ORLANDO, Fla. — After Steph Curry hit the dagger 3 and finally finished a lap around the Orlando Magic’s arena, taunting the home crowd with his signature “night night” celebration, he paraded through his teammates and found the closest open chair on the bench. Then he karate-kicked it with serious force, an emotional release that Curry described as “letting out a little steam.” It jolted Trayce Jackson-Davis and Andrew Wiggins.
“But emotions were high,” Wiggins said. “I feel like he could’ve done anything.”
Curry is trying to protect this Golden State Warriors season from fatality. They’re gripping the 10th seed, fighting off the surging Houston Rockets, clawing just for the right to play two elimination games in order to hobble into the eighth seed. Three weeks from now, when the playoffs tip, it’s possible nothing feels more irrelevant than this 101-93 late March win by an exiled team.
But it felt like everything for the Warriors on Wednesday night, a fight back against all that has led to this turbulent season.
Draymond Green’s combo suspensions in the opening months are partially responsible for the 19-24 spiral the Warriors are still trying to escape. Green’s return jump-started them back into the playoff picture. He corrected their defense and unlocked all their best lineup combinations, again proving why he is so necessary to have on the floor.
But in their most consequential game to date, Green got into it with official Ray Acosta at the 8:50 mark of the first quarter. He disputed a call and kept the argument going after the next whistle. Acosta hit him with a first technical. Green followed. Acosta walked toward the scorer’s table. Green followed.
Green finally began walking away but mumbled a final word. Acosta felt it was enough to eject him from the game before four minutes had elapsed. Crew chief Mitchell Ervin called it a “prolonged diatribe” with “egregious profane language” in the pool report. Green didn’t speak to reporters.
Draymond picked up two technicals and was ejected after having words with the ref pic.twitter.com/tn2muDIXGo
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 27, 2024
The post-ejection frustration was most obvious on Curry’s face. His red-eyed stewing went viral. Green hasn’t received a flagrant foul since returning in January. He’s kept out of the league’s crosshairs. Steve Kerr praised him earlier this week for his mature approach. But part of his internal return agreement, as Kerr detailed it, was a pledge that he wouldn’t let his interactions with officials impact his ability to be on the floor or distract his team from the larger task at hand — winning.
But that’s what happened against the Magic. On the second night of a back-to-back, already without Jonathan Kuminga, who missed the game with knee tendinitis, the Warriors were left without Green, their emotional engine and back-line defender, against a playoff team that entered 25-10 at home.
“All I’ll say is we need him,” Curry said postgame. “He knows that. We all know that. So whatever it takes for him to be on the floor and available, that’s what’s gotta happen. Especially at this point of the year.”
Steph Curry on the Draymond Green ejection: “All I’ll say is we need him. He knows that. We all know that. So whatever it takes for him to be on the floor and available, that’s what’s gotta happen.” pic.twitter.com/kgUhktxLOO
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 28, 2024
Kerr kept his postgame reaction short: “Too bad. It was unfortunate. He deserved it. He will bounce back.” Then he replied with a quick “no” when asked whether it had eroded any of the recent built-up confidence.
Green is receiving a wave of criticism for leaving the Warriors vulnerable again in his absence. It might’ve been tripled if they’d lost. Curry couldn’t hide his frustration on the court and then didn’t try to mask it much after the game.
But another influential member of the organization struck a sensible tone in the tunnel postgame when discussing the reality of the situation: “What? Did we really just expect he was never gonna get ejected again?”
The broader point: Green has to continue to minimize the amount and ferocity of the outbursts as well as possible; the coaches and players (particularly the veterans) need to do a better job of dragging him out of the fray when the red light blinks; and — most important — this team needs to respond better when thrown into the inevitable adverse circumstances.
That’s what made Wednesday night’s win more meaningful. In the immediate aftermath of Green’s disappearance, the Warriors put up maybe their best defensive quarter of the season, holding the Magic to 11 points on 3-of-22 shooting.
Jackson-Davis started at center. That choice, in part, was to get a look at the two-big lineup next to Green that the Warriors believe could be the frontcourt pairing of their future. But without Green, Jackson-Davis was a force in a single-big look against one of the longest teams in the NBA.
Jackson-Davis had 14 rebounds. Kevon Looney had seven in 15 minutes off the bench, stepping into some of Green’s leftover minutes. Brandin Podziemski had nine. The Warriors outrebounded the Magic 52-39, and it was actually Moses Moody, who entered for Green after the ejection and played 24 minutes, who Kerr said had the biggest rebound of the night.
At a moment when it felt like the Magic had gathered momentum, Moody soared in for this late third-quarter rebound in traffic and then spotted Klay Thompson for an open 3.
But nobody received near the postgame praise that Wiggins did. Wiggins scored 13 fourth-quarter points, including a variety of difficult shots over the lanky defense of Jonathan Isaac to keep the Warriors separated at big moments. It was needed. Curry was cold the majority of the night, finishing with only 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting. Wiggins pushed them over the finish line with his 23.
“He took over pretty much that entire fourth quarter,” Curry said. “We ran the offense through him.”
How much does this team need that Wiggins regularly?
“It’s no secret. We talk about it all the time,” Curry said. “It’s a different element and level for this team when he’s playing like that. When teams are sending the kitchen sink at me — front-line defense, second-line defense — when you can put the ball in his hands and he can make plays … he won the game for us tonight.”
That was a crucial variable in the Draymond conversation. They didn’t lose. As one player said, it’ll be a whole lot easier for both the outside world and the inside of the locker room to move past the first-quarter Green ejection because — in the cold result-based reality that is the sports world — it didn’t cost them anything. They won the game. Green will be back Friday in Charlotte.
“I’ve talked to him plenty of times, even tonight,” Curry said. “I’ll continue to talk to him. As a teammate and friend, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”
Great DUB!! Appreciate my dawgs holding it down! On to the next one!
BOUNCE BACK!— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) March 28, 2024
Steph was so hyped after his dagger 3 he kicked over a chair 😂😅 pic.twitter.com/EuePfajXoI
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 28, 2024
(Photo of Stephen Curry celebrating the win with guard Klay Thompson: Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)