<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">“It was probably the best game he&#39;s had in his career. It’s a 7 game series, let’s see if he can do it again on Wednesday.”<br><br>Desmond Bane on Rui Hachimura’s big Game 1 performance 👀<a href="https://t.co/88Yv2bioRL">pic.twitter.com/88Yv2bioRL</a></p>&mdash; ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClutchPointsApp/status/1647735735460429824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This Memphis Grizzlies team talks so much for a team that hasn’t done anything. Seriously, who is Desmond Bane to be saying this?

I hate that ****ing guy so much.

There was never a valid reason for him to be a trainwreck on defense - he just never bothered to try

Very arrogant team. I agree.

What did he say that’s so arrogant? He said he tips his cap to Rui for the game he had, but that they’ll continue to let him take shots like that throughout the series. They aren’t going to just switch their focus to Rui Hachimura because he went 5-6 in game 1 from 3 point range. They’re going to continue to give him those open looks because he’s typically a 30% 3 point shooter that you’re going to be willing to give those shots to. I have no problem leaving him open and letting him be the one to beat us. Anything to get the ball out of AD’s hands. I think we’ll take our chances with Rui over AD and Lebron.

Ja said he can't use his right hand but luckily he has until Wednesday to see if that improves. If he is out the series is over.

Luckily he’s got pretty much a whole week to heal until game 3 Saturday. I don’t see him playing Wednesday for sure, but I still think they’ll win game 2 with Tyus running the offense at home. We’ll need Ja back for the games in LA for sure, though.

Desmond Bane is a top 20 player in the league. He can say whatever he wants. He wasn't wrong.

The joys of being a Suns fan. Thank God for the Chiefs.

Yeah, when Hachimura started hitting turnaround fadeaways from the elbow you knew it was just gonna be one of those nights for him.

I said when the trade got made that I'm a big fan of Rui - but that's not something he's going to be able to do routinely. And frankly, it took everything he had for the Lakers to hang in there long enough to pull away with Morant went down. And even then, if Ja doesn't get hurt, I'm not sure the Lakers pull that out.

Memphis played damn well in that game. Like I said - the inverse to Rui playing so well was that I'm not sure Jackson can play a better game than he played either. But he's more likely to be able to duplicate that game or a reasonable facsimile of it.

If Morant is out, I think the Lakers take this pretty easily but if he's back at 80% or better (which seems unlikely), LA has to make damn sure they don't have another quarter like the 2nd quarter yesterday. That's enough for them to lose against a team like Memphis.

They just weren't engaged at all. It looked like Davis got frustrated by the doubles and there just wasn't enough movement off the ball around him. James looked like he was trying to pace himself a little bit to start the game and Russell was off. I hope they took a lesson away from that and if James needs to pace (he probably does) he really can't do it when the rest of his guys are finding their shots and Davis is getting that much attention.

If you have an 8 minute burst of energy, maybe pick when you use it a little better because LA can't afford to lose momentum like that again if Morant comes back. Frankly, it was that momentum that led to Davis getting dinged to begin with; the energy from the crowd had memphis flying around and LA scrambling and that's why that play happened.

Gotta play a full 48 in the post-season, fellas.

Bane's a top 20 shooter, probably a top 50 player and maybe a top 40 overall.

But top 20? C'moooooon.

You're telling me Memphis has 3 of the top 20 players in the league? No, no they do not.

Yes. Fringe but yes.

https://a1cf74336522e87f135f-2f21ace...rk-Knight.webp

Yep. :shake:

Bane a top 20 player? Yeah don't think so but let's list it out in no particular order.

Steph
Giannis
Lebron
KD
Booker
Luka
Embiid
Jokic
Morant
Tatum
Jaylen Brown
Butler
Lillard
Donovan Mitchell
Kawhi
PG
AD
Harden
Jrue Holiday
Sabonis or Fox

I got to 30 without even getting to "maybe?"

I just didn't feel like typing them all out.

There's really no way to make the argument but whatev...

He's not much of a shooter anyway. Just needs his hand for floaters, plus he can finish with his left.

His ability to fire a gun left-handed is a different story.

If he can't shoot with his right, he's gonna struggle to dribble with it.

