National Basketball Association

Draymond Green suspended for Game 3 following Domantas Sabonis scuffle

Updated Apr. 19, 2023 12:51 a.m. ET

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Golden State Warriors standout Draymond Green has been suspended for Game 3 of his team's first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings, the NBA announced Tuesday evening.

Green was ejected from Monday's Game 2 loss to the Kings after stomping on the chest of Domantas Sabonis in the fourth quarter, receiving a flagrant-2 foul for his action as the defending champs fell into an 0-2 hole in the first-round series.

In the lead-up to Green's stomp, Sabonis appeared to grab Green's leg while the Warriors forward was trying to run up the court to get set on offense. 

Green was upset with the referees' lack of a call on Sabonis' grab, implying that he didn't intentionally step on Sabonis' chest.

"My leg got grabbed. Second time in two nights," Green said, referring to a play in Game 1 with Malik Monk. "Referees just watch it. I have to land my foot somewhere. I’m not the most flexible person, so it’s not stretching that far."

Green continued to show his frustration over what happened on social media following the game. In an Instagram story, Green posted a screenshot of Sabonis grabbing his leg and wrote, "Nothing to see here. Solid basketball play!!"

Sabonis ended up receiving a technical foul for his grab, but remained in the game. He initially brushed aside the play as just "playoff basketball" before calling out Green for the play.

"What happened, I feel like we just can't have in our game today," Sabonis said. 

Sabonis ended up undergoing X-rays to check on his ribs and lungs later on. Those came back negative, according to ESPN. Green also underwent an X-ray of his ankle, asking for one after Monday's game because he felt soreness.

FOX Sports' Shannon Sharpe believed Sabonis grabbing Green's ankle is what might have saved him from a suspension, saying Sabonis' action wasn't "a basketball play."

"When I saw it, I thought, ‘Draymond is going to be suspended,'" Sharpe said on Tuesday's "Undisputed." "But I think the only thing that might save him, because what he did wasn't a basketball play, but neither was Sabonis grabbing his ankle. And because they gave Sabonis a technical foul, I think that might give Draymond a reprieve of not getting suspended."

Sharpe didn't buy the excuse Green gave for stepping on Sabonis.

"Draymond said he's not flexible, you sure did a great job kicking Steven Adams once upon a time," Sharpe quipped, referencing the kick to the groin Green gave Adams in the 2016 Western Conference finals. "You sure got your leg up high to kick him."

Skip Bayless agreed with Sharpe that Sabonis' ankle grab didn't call for Green to step on the Kings' big man's chest, though he doesn't think Sabonis was a saint, either. 

"It was a dirty tactic," Bayless said. "I'm not going to say it was a dangerous play because I don't think Draymond was in any danger of hurting himself. He didn't put him in a precarious point or position. The point is - he did grab his ankle in plain sight and the refs saw it and then started it. But Draymond can't finish it even though emotions are running hot, high and heavy. You can't finish it with a Ndamukong Suh memorial stomp."

But Bayless said he felt, at best, it's "50/50" that Green would get suspended for Game 3.

"My heart is saying he should not be suspended because Sabonis, in this instance, initiated and Draymond responded, and he responded completely out of bounds," Bayless said. "But the point is, you've got to give him a small break here, and I do. My heart is saying that.

"My head is saying that he has such a long track record of this kind of behavior that he even got suspended before a Game 5 of the NBA Finals."

Kings coach Mike Brown was also curious to see how the league will discipline Green for his action. 

"It was a flagrant-2 for sure," Brown said. "It'll be interesting to see with what the NBA does after they review it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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National Basketball Association

Golden State Warriors

Sacramento Kings

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Domantas Sabonis

Shannon Sharpe

Skip Bayless