Green suspended, tempers run high

The NBA suspended the Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green for Game 5 of the finals on Monday as a result of an accumulation of flagrant fouls over the course of the postseason.

The NBA announced that the league had retroactively assessed Green with a flagrant foul 1 for striking the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James in the groin during the fourth quarter of the Warriors' Game 4 victory on Friday, triggering an automatic onegame suspension, per league rules.

Four flagrant foul "points" in the postseason results in a suspension. Green, who plays an outsize role for the Warriors as a do-everything point forward, already had three.

"The cumulative points system is designed to deter flagrant fouls in our game," Kiki Vandeweghe, the NBA's executive vice president for basketball operations, said in a statement. "While Draymond Green's actions in Game 4 do not merit a suspension as a stand-alone act, the number of flagrant points he has earned triggers a suspension for Game 5. "

The Warriors, who will host Game 5, have a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series. With the Warriors one win away from a second straight championship, tension between the teams hit fever pitch following Green's suspension. Warrior sguard Klay Thompson, whose team leads the best-of-seven series 3-1, was asked to respond to James' postgame remarks on Friday that Green had crossed the line with his in-game trash talk.

"Obviously people have feelings and people's feelings get hurt even if they're called a bad word," Thompson said. "I guess his feelings just got hurt. We've all been called plenty of bad words on the basketball court before. Some guys just react to it differently. "

James was asked to respond to Thompson's remarks. "Oh, my goodness," James said. "I'm not going to comment on what Klay said, because I know where it can go from this sit-in. It's so hard to take the high road.

"At the end of the day, we've got to go out and show up and play better tomorrow night, and if we don't, then they're going to be back-to-back champion, and that's it. "

James has taken plenty of criticism not only for the way he has played in the NBA Finals, but for stepping over Green in the fourth-quarter incident that resulted in Green's suspension.

James received a technical foul for his part in the incident. He was asked if stepping over Green was a sign of disrespect for his opponent. "I was just trying to get back into the play," James said.

The Warriors have won six of seven games since they fell behind 3-1 in the Western Conference final with the Oklahoma City Thunder. But how will they perform without Green?

"You see every game what he brings, the energy, the defensive presence," Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. "He's a playmaker with the ball in his hands, and he's a proven All-Star. We're going to have to have somebody step up and do it by committee to replace that effort."