Good luck trying to get the lane when the other team knows you aren't much of a threat to cross over or really even drive right. Obviously these guys can drive right with their left hand, but it's gonna be out in front of them to get swiped away so it's a pretty bad idea.

He's going to have to spend more time off-ball and if he's also not shooting - what impact can he really have?

They need him healthier because he'll do more harm than good if he tries to go out there and play without a right hand.

Draymond just stomped on Sabonis. How can he still be in the game?

I can't believe how many wide-open shots the Kings have missed. 3s, bunnies, you name it, they've missed EASY ones. This game is over if they could hit the broad side of a barn.

He's going to be done for a while, IMO.

And there’s the ejection. Should be suspended next game too.

Sabonis is a mental midget, which really stinks. His dad was such a badass.

Yeah, he’s soft as hell. Very much unlike his father.

LIGHT THE BEAM!

Hopefully this series will finally be the end of this disgraceful organization.

Alright Kings!

Fox and Monk are so good/clutch. Barnes provided that veteran spark. Looking forward to game 3!

How are the Warriors disgraceful?

They’ve harbored the dirtiest player in the league for years. Absolutely disgraceful.

https://media3.giphy.com/media/3oAt2...xpGU/giphy.gif

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chor...draykick.0.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/CluelessIm...restricted.gif

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sIgJ4X1xo...2Bkick%2B2.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AliveLivel...se-max-1mb.gif

https://media.tenor.com/mgbTIu1qBhYA...n-draymond.gif

Yeah - Draymond is a piece of shit.

Just little arguing otherwise.

That's true but as an organization I don't think Warriors are disgraceful. Warriors are mostly a bunch of soft pretty boys they need someone like Dray on the team to protect them. He serves a role and plenty of teams have guys like Dray.

This is sports they play because of their skill not because they are saints.

That's true but as an organization I don't think Warriors are disgraceful. Let's face it these Warriors are mostly a bunch of soft pretty boys.. they need someone like Dray on the team to protect them. He serves a role and plenty of teams have guys like Dray.

This is sports they play because of their skill not because they are saints.

The path that beat the Warriors against the Cavs a few years back. It may work again to soften LeBron's road to a title.

KCC thinks they are disgraceful because they signed durant which "stole" titles from lebron.

First he flopped trying to get a call on klay, then grabbed Draymond.

Doesn't excuse Draymond from going full Draymond but I hope the kings get annihilated in the 2nd round now. Even if it's the Lakers.

I didn't stay up and watch the game (thanks NBA for late night games) but I see Draymond did Draymond things again. Getting old.

Anyway I think they are done, this not winning on the road deal is a real thing. I am going to put that reason for no chemistry due to the punch. They should have handled that way differently.

After seeing this video Sabonis definitely grabbed his ankle. They both should have been gone.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Draymond or Sabonis, who was in the wrong?? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kings</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Warriors?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Warriors</a> <a href="https://t.co/TyZIEcK9vN">pic.twitter.com/TyZIEcK9vN</a></p>&mdash; Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmanuelAcho/status/1648181771664773120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I tried to post the angle from the hoop last night and the board crashed. Not sure why so I just won't risk it.

In either event, the view from the hoop sure looks like Sabonis was protecting his face on the ground and the grab was inadvertent. And makes the Green stomp look god-awful.

The view you posted is the most charitable one possible, really. And green still looks like shit.

I saw this one just now. Dray is an idiot and definitely should have been gone. Sabonis probably should have too.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">mission accomplished <a href="https://t.co/m7rpwjTU5F">pic.twitter.com/m7rpwjTU5F</a></p>&mdash; Paul🏆Super Bowl Pacheco🏆 (@PaulHBK) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulHBK/status/1648186005214642177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Let's see if this works

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That feels like something Draymond Green will be ejected and possibly even suspended moving forward... <a href="https://t.co/HaAzrHXhkT">pic.twitter.com/HaAzrHXhkT</a></p>&mdash; Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendenNunesNBA/status/1648180185811025926?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I mean there's a non-zero chance Sabonis wasn't being intentional. There's no question what Green was doing

Go ahead and show me the videos of Draymond’s tremendous skill level with a basketball. We’ll wait. He’s served a role and that role is to be a disgraceful piece of shit on the basketball court. Every playoff series he’s out here trying to hurt the other teams star player or just running his mouth the entire game to get into the opponents head. They lost Draymond as their “protector” when he sucker punched his own teammate before the season started. Now he just looks like a clown out there.

