Category: Sports

Tensions were high when Draymond Green had to leave Game 2 of the Warriors-Grizzlies Western Conference semifinal to get stitches after getting elbowed in the eye by Xavier Tillman while both were going after a loose ball. As he walked off the floor and into the locker room, Green flipped off the Memphis fans who were booing him.

Afterward, Green minced no words about how he felt about Grizzlies fans, defiantly letting the media know that he would take the fine for detrimental conduct and make up the lost money through an appearance.

“If you’re going to boo somebody who’s getting hit in the eye, (his) face running down blood, you should get flipped off,” Green said. ” So, I’ll take the fine. I’ll go do an appearance and make up the money. But it felt really good to flip them off. I could’ve had a concussion or anything. So if they’re gonna be that nasty, I can be nasty too. I’m assuming the cheers was because they knew I’d get fined.”

“Great, I make $25 million a year; I should be just fine.”

On Wednesday, JJ Redick, who joined ESPN last year as an analyst after a 15-year playing career, defended Green to Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, who wasn’t the biggest fan of the Warriors’ big man choice to flip off the Memphis faithful in attendance who cheered as Green left to get stitches for his bloody eye.

“I want to take a little umbrage with this ‘shut up and play’ because that has the same sort of connotations that the ‘shut up and dribble’ crowd has towards athletes, and I have a real problem with that,” Redick sounded off. “Specifically with Draymond—the idea that America is tired of him. You do realize the guy has a very popular podcast where he hosts, and he talks, himself, for the majority of the episode, and people listen to that.”

Reddick continued: “He signed a talent deal with Turner [Sports] because people want to hear what Draymond has to say. The reason they want to hear what Draymond has to say is because—just like in this press conference—he is real, authentic, and unfiltered. You can’t take away what makes a player great, so there’s no shut up and play.’”

Russo, meanwhile, insisted that this was “not a political scenario or race situation,” adding that he was just noting that Green is a “polarizing” figure and he is merely speaking for the millions of longtime basketball fans who agree with him about the multi-time NBA champ.

“I’m not saying it’s a race situation. I’m saying the fans you’re talking about, they talk about athletes that way like you just talked about an athlete,” Redick fired back. “The people on Fox News talk about athletes that way; that’s my issue.”

The former Duke star concluded: “I don’t actually care about the fans that watched Bob Cousy play or watched Wilt [Chamberlain] play. I don’t care! I appreciate they’ve been NBA fans that long, but I don’t appreciate the undertone.”

Miami Heat defensive stopper PJ Tucker recently spoke to Andscape about his calling card in the League: tough-nosed gritty defense, night after night.

“It’s not a desirable job, man. Nobody wants to guard anybody. But from a competitive standpoint, I love the way I came into league, and I made myself in the league being that. It’s like, ‘Nobody wants to guard him. I got him,” Tucker said.

Tucker showcased his elite defense against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. While guarding James Harden, Tucker allowed him to score just five points all game, with the rest of Harden’s points coming from the line or against another Miami defender.

While Harden shot 66.7 percent against Tucker, he got only three shots up on him in four minutes and 42 seconds of action; the largest timeframe spent guarding the Beard by far in Game 1.

Tucker elaborated on the behind-the-scenes necessities it takes to be an effective defender:

“I got to study film. I got to study tendencies. I got to study everything. I got to know everybody on the floor. You got to talk. You got to be vocal. You got to be physical. You got to understand the game. You got to understand how games are being read.”

However, he believes defense takes more than just understanding the game and what your opponent wants to do. Using Draymond Green as an example, Tucker gave another golden requirement of being an elite defender:

“He’s [Draymond Green] one of the most competitive people in the League, but he does his job just as good if not better than anybody in the highest level, championship level. And that’s what it’s about for me. Being a defender’s being the most competitive person out there.”

Tucker and the Heat play Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the 76ers tonight at the FTX Arena.

Despite a monster second-half effort, the Milwaukee Bucks fell short of stealing home court from the Boston Celtics after a blowout 109-89 loss in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The man behind the attempted comeback bid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, finished the game with 28 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists. However, he shot 11-27 from the floor and 1-4 from beyond the arc.

