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Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press
After Draymond Green and Kevin Durant were involved in a heated exchange on the bench at the end of regulation of the Golden State Warriors’ 121-116 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night, tempers reportedly continued to flare as the players made their way into the locker room after the final buzzer.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears reported on Tuesday that Golden State players “loudly” confronted Green in the locker room, with the situation described as “one of most intense” moments of the franchise’s current era.
Golden State had an opportunity to win the game in the final seconds of the fourth quarter following a defensive rebound. Durant appeared to be calling for Green to pass the ball at the beginning of the play, but Green opted to keep it to himself—and he never got a shot off.
Durant and Green exchanged words on the bench after the play and had to be separated:
Apparently, frustrations carried into the locker room after the team lost the game. The locker room confrontation did not require any players to be separated nor was there any hint that it may get physical, per Wojnarowski.
After the game, veteran guard Shaun Livingston downplayed the on-court incident, per Mark Medina of the Mercury News:
“Just team spirit. Guys wanted a different outcome than what happened,” Livingston said. “[Draymond] had a turnover. Guys thought they were open or wanted the basketball and didn’t get it. Things happen like that in a sport. But it was good to see some fire and some emotion.”
This isn’t the first time Golden State has reportedly had internal friction, though. Back in February 2016, Green went on a profanity-laced tirade directed at coach Steve Kerr during halftime of a game.
After the Warriors won their third title in four years back in June, both Livingston and David West revealed that it wasn’t an easy journey.
“We’re so tight, people don’t even know what we went through,” West said, according to The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson. “They trying to find out. We don’t have suckas on this team.”
Livingston added, per Spears: “Shoutout to Steve Kerr for dealing with all our B.S. this year.”
Even sitting atop the Western Conference at 11-3, the Warriors have issues just like every other team.
Of course, any drama this season will have Golden State nervous. Both Durant and Klay Thompson can hit the open market next summer, and Green is only signed through 2019-20. Any major friction could potentially break up the team’s core.
For now, as Wojnarowski reported, the Warriors will work on smoothing things out. After all, it’s only early November, and there’s still a long road ahead to a possible three-peat.
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