Yeah Rodman was so much better! You guys complain about Dray but if he played for your favorite team and they were winning championships you'd be defending him.

**** out of here w that

If Draymond played for my team I would have wanted him off of it before the season started. No doubt that sucker punch cost them whatever sort of “chemistry” they had. Like I said, now he just looks like a clown since he’s not really protecting anyone anymore. I don’t think many Warriors fans want him back next season after the year he’s had there.

Arguably cost them KD too.

Huh? Even if Sabonis meant to grab his ankle (which is inconclusive from every angle, it appears he may have been trying to protect his face), how are the two actions remotely comparable?

Players have grabbed the legs/ankles of other players before. Nobody has ever stomped on a guy with all his force like that. Nothing justifies that.

I mean, maybe Draymond should stop doing outrageously stupid shit on a basketball court and maybe the organization should stop appeasing him and pretending like what he does is in any way normal behavior?

The Warriors very clearly accept that this stuff is a risk of having him on the team. It's as much a part of the Warriors as the long distance threes at this point. No other organization in the league would have allowed him to get away with punching Poole earlier this year with no repercussions and that was incredibly telling.

Draymond is lucky he didn't play against guys like Malone, Oakley, Mason, Coleman, Barkley. He wouldn't act tough against those opponents. Nowadays, if anyone sneezes on him in retaliation, they'd get a hefty suspension.

Yeah, there's just no excuse for it.

Guys grab ankles and sometimes they get Technical's for it; shit happens. Like you said, I'm not 100% convinced he did it intentionally but it's also not something that doesn't happen on occasion.

It's like when Haynesworth stomped on that dude several years back. It'd be like saying "Yeah, well the guy facemasked him so all's fair..."

People don't do what Draymont did. And even giving it it's worst possible reading, people HAVE done what Sabonis did. In fact, it happens in those scrums with some regularity. All Draymond had to do was step out of it. And it's clear by how easy he brought his foot UP to effectuate said stomp that he could've easily just moved his foot over.

But to not only forcefully stomp down but also use the guys chest as a trampoline....

I'm no Sabonis fan but **** me, how can these two 'infractions' be seen as even remotely similar.

As I attempted to say last night in the post that got nuked, Draymond should get 20 for this. I'm so ****ing tired of this guy. He doesn't play 'on the edge' - he's just dirty as ****.

He would definitely "act tough" against those guys.

Kerr is too busy sermonizing to others about how they live their lives to actually hold his own guys accountable.

Tell me more about your moral compass, Steve.

Sabonis did it on purpose to hold Green up and he got what he got, however Green does deserve a suspension.

"He got what he got..."

So when a dude does the chickenwing thing during a rebound to keep someone from getting up to the glass, that guy can just get punched in the face and you'd waive it off as "well, he got what he got..."?

And I just don't know how one can authoritatively state he did it on purpose. The right arm was clearly straight up to the face, the only question is the left and I don't know that Sabonis has any way to know WHO'S leg is in front of him at the moment. Shit, it could be a teammate for all he knows. That left arm is swinging around to the right arm in a protective posture and it ain't like he's clamping down. Because again - Draymon's leg comes up just fine.

For some sort of death grip from Sabonis, Green sure didn't seem to have a hard time getting his foot free enough to stomp on the guy.

Kerr being incredibly full of shit is a constant. When asked about the stomping post-game yesterday, Kerr said he never saw the play or the replay so he couldn't comment. Of course he never saw it. LMAO

The funny thing was, after it happened Draymond was celebrating with his teammates and taunting the Kings' fans around the Warriors' bench area while Sabonis was writhing in pain on the ground (he very much knew what he did and was glad he did it) and you can see Kerr meekly standing with a clipboard just waiting/hoping for him to stop. He has no real control over the guy.

If the NBA doesn't suspend him for this, it's setting a pretty terrible precedent. They've given him passes before though and I wouldn't be surprised if they did it again.

Sabonis may or may not have grabbed the leg on purpose, but it really doesn't matter at all given what followed. Players have grabbed legs before. Nobody has ever gotten stomped because of it.

What do you expect from that turd Acho?

