The Golden State Warriors won Game 3 of their series against the Memphis Grizzlies comfortably, blowing them out by 30 points. While many expected the series to be hard-fought, not many expected it to be as fiery and borderline toxic as it has been. Both teams have been playing very hard, with Draymond Green being ejected in Game 1 and Dillon Brooks getting ejected and further suspended for a bad foul that broke Gary Payton II’s elbow.
Brooks has received a lot of criticism for his foul on Payton, with Warriors coach Steve Kerr going as far as to suggest that he ‘broke the players’ code’ with his play. Understandably, both teams are riled up, so when Ja Morant had his knee pulled by Jordan Poole on a play and had to eventually limp off the court, there was bound to see some controversy surrounding it after the game.
Morant brought up the ‘broke the code’ line himself in a tweet that he later deleted, Steph Curry called the narrative surrounding Poole’s actions ‘bs’, and Klay Thompson sounded off on the situation as well, bringing up Brooks and his foul again.
Klay Thompson: “I’ve had a bad knee injury. Jordan had no malicious intent. … He’s not out here clubbing people in the back of the head on fast breaks. We play the game the right way.”
— Marcus Thompson II (@ThompsonScribe) May 8, 2022
“I’ve had a bad knee injury. Jordan had no malicious intent. … He’s not out here clubbing people in the back of the head on fast breaks. We play the game the right way.”
Morant looks like he should be fine to play in the rest of the series, and no injury can be taken too lightly, but it seems that the narratives in this matchup from both sides are going out of hand a fair bit.
The Grizzlies need to win Game 2 to tie up the series and keep it competitive, or their next games will all be elimination games, something that is tough to deal with. The young team is unlikely to go down without a fight and with the animosity now coming from both sides, it promises to be another intense battle.
