Stephen Curry warns Draymond Green not to get distracted from playing basketball: “Be fiery, competitive”
The Golden State Warriors' Big 3 is complete again as Draymond Green made a return from his five-game suspension, and Stephen Curry would love to see Green's leadership in action again.
However, during the Golden State Warriors' final NBA In-Season Tournament game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night, Draymond Green met an early distraction as most of the 18,039 fans at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento booed him every time he touched the ball, a sign that at least in Sacramento, he is now considered a villain.
While he is more known for his hustle than scoring, Green had a so-so outing on his return, only making eight points and committing four turnovers, although he also had six rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Stephen Curry hopes that Draymond Green's competitive spirit remains, but now with significant caution, especially when dealing with the road team's fans, so as not to get sanctioned again.
Stephen Curry said,
“Be fiery. Be competitive. Be who you are. But we all have to be mindful of not getting distracted and just try to play basketball.”
Stephen Curry calls Draymond Green's technical foul 'dumb'
Another distraction in Draymond Green's return happened with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter when referee Mitchell Ervin slapped a technical foul on him while he was mimicking the referee's hand signal for a dribbling violation.
Draymond Green, who has been notoriously known for accumulating technical fouls enough to merit a one-game ban, somehow complained that Malik Monk should have been called for a dribbling infraction, particularly a carry violation.
However, Ervin did not like Green's gesture and called a technical foul on him, leading to Monk making the technical free throw.
According to Stephen Curry, though, Draymond Green should not have been called for a technical foul, saying,
"He's passionate and there's conversations that he's shown in the past that when he gets fiery, you kind of know where the limit is. The carry sign and all of that, I was doing the same thing right behind him, and they gave him the tech just 'coz that's kind of what you expect him to do in that kind of situation. And I told him to just refocus at that point and let's just hoop, but that was a dumb tech for sure. We all do that."
The most crucial Green error, though, happened with 30 seconds left when he threw the ball out of bounds off a supposed pass, setting up Monk's game-winner in the next play that would send the Kings to the NBA In-Season Tournament quarterfinals.