At worst, Sabonis did it to impede. Draymond did it to inflict pain and potential injury.

Draymond Green is 240 lb man who used a dude as a springboard. You can separate ribs doing that shit. It's not likely but it's not impossible that you could even break ribs/puncture lungs doing it.

I mean that's straight up street-fight shit that has put people in hospitals.

The NBA needs to HAMMER Green. I don't mean some 3 game nonsense or indefinite post-season suspension. You hit him with something that carries into next season.

Sure, it's gonna look harsh but this is the situation the NBA (and the Warriors) have put themselves in by largely overlooking his various 'indiscretions' over the years.

They've raised an unruly terrier now and rather than just give him a tug on the leash, they're gonna have to crank up the shock collar and fire his ass into the sun with it.

That or they can just feign surprise after he does something similar again next season.

Not justifying it he should have been kicked and suspended.

And get smacked around.

I hate that weakling. No wonder Michael Jordan slapped him around in practice.

Warriors down 0-2 and every fan of other teams act like they are done.

You seem to think there is some sort of switch they’re just going to turn on and become the Warriors of old. If that switch existed they should have flipped it long ago. Their struggles on the road are very real.

Lakers are so much better after trade deadline. Worthwhile watch now.

Kings-Lakers could be a great series, if both advance.

It would be something if Kings advance over Warriors then over Lakers.

Nope.

yep

Players know

Remember when players voted Lamar Jackson as the best player in the NFL in 2020 after the seasons Mahomes had in 2018 and 2019?

They don't have a clue.

Also, we've reached the point now in 2023 where there's likely only a handful of guys in the NBA who actually watched MJ at all (and certainly when he was a Chicago Bull). Shows you how powerful his well cared-for mythology actually is.

I don't remember any athlete being so dominant. Every year during the 90s you knew no other team had a chance. He easily would have won 8 straight if it wasn't for baseball. I was a huge Jazz fan and I knew getting through the West was the absolute best they could do.

He was just that good.

It's too bad there isn't a prime version of Charles Oakley running around the league just so he could stomp the dog piss out of Draymond. I can't think of a more detestable mother****er on the court. A bully in every sense.

Oh, I recall the inevitability of MJ/the Bulls of that era. What I'm suggesting is that virtually every player in the NBA these days was too young to have seen it.

No you just have your head so far up LeBums ass all you see is shit

Yeah, Draymond has never come up against anybody willing to hit back in this era. It's really too bad that his antics have been allowed to go unchecked for his entire career.

Even if that was true, it doesn't alter my point.

Anybody watch the redeem team documentary?

Look - LeBron is a better player than Kobe. More versatile and simply more physically gifted.

But Kobe's ferocity and focus is just unreal. And that guy took so much shit for being a poor leader because A) he was a baby when it started and B) his teammates were absolute shattered ass (James squad looked like the dream team in comparison at times) when it really become the common statement.

But his leadership on that olympic team was so critical and just so good. And he was a killer out there; an absolute savage. And his focus was so single-minded that the 'kids' on the team had to follow suit or get eaten alive.

Say LeBron was a better player if you want - that's fine. Pretty easy argument to make from a lot of different directions. But would there's only been one guy to ever match Kobe in terms of sheer pathological drive to win and that's MJ. I think I'm still starting a team with Kobe over LeBron.

LeBron can do more to make a bad team good. But Kobe can do more to turn a good team into a champion, IMO.

Agree 100%.

I always thought Anthony Mason was scarier than Oakley.

Ben Wallace was always the monster under the bed for me.

Oak, Mason, Xavier McDaniels, Bill Lambier - the NBA has plenty of psychos to be sure.

But ****ing Wallace was a tank and just seemed to have blind rage constantly simmering just below the surface.

LOL. Those guys were teammates once. John Starks too. They would have scared the Bad Boys.

I don't remember Ben Wallace doing anything crazy, even though he was partly responsible for the brawl at the Palace.

I also wonder how many "accidental" elbows Karl Malone would have fed to Draymond.

That was the thing with Wallace - he didn't lose his cool. And part of that was that I think people just didn't **** with him.

It was just the way he carried himself out there. He didn't feel some need to bark all the time - he just sauntered around, let 'sheed do the talking but he had a presence that let you know that he could kill you with his bare hands if he felt so inclined...