Warriors can't recover from Draymond Green ejection as they lose big to Knicks

Warriors forward Draymond Green furrowed his brow, raised his arms and asked, “What? How?”

With Golden State trailing the Knicks by five late in the second quarter Thursday night, Green had just been ejected after he was assessed a technical — his second of the game — for an apparent misunderstanding. Referee John Butler thought Green was yelling at him, but Green had in fact shouted at teammate James Wiseman for vacating his position on a post-up moments earlier and causing a turnover.

Butler later acknowledged the mistake, and Green won’t have to pay a fine. But the referee crew couldn’t undo the ejection, which, for a team that relies on Green’s two-way dynamism, proved crippling as the Warriors went onto lose 119-104 to New York at Chase Center.

It was quite a letdown for a group that had made significant progress in recent days. After falling to the Pacers and Nuggets last week, the Warriors overcame a 19-point deficit to top the defending champion Lakers on Monday before delivering what head coach Steve Kerr called their most complete performance of the season in Wednesday’s rout of the Spurs.

“It makes a big difference,” forward Andrew Wiggins said of losing Green to an ejection. “Draymond’s a huge presence for this team on both sides of the floor.”

It came as no surprise, then, that Golden State struggled to recover from Green’s unfair ejection. As Green — who recorded eight assists in just 17 minutes — watched from the locker room, the Warriors had little match for the Knicks’ physicality. After giving up a 9-2 run midway through the third quarter to dig a 12-point hole, Golden State failed to find any semblance of offensive flow, often getting up contested shots early in the shot clock.

With 2:25 left and the Warriors down 112-97, Kerr pulled his starters. The Knicks finished with 50 points in the paint and a 19-7 advantage on fast breaks. With R.J. Barrett (career-high 28 points) leading the way, New York shot 46.3% from the field (11-for-24 from 3-point range).

It also helped that it got 41 foul shots and made 32 of them. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 80 combined free throws Golden State and the Knicks attempted Thursday were the most of any NBA game this season.

“We’re fouling, and it has nothing to do with the refs,” Kerr said. “It has to do with us. We practice fundamentals every day. It’s obviously not enough, so I've got to think of some way to get across to these guys how we're going to defend. Maybe it just means that, if a guy reaches, he comes out.”

Though the Warriors got solid outings from Wiseman (15 points, eight rebounds), Stephen Curry (30 points), Wiggins (17 points, nine rebounds) and Eric Paschall (12 points), they couldn’t make up for Green’s absence. This is someone who, more than even Curry, might dictate whether Golden State wins or loses with his energy level.

When Green missed the first four games of the season with a foot issue, the Warriors ranked 25th in the NBA with a defensive rating of 114.3. But before Thursday, Golden State thrived with him in the lineup, posting a defensive rating of 106.9 — good enough for sixth-best in the league — over that stretch.

Just as important is Green’s ability to direct young players and get the Warriors into an offensive rhythm. Even though Kerr noted pregame that Green is still getting into shape after missing the preseason with a positive coronavirus test and the first several games of the regular season with that foot problem, the former Defensive Player of the Year remains the proverbial heartbeat of a roster loaded with mild-mannered personalities.

The good news for the Warriors is that he’s expected to be available for Saturday’s game in Utah. Perhaps he’ll be a bit more careful when yelling at a teammate.

“Tonight, as a team, we were just out of sync,” Wiseman said. “That’s life. It happens.”