The Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green is known to be both versatile and volatile -- but over the past few Western Conference Finals games, it’s been his roving right leg that’s earned all the headlines.
Green drew heavy criticism for his antics in the second quarter of Game 3 -- when he flailed his leg up, up and away, hitting the Oklahoma City Thunder's Steven Adams square in the midsection. Many in and around the league believed he’d be suspended for what looked like an intentional low blow, especially considering that he also had hit the New Zealander in the same spot in similar fashion in only the previous game.
But Golden State got lucky, and the league let the kick go with merely a stern word, a fine and a flagrant foul whistle.
So it made sense that when Game 4 tipped off on Tuesday night, no one thought Green would dare try anything that could even potentially resemble an intentional, insidious or otherwise inappropriate foul. But lo and behold, smack in the middle of the second quarter, we saw this:
That's Green doing a little squeeze with his legs, thereby bringing down Oklahoma City’s Enes Kanter and leading TNT analyst Mark Jackson to claim that this trip looked even more intentional than his Game 3 kick.
Green surely didn’t mean to hurt Kanter -- and the Thunder big man seemed pretty unfazed by the play, whether it was intentional or not -- but with Golden State sluggish and struggling, the incredibly valuable Green can’t afford to get caught up in the crosshairs of poor discretion.
By halftime, Oklahoma City had cruised to a 72-53 lead. The Thunder already lead the series, 2-1.
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