The fight between the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets this early into the season was enough to make Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green extend his bedtime an extra 75 minutes, as he “was entertained sitting there watching them fight.”
“Guys punching each other — who don’t enjoy watching a fight?” said Green, according to Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News. “It was pretty amazing, honestly.”
Unlike in many other NBA scuffles, there were actual punches thrown during Saturday night's Western Conference showdown, which saw another loss for the Lakers in addition to a four-game suspension for Brandon Ingram for “aggressively returning to and escalating the altercation and throwing a punch in the direction of (Chris) Paul, confronting a game official in a hostile manner, and instigating the overall incident by shoving Rockets guard James Harden,” and a three-game suspension for point guard Rajon Rondo for spitting and throwing multiple punches at Paul.
“That was garbage,” said Green of the suspensions. “I’m never in favor of guys losing money. But I got suspended in the NBA Finals for attempting to punch somebody. Guys punching each other are getting two games or three games. I attempted to punch somebody, and not in the face, either.”
“It seems like a little bit of a double standard going around this thing. That’s just me, though. I could be wrong. I don’t got all the answers.”
Green was suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals after accumulating enough technical foul points to merit a suspension. This was a different situation than a Game 2 of the regular season, though the Warriors forward is one of many who argued players should have been suspended longer for actually throwing punches — something the league has tried to avoid since the infamous Malice in the Palace in 2004.
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