The NBA Playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies has been chippy, to say the least.
Game 1 featured an ejection for Draymond Green over a flagrant foul, flipping off Memphis fans as he left. Game 2 featured Dillon Brooks getting ejected for pushing Gary Payton II during a layup, causing the Warriors player to be injured in a play that Golden State coach Steve Kerr said “broke the code.”
While Game 3 featured some heroics by Ja Morant, the Warriors cruised to victory to take a 2-1 series lead. However, Morant also injured his knee during the game and implied afterward that it was because Jordan Poole grabbed it during a play. Morant tweeted the phrase “broke the code” to call back Kerr’s comments and infer that it was a dirty play.
Ja Morant reacted to Jordan Poole grabbing his knee.
(via @JaMorant) pic.twitter.com/9XhvkPfYxG
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 8, 2022
However, Morant deleted the tweet soon after posting it.
Following the game, Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins also inferred that Poole caused the injury.
“He’s getting evaluated now. Nothing further. We just watched the replay. He was going after a dribble and Jordan Poole actually grabbed his knee and yanked it, which kind of triggered whatever happened, so I’m actually going to be very curious to see what happens after that.”
However, he backed off when he was pressed on the accusation.
Jenkins gets pressed about his accusations on JP…
Waffles with answer.. pic.twitter.com/GOlsiFM26m
— warriorsworld (@warriorsworld) May 8, 2022
Poole was asked about the play after the game and he denied any malicious intent, saying it was a “basketball play.”
Jordan Poole responds to the Ja Morant “Broke the code” tweet. #Warriors pic.twitter.com/f032SF7wB9
— Joe Hughes (@VegasJoeHughes) May 8, 2022
“It was a basketball play when we doubled him,” said Pool. “And I hit the ball, and I was going for the ball. I mean, obviously, you don’t want to see anybody get hurt. I’m not even that type of player. I respect everybody.”
Meanwhile, Klay Thompson came to Poole’s defense, somewhat, laughing at the accusation and saying that it would probably be pretty hard for Poole to be able to tweak Morant’s knee like that.
https://twitter.com/SamHustis/status/1523158190438854656
“Me personally, I’ve been through a tough knee injury,” Thompson said. “And I don’t think there’s any malicious intent from Jordan. I don’t even think [Poole’s] strong enough to affect somebody’s knee. But we’re not out there trying to hurt people or trying to club people in the back of the head on a fast break. We play the game the right way, and I’m going to have his back.”
Draymond Green also chimed in to take note of the fact that the Grizzlies are trying to paint the Warriors as an aggressive team, which doesn’t seem to fit the narrative around both teams.
Does Draymond think the Grizzlies are trying to “paint a picture” of the Warriors style of play?
“They’re the most physical team, right? We’ve historically been viewed as a pretty soft jump-shooting team, right? Paint away.” 😂 pic.twitter.com/SmUywqT3kF
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) May 8, 2022
“They’re the most physical team, right? We’ve historically been viewed as a pretty soft jump-shooting team, right? Paint away.”
We’ll wait to see what kind of impact this has for Morant moving forward. Regardless, Game 4 is going to be wild…
