This one wasn’t even called a personal foul.
Just three minutes into the Grizzlies’ Game 2 win over the Warriors, Golden State’s Draymond Green took a hard elbow to his face. The incident occurred during a battle for a loose ball on the Memphis baseline. Green and Grizzlies forward Xavier Tillman both went after the ball, and Tillman swung his left arm, catching Green in the face with his elbow.
Green collapsed to the floor as Tillman took possession of the ball and threw an outlet pass to start a 5-on-4 Grizzlies break. Green remained on the ground as the Grizzlies turned the ball over in the Memphis frontcourt. The Warriors called a timeout, and Green left the court for the Warriors locker room, walking on his own. His right eye was bloodied.
He had a message for Grizzlies fans on his way out, flipping the bird with both hands on his way to the tunnel.
Tillman wasn’t whistled for a foul on the play. Officials appeared to miss the blow to Green’s face, and the incident wasn’t eligible for replay review because play continued. Green returned to the game in the second quarter after receiving stitches for an eye laceration.
Brooks ejected moments earlier for play that broke Payton’s elbow
The incident occurred just seconds after Grizzlies forward Dillon Brooks was ejected for a blow to Gary Payton II‘s head on a transition layup. Officials reviewed that play and assessed Brooks with a flagrant 2 foul.
The Warriors revealed postgame that Payton sustained a fractured elbow on the play. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was candid in his assessment of the situation.
“It was dirty, Kerr told reporters. … “There’s a code in this league that players follow where you never put a guy’s season/career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in midair and clubbing them across the head and ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow. … He broke the code. Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
Kerr was likewise upset in the moment.
“That wasn’t physical, that was dirty,” Kerr said of the first quarter during an in-game interview with TNT.
The physical start to Game 2 arrived on the heels of Green’s controversial Game 1 ejection, where he was assessed with a flagrant 2 foul for swiping Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke in the face and dragging him from midair by his jersey.
