Dub Hub: Steph Curry emotional after Draymond Green’s first quarter ejection vs. Magic

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Thursday, March 28th.

Warriors News:

Steph Curry in tears after Draymond Green’s ejection early in the first quarter vs. the Magic

Pool Report on the Ejection of Draymond Green in the First Quarter of Tonight’s Golden State Warriors at Orlando Magic Game | NBA

QUESTION: Golden State’s Draymond Green was ejected at the 8:24 mark of the 1st quarter. Why did Green receive a second technical foul?

ERVIN: After a prolonged diatribe, Green directed egregious profane language towards a game official.

QUESTION: The ejection came early in the game, less than four minutes in, was the timing of the second technical foul considered at all before it was handed out?

ERVIN: No, his actions met the standard for a technical foul, which was his second technical foul, which results in an automatic ejection.

QUESTION: Did the player’s history have any impact on the decision to hand him a technical foul and eject him?

ERVIN: Absolutely not.

Steph Curry gets emotional in win over Magic after early Draymond Green ejection | The Athletic

Kerr kept his postgame reaction short: “Too bad. It was unfortunate. He deserved it. He will bounce back.” Then he replied with a quick “no” when asked whether it had eroded any of the recent built-up confidence.

Green is receiving a wave of criticism for leaving the Warriors vulnerable again in his absence. It might’ve been tripled if they’d lost. Curry couldn’t hide his frustration on the court and then didn’t try to mask it much after the game.

But another influential member of the organization struck a sensible tone in the tunnel postgame when discussing the reality of the situation: “What? Did we really just expect he was never gonna get ejected again?”

Steph Curry and Draymond Green embrace outside the locker room following the Warriors’ 101-93 victory

Three reasons Rockets can catch Warriors in Western Conference play-in race, and three reasons they won’t | CBS Sports

So... speaking of fattening up on weak opponents... here are Houston’s 11 March wins: at Suns, Spurs, at Blazers, at Kings, at Spurs, Wizards, Cavaliers, at Wizards, Bulls, Jazz, Blazers. The only one of those teams that holds a top-six seed right now is Cleveland, and the Cavaliers didn’t have Evan Mobley in that game. It’s not exactly a murderer’s row of opponents. This tends to happen in March. Teams at the top and bottom of the standings become much more cautious with injuries because their fates are already sealed. That can lead to some wild outcomes, this Houston streak included.

But the rest of the way? The Rockets aren’t going to be able to rely on easy opponents, but the Warriors sure can. Golden State has the fifth-easiest schedule remaining in the NBA by opponent’s winning percentage. Houston has the fifth-hardest. Throw in Golden State’s existing head-to-head tiebreaker and the hardest part hasn’t even begun for the Rockets yet.

Rockets’ Tari Eason has a message for the Warriors following the team’s 10th straight win

NBA News:

Rockets top Thunder in OT for 10th straight win, eye play-in | ESPN

“Oh, it was lit,” Rockets rising star Jalen Green said after a 37-point, 10-rebound, 7-assist performance. “Everybody was happy, celebrating, screaming. We fought for that one. We worked hard. That’s how we should react after going 10-0. We’ll still keep going. We got what, 10 more games left?”

Houston (37-35) has realistic hope of playing beyond the 10 games remaining on its regular-season schedule. The win over the Thunder, who were without star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander due to a quadriceps contusion, allowed the Rockets to remain only one game behind the Golden State Warriors in the fight for the West’s final play-in spot.

“We’re going to get a play-in game,” Green said. “We’re going to keep going.”

76ers’ Kelly Oubre Jr. confronts officials after missed call on final play in loss to Clippers | Yahoo Sports

Down one point, Oubre drove to the basket before time expired in regulation. Before he was rejected at the rim by Leonard, he appeared to get fouled by Paul George. The referees didn’t act in the moment and the buzzer sounded without Oubre getting a chance at the free throw line.

Enraged by the call, 76ers head coach Nick Nurse rushed to the court and had to be held back by other team personnel. He wasn’t alone, as Oubre took the opportunity to point at each official and deliver a message.

“You’re a b*tch. You’re a b*tch. You’re a b*tch,” Oubre said to the referees before he was also pulled away.

OKC’s Isaiah Joe throws down a highlight dunk against the Rockets

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

How scheming Steph Curry away from Jalen Suggs led to Andrew Wiggins’ fourth-quarter explosion

When the second half began, there was a noticeable effort to scheme half-court sets geared toward separating Suggs from Curry, in order to provide him with more breathing room. It wasn’t from completely novel sets that got him the space he needed — rather, it was slight tweaks to familiar sets that Steve Kerr used to scheme Suggs away from his superstar.

The first instance generated a wide-open look for Curry that just missed. But the process that led to it was sound

Draymond Green ejected in first minutes of Warriors-Magic

Sensing danger, Steve Kerr called timeout and various Warriors players and even security personnel came out to get between Green and Acosta.

It didn’t work. Green kept yelling at the official and before the timeout was over, he’d received his second technical and his fourth ejection of the season.

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