Houston Rockets rugged forward Dillon Brooks threw what looked like a subtle jab at Draymond Green, his Golden State Warriors counterpart, in his ejection prediction for their first-round playoff series.
“I don’t know,” Brooks told reporters. “I’m not gonna get ejected. I’ll leave that to someone else.”
Green has 23 ejections in his career, the second-most in NBA history, behind Rasheed Wallace’s 29. In contrast, Brooks, despite his peskiness and constant trash-talking, has only been ejected three times in his career.
The matchup between the two mercurial forwards will spice up the series, which is expected to be intense and very physical based on their last meeting.
Green was called for a technical foul and a flagrant foul penalty 1 for elbowing Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun during their 106-96 loss on April 6.
Rockets guard Fred VanVleet called out Green for his antics after the game.
“(Green) rattles a lot of teams, and a lot of people,” VanVleet told The Athletic. “That (conversation with Green) was just more so me obviously standing up for our group, and letting (his teammates) know, like we’re good — we’re good. We play the game the right way. If we do what we need to do, we’ll be all right.
“If you get caught up trying to win that battle against him, he’s probably undefeated when it comes to playing that game. So it was just more so keeping us focused. As an older team (like the Warriors), you kind of resort to other things and tricks of the trade. So just wanted to keep us level-headed and locked into what we’re doing.”
Draymond Green Didn’t Agree With Refs’ Call
Green took exception to the flagrant foul called against him for what the referees deemed an intentional elbow to Sengun.
“The tech, I’m not going to stop because the referee says stop and give up position,” Green told reporters after the Warriors’ loss. “I already give up six inches and 50 pounds.”
The first incident came toward the end of the first half as Green jockeyed for position against the bigger Sengun.
The second infraction came with Green going up to the basket with Sengun in front of him.
“The flagrant foul call, I don’t know what to do,” Green told reporters. “Duck? Don’t go for a layup?”
The animosity from that game only makes this playoff series one of the most interesting matchups in the playoffs.
Add to that the playoff history between these two franchises.
The Warriors have eliminated the Rockets four times in the playoffs since 2015. But this a new Rockets team they are facing — young and hungry but they have playoff and championship veterans on the roster such as VanVleet and Brooks.
Ime Udoka-Steph Curry Shouting Match
The intense game did not only feature the Green-Sengun elbowing incident. It also dragged Curry and coach Ime Udoka into a shouting match at halftime.
Curry refused to reveal what was said and instead, resorted to poking fun at the incident.
“He made a reservation to International Smoke and canceled it,” Curry told reporters after the loss. “I was upset with him. We went back and forth on that.”
Udoka did not hold back and slammed Curry and the Warriors for “crying” to the referees when things did not go their way.
“When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, you’ve done your job,” Udoka told The Athletic. “That’s the first step in winning the battle. So I told my team when this team starts crying about it, up the intensity, up the aggressiveness, and make the refs adjust to you.”
