I mean, this series was OVER.
The Cavaliers were dead and buried and on their way to a 3-1 deficit when Green and LeBron James got tangled up with three minutes remaining in Game 4. When James attempted to step over Green and get back into the play, Green reached and smacked James in the groin, which led to a fracas and some really mean faces being displayed by guys who have been coddled since they were 12 year old AAU meal tickets, and to whom fighting is a foreign thought, much less experience.
There was never any danger of actual fisticuffs. Not with the privileged kids like LeBron out there. Not when two of the other guys who were mean-mugging were Steph Curry and Klay Thompson's, both of whom grew up on Relatively Easy Street, the son's of NBA players.
Nope. No danger of anyone throwing punches. Not when it's easier to kick or hit someone in the balls and slither away. Or to talk like little girls in the press conferences afterward or between games when you can go all passive-aggressive Lindsay Lohan v. Rachel McAdams on one another.
Klay Thompson, the hard-ass/he-man who 48 hours earlier was nearly tearing up about Timofey Mozgov's physicality on a screen, implied LeBron was a little girl with hurt feelings. Then Maurice Speights stuck up for his bestie Klay and put a baby bottle emoji on his Twitter account. LeBron then proceeded to laugh 12 octaves too high for comfort about all of that stuff that went down in study hall in between Green's junk hunting and tonight's tip (pardon the puns).
And somewhere, guys like Wes Unseld and Charles Oakley vomited all over themselves watching these NBA stars stay six distant steps away from even slap fighting.
What did happen is the NBA reviewed Green's latest infraction, handed him a flagrant foul and then suspended him for compiling a whole bunch of flagrant fouls, many of which have involved his inability to stay separated from male genitalia.
Seriously, the Warriors would, in all likelihood, be celebrating their second consecutive world title tonight at home if Draymond could just stay away from the twigs and berries of the other nine guys on the court for a couple hours on game nights.
Instead he's out of Game 5. That doesn't mean the Warriors aren't winning tonight. They well may. They're just a better team than Cleveland is. But Green is a huge part of what the Warriors do and why they're able to do it so well on both ends of the floor.
Suffice it to say that Golden State is a much better team with Draymond than without Draymond. So if the Cavaliers, who have all kinds of issues of their own to deal with, do suddenly steal a game, they'd take the series back to Cleveland with a chance to tie it at 3-3 and force the Warriors into an uncomfortable Game 7.
There's a looooong way to go before that happens, but Green has simply made it more difficult on Golden State.
Look, no one cares what Green does with his free time. But no cock hunting while the clock's still running is probably a pretty good way to approach things out there for Draymond. Or...while the shot clock ticks, don't touch people's dicks...
Doesn't seem like a lot to ask for, really. I've watched 40+ years of NBA basketball and this is the first I can remember where a guy was suspended for inappropriate ball handling.
As for Cleveland, they need to accept this gift and cash it in. They need to take advantage of Green not being there to facilitate the offense and control the lane on the defensive end as he has for much of the Finals. They need James to take advantage of Green's bean-bag fixation and absence to attack the rim at every opportunity, unlike the past couple games where LeBron has seemed more than willing to drive for show and pass for dough.
James's teammate will benefit from his selfishness to start the game tonight when the Warriors, with Draymond unavailable, have to start collapsing on James and freeing up Cavaliers shooters for good, open looks.
Who knows? They get one tonight, get the low hanging fruit, if you will, and maybe get some confidence heading back to Cleveland and, well, things could get crazy.
Maybe even a bit nutty.
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