The refs kept Draymond Green in the game.
And now the Warriors are one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.
Green, Golden State’s talkative disruptor, forced a key miss from Alperen Sengun in the final 10 seconds to help the Warriors escape with a 109-106 home win against the Rockets in Game 4 after not receiving a second technical foul in the second quarter that would have disqualified him.
“What’d he finish with, 31 points,” Green told ESPN of Sengun’s performance. “We knew they were going to him, they expected us to switch because we had switched before, but when the money on the line, I’m not switching. I want the matchup.”
It should come as no shocker that in a series as physical as this one and filled with technicals that Green, one of the NBA’s great agitators, is at the center of it all.
He earned a technical with seven minutes left in the second quarter with the teams tied at 36-36 after setting a hard screen on Amen Thompson, who hit the deck.
Dillon Brooks then fouled Steph Curry hard, sticking out his knee. Green shoved Brooks after the Rockets’ wing attempted to grab the ball from Curry.
All three received technical fouls on the play.
“I got a technical tonight and there were guys way more aggressive than me,” Green said. “Yeah, that’s crazy.”
With 2:44 left in the quarter and the Rockets holding a 47-46 lead, Green and Tari Eason got into it during a fight for a loose ball, with Green falling on top of Eason and his legs landing on top of him.
Eason pushed Green’s legs off him, leading to a little skirmish.
The NBC Bay Area sports announcers noted how Green could not react like perhaps he wanted to since another ejection would result in his ouster.
“Draymond, he can’t do anything,” the announcer. “He can’t do anything or it would be a second T (technical), he can’t even get offsetting T’s.”
The other announcer followed: “You can tell the Rockets want to bait him into something, any time there’s an opportunity. The Rockets are opportunists. Any time there’s a chance for a scuffle to happen, they’re trying to make it happen.”
Green received just a flagrant foul, while Eason earned a technical.
“They were trying to muddy the game up, but it’s fine,” Green said. “We kept it pushing.”
The refs’ ruling mattered dearly when Green drew the assignment of guarding Sengun with a one-point lead in the final seconds and forced him into a tough shot from near the free-throw line that missed.
Making it all the more impressive for Green, he managed to finish the game despite having five fouls.
Said teammate Brandin Podziemski of the Sengun shot, per ESPN: “I don’t know why you’d go after the Defensive Player of the Year.”
Houston’s Fred VanVleet later missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer that now has the Rockets on the brink of elimination and the Warriors in position to face the winner of the Lakers-Timberwolves series, which Minnesota leads 3-1.
“That’s a tough team. They play hard,” Green told ESPN. “They’re a proud team, they have a proud coach who’s brought a presence back to that organization. It’s going to be tough to go in there and close them out, but this ain’t our first rodeo. We know what it takes to get it done.”