The Golden State Warriors suffered a major blow when Gary Payton II had to leave Game 2 of their second-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies. It was the beginning of the game and Dillon Brooks committed a hard foul on the defensive specialist, which resulted in a fractured elbow.
Payton will be out for several weeks, leaving the Warriors without one of their most valuable pieces on the court. A lot has been said about this but Dubs Nation isn’t done just yet. They have taken shots at Brooks for his actions against Payton, especially Steve Kerr.
The former shooting guard is pretty upset after losing one of the most important players on his rotation. He’s taken some jabs at Brooks and won’t probably stop until the series is ever. When he was asked about how GP2 feels, Kerr didn’t hold anything back.
“He’s bummed. He has a huge brace on his arm, and he’s going to be out for a long time,” Kerr said, via Kerith Burke. “Six years toiling away in the league, (now) playing a huge role, playing well. That’s all been taken away from him.”
https://twitter.com/KerithBurke/status/1522341370282713089
Kerr is using this situation to fuel his team, and it remains to be seen if that works. The Grizzlies now travel to San Francisco for Games 3 and 4 of this series. They won’t have Brooks for the first match, as he was suspended by the league.
The environment will be hostile for the Grizzlies. This series has been pretty intense since the beginning, as Draymond Green was also ejected in Game 1 after a flagrant foul 2 on Brandon Clarke. These two teams are battling it out to make it to the WCF and it’s pretty clear that they will do anything to win.
