The Golden State Warriors were able to withstand extreme adversity en route to a 117-116 victory over the two-seed Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday in Memphis, in a game that featured everything.
Golden State did not get off to a good start as Ja Morant was able to navigate his way into the paint and seemingly score at will in the first half. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson struggled offensively and dealt with foul trouble early on, which threw them off their game even more.
Then, things got interesting for the Warriors when Draymond Green got called for a flagrant two foul on Brandon Clarke, resulting in an automatic ejection.
Green rotated to try to contest the layup by Clarke and ended up hitting him in the face, while then dragging him down by the jersey. The referees working the game consulted with the league office in Secaucus and ejected Green due to the hard swipe to the face during the contest and the jersey pull.
Steve Kerr, along with Green’s teammates, couldn’t believe that their defensive anchor was kicked out of the opening game on the road. Green exited the game in a boisterous fashion, as he ran around trying to pump up the crowd that was ecstatic to see him leave.
The ejection seemed to have galvanized a Warriors team that struggled out of the gates in Game 1. Their championship DNA as Curry alluded to after the game, was on full display as well as the strength in numbers mantra that the team has lived by for years.
The Warriors were able to grab the lead in the third quarter and even brought the lead up to 10 halfway into the fourth. The Grizzlies, much like the last series, did not go away and even took the lead, but not for long as Klay drilled a three off an inbounds pass. The Warriors would never look back and won the game narrowly, surviving a missed layup on a double-team attempted by Morant.
This game felt like it was way more than a Game 1. It appeared as if Memphis needed to win this game. Golden State didn’t necessarily play well and played without Green for the second half in a hostile environment.
If the Grizzlies couldn’t get the first game at home with everything that occurred, then it might be a quicker series than many had predicted, especially if the star players of Golden State play well along with the incredible spark that Jordan Poole is providing right now.