Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks appeared to take a subtle swipe at Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green while predicting an ejection in their upcoming first-round playoff series.
“I don’t know,” Brooks told reporters. “I’m not gonna get ejected. I’ll leave that to someone else.”
Draymond Green has been ejected 23 times in his career, the second-highest total in NBA history, trailing only Rasheed Wallace’s 29. By comparison, Dillon Brooks—despite his reputation for trash talk and aggressive play—has only been ejected three times.
The clash between the two fiery forwards adds extra intrigue to a playoff series already expected to be highly physical and intense, especially given their recent encounter.
In that April 6 game, a 106-96 loss to Houston, Green was assessed both a technical foul and a flagrant foul 1 for elbowing Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun.
After the game, Rockets guard Fred VanVleet publicly criticized Green for his behavior.
“(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.”
Draymond Green Didn’t Agree With Refs’ Call
Green disagreed with the flagrant foul assessed to him, pushing back against the officials’ ruling that he had intentionally elbowed Sengun.
“The tech, I’m not going to stop because the referee says stop and give up position,” Green told reporters after the Warriors’ loss. “I already give up six inches and 50 pounds.”
The first incident occurred late in the first half as Green battled for position against the larger Sengun.
The second came when Green drove to the basket with Sengun directly in his path.
“The flagrant foul call, I don’t know what to do,” Green told reporters. “Duck? Don’t go for a layup?”
The tension from that previous matchup adds even more intrigue to what’s shaping up to be one of the most compelling playoff series.
There’s also a deeper playoff history between these two franchises.
Since 2015, the Warriors have knocked the Rockets out of the postseason four times. However, this Houston squad is different — young and motivated, yet bolstered by experienced playoff and championship-caliber players like VanVleet and Brooks.
Ime Udoka-Steph Curry Shouting Match
The heated game wasn’t limited to the Green-Sengun elbow exchange — it also saw Steph Curry and Rockets coach Ime Udoka engage in a shouting match as they headed into halftime.
“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.”
Curry declined to share details of the exchange, instead choosing to joke about the moment.
Udoka, on the other hand, didn’t mince words, criticizing Curry and the Warriors for “crying” to the officials whenever calls didn’t go in their favor.
“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.”
