Houston Rockets guard Fred Van Vleet accused the Golden State Warriors, particularly Draymond Green, of restoring to dirty tricks during their 106-96 win on Sunday.
“(Green) rattles a lot of teams, and a lot of people,” VanVleet told The Athletic. “That (conversation with Green) was just more so me obviously standing up for our group, and letting (his teammates) know, like we’re good — we’re good. We play the game the right way. If we do what we need to do, we’ll be all right.
“If you get caught up trying to win that battle against him, he’s probably undefeated when it comes to playing that game. So it was just more so keeping us focused. As an older team (like the Warriors), you kind of resort to other things and tricks of the trade. So just wanted to keep us level-headed and locked into what we’re doing.”
Green twice elbowed Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun which earned him a technical and a flagrant foul.
The first incident came toward the end of the first half as Green jockeyed for position against the bigger Sengun.
“The tech, I’m not going to stop because the referee says stop and give up position,” Green told reporters after the Warriors’ costly loss. “I already give up six inches and 50 pounds.”
Green elbowed Sengun’s face in the third quarter on his way to the basket.
“The flagrant foul call, I don’t know what to do,” Green told reporters. “Duck? Don’t go for a layup?”
Ime Udoka-Steph Curry Shouting Match
The Rockets made the Warriors look old as Green was minus-16, finishing with only two points on 1-of-5 shooting and held Stephen Curry to just three points on 1-of-10 shooting. They outscored the Warriors by 18 during Curry’s 33-minute stint on the floor.
Sengun dominated Green with 19 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.
The intense game did not only feature the Green-Sengun elbowing incident. It also dragged Curry and coach Ime Udoka into a shouting match at halftime.
Curry refused to reveal what was said and instead, resorted to poking fun at the incident.
“He made a reservation to International Smoke and canceled it,” Curry told reporters after the loss. “I was upset with him. We went back and forth on that.”
Udoka did not hold back and slammed Curry and the Warriors for “crying” to the referees when things did not go their way.
“When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, you’ve done your job,” Udoka told The Athletic. “That’s the first step in winning the battle. So I told my team when this team starts crying about it, up the intensity, up the aggressiveness, and make the refs adjust to you.”
The loss dropped the Warriors to No. 6 but tied with the Los Angeles Clippers (No. 5), Memphis Grizzlies (No. 7) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 8) with 46-32 record.
Jimmy Butler Criticizes Officiating on Steph Curry
Curry’s co-star Jimmy Butler failed to rescue the Warriors from the Rockets suffocating and physical defense as he only scored 13 points on seven shots. But he spoke up for Curry over what he felt was an unfair treatment from the game officials.
Curry did not attempt any free throw against the Rockets’ very physical defense.
“They did a good whatever you want to call it,” Butler sarcastically told reporters.
Butler made it clear he was not only referring to the Rockets game.
“I’ve never seen an individual get fouled more than he gets fouled,” Butler continued. “To me, I think that’s astounding. It’s crazy to say, but he’s used to it. It’s been happening to him his whole career and he’s found a way through it, around it, under it—whatever you want to call it. It’s tough.
“It’s been happening for 16 straight years and I get to see it, and it really angers me that he’s on my team and he gets hacked like that,” Butler told reporters.
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