JB Bickerstaff’s proud Cavaliers took on Draymond Green, Warriors – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

The Warriors began the second half of their 118-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday at Chase Center in a deep hole, and Draymond Green tried to get his team out.

But in the end the walls collapsed with an overzealous Green.

Having already committed a technical foul, Green’s third-quarter antics led to a second technical foul and a final ejection.

Green tried to light the fire under the Warriors in the third quarter. First, he called an offensive foul on Cavs center Jarrett Allen and let him hear it all the way down the field. He then grabbed the pocket of Donovan Mitchell and caused a foul on the All-Star defense as they fought for the loose ball.

But Green went too far when he knocked Mitchell out of bounds on a Caris LeVert layup. Mitchell wasn’t happy about this and charged at Green as they ran back across the court.

A lengthy replay revealed that officials assessed a retroactive technical on Green for the shoulder strike on Mitchell before retaliation.

Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff was thrilled with what he saw from his players.

“It’s about our guys standing up for themselves and protecting themselves,” Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “There was a play before where Donovan got hit in the back, and we talked about it again that we’re not going to back down from anyone. So I’m proud of our guys for standing up for themselves, but on the other hand, not letting the tide turn and getting caught up in something that we didn’t need to get caught up in and allowing them to get caught up in that to go escape.

“But that was deliberate, to somehow rally the team. You could feel that throughout the entire third quarter. I thought it could have been nipped in the bud a little earlier, but it is what it is and we move on.”

LeVert, who scored when Green knocked Mitchell out of bounds, told reporters he didn’t see everything that happened but was pleased with his team’s response.

The Warriors trailed by 16 points early in the third quarter, but won the quarter 31-16 and cut the Cavs’ lead to one point early in the fourth quarter.

“Everyone on the court is extremely competitive, so there was a lot of barking back and forth,” LeVert told reporters. “I don’t know if we handled it correctly at first. After that they kind of ran. In the fourth quarter we recovered and did what we did at the beginning of the game. We pulled in a little bit in the third quarter and let them run.”

Any momentum Green had created in the third quarter was lost in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers pulled away for their second win over the Warriors in a week.

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