We’re only two games in, but the Warriors- Grizzlies second-round series is already getting quite heated.
After Memphis pulled out a 106-101 thriller win to tie the series at one game apiece on Tuesday night, the main story should’ve been about Ja Morant’s sublime 47-point performance. Instead, with Dillon Brooks ejected for a flagrant foul on Gary Payton II, much of the attention has now centered on whether both squads are playing within the rules.
Payton will miss at least the next month with a broken elbow, while Brooks has a suspension for Game 3.
After Game 2, Warriors coach Steve Kerr was frustrated and didn’t mince his words about the play that knocked Payton out of the series.
Via The Daily Memphian:
“I don’t know if it was intentional, but it was dirty,” Kerr said. “Playoff basketball is supposed to be physical, and everybody is going to compete and fight for everything. But there is a code in this league. There’s a code that players follow, where you never put a guy’s season/career in jeopardy by taking someone out in mid-air and clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s [Payton II] elbow.”
In response, Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins did express sympathy for the Warriors and Payton, but he did not take kindly to his team being described that way by Kerr. Jenkins didn’t have to say he was talking about Kerr for everyone to know what he was talking about either.
More from The Daily Memphian:
“I also wanted to address a narrative out there that was said between Game 1 and Game 2,” Jenkins said. “It was said that we have to play more physical, and the word dirty has been thrown out there. I look at my locker room and I look at our culture and what we exude — we are the furthest thing from dirty. We are competitive. I want that to be squashed pretty quick here.”
I think it’s fair to say both coaches have a point.
Kerr is right that it’s never okay to take out a player mid-air, no matter the circumstances. NBA players are some of the greatest athletes in the world. They already risk their health enough every time they soar toward the rim. They don’t need to worry about another danger like an opponent recklessly cutting them down.
Meanwhile, in Jenkins’ case, things sometimes get carried away in NBA playoff basketball (or in any playoffs in any league). Athletes will naturally ratchet up the intensity with their seasons on the line. Sometimes, you get bad luck, lose control in the heat of the moment (though not maliciously!), and someone like Payton II gets injured. It’s awful. But it happens. It isn’t necessarily an automatic reflection of an entire team being dirty.
All that said, I’ll reiterate this for both gentlemen and their squads: Everyone is undoubtedly tired of this controversy or will be soon. There has been some terrific basketball to start this series. It would be a real shame if all of these tensions and emotions overshadowed potential basketball magic the rest of the way.
Kerr’s Warriors and Jenkins’ Grizzlies next go at it in the Bay Area in Game 3 on Saturday night.
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