Draymond Green is just a single technical foul away from drawing an automatic one-game suspension as the Golden State Warriors fight for a playoff berth during the stretch run of the regular season. After his team was blown out the by the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night, though, Green insisted his approach to technical fouls is far different than his biggest personal rival's—using his tense in-game interaction with Dillon Brooks to explain why.

Two of the league's proudest talkers and competitors came to a seemingly inevitable clash during the Warriors' ugly 131-110 loss to the Grizzlies, physically colliding after Brooks picked off another lazy Golden State pass and finished past Green.

The heated exchange didn't boil over into actual pushing or shoving, a borderline shock given the animated back-and-forth between them leading up to Thursday's game—at least until you consider their similarly dire technical foul straits. Brooks drew the league's first automatic suspension for a 16th technical foul last weekend. No one would be surprised if Green soon becomes the next.

Well, except for the man himself.

“He thought he would, like, bait me like he gets baited,” Green said after the game of going armpit to face with Brooks. “I get technical fouls when I want to get a technical foul. I don't get baited into technical fouls, so I think that's probably the difference in between me and him. I do that to him? It'd be a double tech because he'd respond, but it's not a double tech because I didn't respond. One of us are available, one of us aren't, and that's just kind of how it goes.”

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Even the most biased members of Dub Nation have to admit that Green isn't just called for technical fouls when he wants them. There is a difference between fiery on-court interactions with referees and opposing players, though, one Green displayed while keeping his cool as Brooks not so subtly tried to get under his skin.

For sake of the Warriors' playoff hopes, keep your fingers crossed Green can show similar restraint over the final month of 2022-23, no matter the subject of his mid-game ire.