We have our first major fight of the season, and, to nobody’s surprise, it involves Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. The incident came early in the first quarter, when Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got tied up fighting for a rebound. As they crossed half-court going the other way things between the two got even more heated. In the fracus, McDaniels tore Thompson’s jersey, and Rudy Gobert tried to rip Thompson away from McDaniels.
Green, flying in from outside of the scrum, grabbed Gobert in a headlock and dragged him away. In the end, we saw three players ejected after the dust had settled. Thompson and McDaniels were both ejected as the instigators, and then Green was assessed a flagrant-2 foul, which led to his ejection.
The Warriors already entered this game shorthanded as they were missing Stephen Curry, which forced them to start Chris Paul at point guard. Now, with Thompson and Green ejected, they are down all three pillars of their dynasty in this game. The Wolves are without McDaniels, but still have the rest of their roster at their disposal.
Interestingly, Gobert was not ejected despite his role in trying to separate Thompson from McDaniels. Green was essentially trying to do the same thing, but there were two key differences. The first is that Gobert had Green in a headlock, which obviously is not remotely allowed. The second is that Green has a reputation for getting into these sorts of altercations. Officials no longer give him any leeway when he gets involved in scuffles like this. Last season, he was suspended for a playoff game against the Sacramento Kings because of an incident with Domantas Sabonis.
The Timberwolves already defeated the Warriors on Sunday in a game that featured a far more complete version of Golden State’s roster. Now, with Green, Thompson and Curry all out, Minnesota should be firmly in control of this one moving forward.
