All means are good to unpin the major players in the playoffs. Provocation is one of them, and when the ground is right, some can be ensnared. This is what happened for Draymond Green And Joel Embiid who reacted badly and were punished in the face of the provocative behavior of their direct opponents, respectively Domantas Sabonis and Nic Claxton.
In his argument to defend his franchise player, Doc Rivers highlighted the need for the NBA to also sanction the instigators to avoid the repetition of this kind of overflow.
“I probably shouldn’t say it, but I don’t think Draymond Green should have been suspended. And I think the league is setting a very dangerous precedent, and I’m not campaigning, I’m really serious. If we start punishing those who respond and not the instigators, then I think we have a problem in this league., did he declare.
Along the same lines, if LeBron James were to lose his temper in the face of repeated taunts from Dillon Brooks, why would the NBA sanction only LeBron James? For Doc Rivers, the “provocateurs” rely more and more on this lever because they know they are protected by the referees, and all they risk is to unpin their target. The game is therefore worth the candle.
“Draymond Green stepped on a guy’s chest because he was holding his foot. The instigator was holding his foot”he explained before evoking the provocative behavior of Nic Claxton on Joel Embiid, who reacted badly. “If I’m on the ground and you’re standing like that on top of me?” We are going to have a problem (…). I grew up in a different era, so it’s a bit different. That said, these guys know they can do it because most of the time nothing will happen. I’m not picking on Nic Claxton, but I don’t think on a playground he stands over Joel like that. But when you have the referees and everyone else around, you know nothing is going to happen.”
The provocateur sanctioned in the same way as the one who responds
As such, Doc Rivers would like the “gentleman agreement” that reigns in the NBA to be taken into account more when imposing sanctions. For him, there are behaviors to be banned and not everything can be justified by taking refuge behind the sacrosanct “trashtalking”.
“Now that I have seen the action again, I think that Joel could have been sent off too. It really could have been.”he explained. “I think it was because he kicked her in the leg actually. I don’t know if that’s the place he was aiming for or not. But, don’t stand like that over him… There are unspoken rules in hockey, you have to create them for our league too, and one of them should be that you don’t stand like that over a guy. We don’t do that.”
Doc Rivers’ outing also aims to put some more pressure on the referees for Game 4 as Joel Embiid went to the sick bay with a sprained right knee.
“We will have to be ready and manage it better as a group. Joel is probably the main target, but if you’ve been watching, it’s been the whole game. They were shoving him, hitting him, holding him, and all of that was allowed.”he added. “It’s a tough question for the league. But I think if you suspend Draymond Green, you should suspend the other person as well. You started the scuffle? You get away with the other. If you want to do that, you have to take that risk, so that if the opponent answers you, you leave the field with him. I think we have to come to something like this”.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Joel Embiid | 66 | 34.6 | 54.8 | 33.0 | 85.7 | 1.7 | 8.4 | 10.2 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 33.1 |
| James Harden | 58 | 36.8 | 44.1 | 38.5 | 86.7 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 10.7 | 3.4 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 21.0 |
| Tyrese Maxey | 60 | 33.6 | 48.1 | 43.4 | 84.5 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 20.3 |
| Louis King | 1 | 28.8 | 61.5 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 20.0 |
| Tobias Harris | 74 | 32.9 | 50.1 | 38.9 | 87.6 | 0.9 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.7 |
| Mac McClung | 2 | 20.5 | 45.0 | 36.4 | 60.0 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 12.5 |
| De’anthony Melton | 77 | 27.9 | 42.5 | 39.0 | 79.3 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 10.1 |
| Shake Milton | 76 | 20.6 | 47.9 | 37.8 | 85.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 8.4 |
| George Niang | 78 | 19.4 | 44.2 | 40.1 | 86.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.2 |
| Jalen Mcdaniels | 24 | 17.5 | 48.8 | 40.0 | 82.4 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 6.7 |
| Montrezl Harrell | 57 | 11.9 | 59.8 | 0.0 | 69.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 5.6 |
| Daniel House | 56 | 14.4 | 47.2 | 33.6 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 4.8 |
| Paul Reed, Jr. | 69 | 10.9 | 59.3 | 16.7 | 74.5 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.8 | 4.2 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | 37 | 9.6 | 43.2 | 39.1 | 72.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.8 |
| pj tucker | 75 | 25.6 | 42.7 | 39.3 | 82.6 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 3.5 |
| Dewayne Dedmon | 8 | 9.6 | 59.1 | 50.0 | 20.0 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 3.5 |
| Saben Lee | 2 | 5.1 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Matisse Thybulle | 49 | 12.1 | 43.1 | 33.3 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.7 |
| Jaden Springer | 16 | 5.6 | 48.6 | 40.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Michael Foster, Jr. | 1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Julian Champagnie | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