Antetokounmpo was 2-12 from the field in the first half before taking over the third quarter with 18 points. The Greek Freak told assembled media that he just had to keep making plays even if he wasn’t at his absolute best.

“Just gotta keep making plays; this is what basketball is about; you’re gonna make shots, and you’re gonna miss shots, but at the end of the day, you play to make right plays and finding your teammates.”

He followed up by saying that he’s moving on from the Bucks’ tough Game 2 loss and is focusing on Game Three on Saturday.

“At the end of the day, I’m not gonna sit down and complain that I’m frustrated,” Antetokounmpo said. “I just keep achieving and finding more winning solutions for myself and my teammates. We did our job, and they did there’s, so now we gotta go back home and do our job again.”

The Bucks look to take back the series lead Saturday as they host the Celtics back home in Fiserv Forum.

The Boston Celtics have now tied the Eastern conference semifinal series 1-1 against the Milwaukee Bucks after a 109-86 victory at the TD Garden.

The dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the way for the Celtics and combined for 59 points— Brown dropped a 30 piece and was 6-of-10 from deep, while Tatum finished with 29 points and 8 assists.

“Locked in from last game, locked in from shootaround,” Tatum says, per The Athletic. “If I was a betting man, I would have bet that JB was gonna have a great game. And he set the tone, and that was big for us. Just how aggressive he was coming out making the right plays for himself and for others. He got us going tonight.”

Brown was electric in the first half, scoring 17 points in the first quarter.

“Just how you respond means everything in this League,” Brown says. “We didn’t play how we wanted to in the first game, and we couldn’t come back and drop another game at home. We knew we had to come out and play like our season was on the line.”

While the Celtics were without DPOY Marcus Smart, who was out with a bruised right thigh he suffered in Game 1, the C’s still held it down on the defensive end and limited Giannis Antetokounmpo to 28 points, which he scored mostly in the second half of the game.

“Strong bodies, being active, being physical—that’s pretty much it,” Antetokounmpo says on the Celtics’ defense making it tough for him inside. “It’s gotten tougher to find your teammates.”

Game 3 is set to go down on Saturday in Milwaukee.

Following a 109-86 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka spoke on the physical aspect of the game that played a role in this pivotal win:

“That was a thing we really talked about in Game 1, where we’ve been a bigger physical team all year. I didn’t love how we didn’t react to them being physical — we adjusted well, we learned some things from Game 1, and it felt like we knew we didn’t react to the way they were playing.”

Coach Udoka also added that being ‘outmuscled’ in Game 1 was a motivating factor for his team:

“Two big teams, but we haven’t kind of been outmuscled like that all year, and I think our guys took that to heart, and we knew we’d come out with the right effort tonight.”

Udoka’s Celtics leave Boston with the series tied 1-1, headed to Milwaukee for Game 3 on Saturday.

The Boston Celtics pulled through in Game 2, winning 109-86 over the Milwaukee Bucks to even the series 1-1. A big part of the reason Boston was able to win was by limiting Giannis Antetokounmpo’s offensive output as much as possible. Grant Williams, who was a primary defender on the Greek Freak, spoke on how he viewed the assignment:

“I view it as guarding him on an island where it’s just you and him, and you have to do your job… he started being a lot more aggressive in the second half and getting downhill and creating for himself. But, it’s just one of those things you just hunker down and trust the work you’ve done and do your best to contain one of the best players in the world.”

Through the two games thus far, the two-time MVP has been guarded by Williams for ten minutes and 20 seconds. He’s shot 44.4 percent from the field, a drastic 12.4 percent difference from his field goal percentage in the first round (56.8 percent).

For comparison’s sake, when you add up the minutes total of Giannis being guarded by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Robert Williams III, the Greek Freak has shot 72.3 percent from the field in six minutes and 31 seconds.

Grant Williams will look to bring that number down in Game 3, which is Saturday at 3:30 pm EST in Milwaukee.