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Michael C. Wright
HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets‘ 109-94 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs Wednesday featured a total of six technical fouls, a flagrant 1, minor scuffles and multiple “F— you, Draymond!” chants at Toyota Center.
In other words, coach Ime Udoka and the Rockets felt right at home.
“If it gets chippy, we’ve seen over the last two years that’s worked in our favor for the most part, gets us amped up,” Udoka said. “But when you have a lead, [and you’re] up 20, and things start to happen, you understand why. That’s kind of the last resort by teams. You’ve got to keep your composure at that point and just stay calm.”
A Fred VanVleet steal led to a Jalen Green layup with 5:23 remaining that gave the Rockets a 19-point lead. In the immediate aftermath, VanVleet and Draymond Green stood toe to toe jawing near the Rockets bench. As the conversation escalated, players from both sides gathered and pushed and shoved in a scrum while Warriors officials worked to separate Green from the crowd.
Green downplayed the incident, saying he and VanVleet were “just talking” and “everybody came and surrounded and started pushing.”
As Green started to head for Golden State’s bench, officials assessed Tari Eason a technical foul for a hostile act, after the Rockets forward threw a towel during the scuffle.
“I’d say my emotions just got the best of me,” Eason said. “In between the lines, you’ve just got to keep it basketball. I’m going to just be better for my team moving forward in controlling my emotions. I know that with some of the guys they have over there, their thing is to kind of try to beat you mentally. If you know basketball, basketball is 90% mental.”
Rockets fans heckled Green constantly throughout the game, in addition to chanting on multiple occasions, ‘F— you, Draymond!”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr took exception to some of the antics from the sellout crowd of 18,055.
“Draymond, he’s been around forever,” Kerr said. “He’s an instigator. He’s always going to be in the mix and because of his career, his championships, his fire. He’s going to be a lightning rod, and that’s all part of it.
“I would prefer if fans could use a little more discretion and remember the guy has kids. I don’t know, maybe I’m old school. But I’m all for fans cheering for their team and if they want to yell at the opponents, great. But I just think ‘F you’ is a little much.”
Green pointed out that Houston fans copied Wednesday’s chant from Boston Celtics supporters, who heckled the Warriors forward similarly during the 2022 NBA Finals in games at TD Garden.
“It’s not original,” Green said. “I’ve been there before. Won a championship while it was happening. So yeah, it’s not really original. Can’t steal other people’s s—; that belongs to Boston. So, I kind of just kept pushing.”
As for the Rockets, the extracurricular activities and chippy banter served as somewhat of a galvanizing force.
“It seems to always do that,” Udoka said. “That’s who we are. It’s our identity for the most part. Like I said at the start of the playoffs: We don’t have to flip a switch and try to get tough or get more aggressive. So, that carries over into the playoffs. I don’t mind it. It’s good for us. It’s who we kind of are, minus the towel throw. You’d like to keep your composure at that point. I told Tari that. He’s not even in the game, so he shouldn’t be over there. But it’s what we’ve built ourselves on, the identity, and everybody’s bought into that. It makes us who we are. So, I think our guys all kind of thrive on that. We’ve just got to keep our composure, especially when you’ve got a lead.”
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.
