to evaluate if Mitchell’s foul would be flagrant.
It was later decided that Mitchell’s push was a common foul but they assessed Green another technical foul upon discovering that he made contact with Mitchell after stripping the ball.
“I had never heard this rule, but apparently, you can retroactively call a technical from two plays before upon review,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “There’s a lot of plays I’d like to go back to from three years ago. It was bizarre.”
The Warriors ultimately lost to the Cavaliers to fall to 6-4 on the season after Green was ejected, though they kept the game interesting.
Golden State outscored Cleveland 31-16 in the third and went on a 16-7 run after Green left the floor.
“It was more emotion. It was more force,” Kerr said of his team’s third-quarter performance. “This was the first time literally all season that the first unit has looked right. It’s because of the energy they all brought.
“That’s what led to that great third quarter.”
Green finished with eight points for 3 of 4 shooting, five rebounds and four assists.