Draymond Green Ejected After Shove Match With Dillon Brooks as Warriors Rally

Draymond Green lasted two minutes of the second half before the officials sent him to the locker room, and the Warriors won anyway. Golden State’s forward was ejected from Monday’s 116-113 win over Phoenix after two technical fouls on a single sequence: one for throwing Suns center Khaman Maluach to the floor, and one for the shoving match with Dillon Brooks that followed. It was Green’s first ejection of the season and the 26th of his career, and his teammates said it lit the fire that won the game.

What happened on the play?

Maluach corralled an entry pass and went up for an attempt at the rim, and Green wrapped both arms around him and brought him to the floor, the New York Post reports. USA Today describes it as an intentional foul followed by Green throwing Maluach to the ground, and NBC Sports Bay Area reports Green took exception to no foul call on Maluach after the Warriors big man went down as the Suns center drove to the rim. Officials reviewed the sequence and assessed Green a technical for what they termed the “throwdown”, the Post reports. That was technical number one, and the night was already slipping away from him.

How did Brooks get involved?

By running to the pile, as he always does with Green. USA Today reports Brooks took exception to Green’s push on his teammate, ran to the pile and pushed Green, and Green retaliated while teammates, coaches and officials separated the two. The Post describes Brooks charging into the scrum beneath the basket to defend Maluach, getting into Green’s face, with the two putting their arms on each other. Both players received double technical fouls for the dust-up, and since it was Green’s second technical of the night, he was automatically disqualified. Brooks stayed in the game with one technical. Green left at the 10-minute mark of the third quarter, USA Today reports, finishing with four points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 17 minutes.

Why did this particular clash travel so far?

Because it was Green and Brooks, not two strangers. USA Today notes the two have a history of trash-talking and getting into shoving matches, and the Post calls Brooks a recurring enemy. Brooks had his own fresh history coming in: he was ejected days earlier when a foul on Jamal Murray was upgraded to a flagrant 2 in Phoenix’s loss to Denver, and he led the league in technical fouls last season with 17. Put those two on one pile, under one basket, with a 7-footer on the floor between them, and the clip was always going to outrun the game. The desk covered a similar dynamic in October, when Dillon Brooks scuffled with John Collins less than five minutes into a preseason opener. Brooks does not avoid these moments. He collects them. The NBA week has been full of viral moments of a lighter kind too, from LeBron James sipping a fan’s wine in Philadelphia to Naji Marshall breaking a rim and a chair at a Mavericks practice in Macao, and the Warriors themselves already produced one preseason oddity when Dalen Terry played 43 minutes on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Did the ejection cost the Warriors the game?

No, and the players said it did the opposite. Golden State trailed 68-57 when Green was tossed, the Post reports, and 67-57 by NBC’s count, then won 116-113. Stephen Curry said: “We had to respond so I’m glad we did. It was a combination of that moment. We’re going to have our brother’s back when he defends us.” Brandin Podziemski said he loved Green’s intensity and that the team came together for him, adding: “We didn’t have the edge to us to start the game. Found it a little bit in the second quarter but then they came out in the third quarter pretty well and that kind of changed the game for us. Everybody’s locked and came together for Dray. So I think it was needed.” Head coach Steve Kerr struck the balance coaches always strike after a Green ejection: “I just want to see the competitive spirit, and I thought we saw that time… I know there were a couple dust-ups, but that’s just, you know, the greatest NBA basketball players on Earth competing. This is what it is.”

Will the league add anything?

Nothing had been announced in the reporting so far, and a double-technical ejection does not automatically bring a suspension. The NBA will review the sequence, and Green’s file is long: 26 career ejections, the Post reports, plus a disciplinary history that includes multiple suspensions. The recent scale runs from a one-game ban for Hawks rookie Kingston Flemings, who was suspended for intentionally elbowing an opponent, as covered in the Flemings suspension article, to ejections that drew nothing further. Where Green’s throwdown lands on that scale depends on how the league reads the Maluach contact: a hard playoff-style foul, or a throwdown that crossed the line. The word the officials used, “throwdown”, suggests the second reading is at least on the table.

What happens next?

The Warriors take a fifth straight win into Thursday’s home game against Miami, with their defensive leader’s status for any further discipline still open. The Suns take their next game with a young center who got thrown to the floor and a veteran in Brooks who now has another technical on his ledger. And the rematch between these two teams is already a date to circle. Green and Brooks have a standing appointment, the league office will be watching it, and the rest of us will be watching the first pile-up.