Clippers’ Paul Pierce says back-and-forth with Warriors’ Draymond Green is no beef
If you believe Clippers forward Paul Pierce, he doesn’t have an issue with Golden State’s trash-talking forward Draymond Green.
Even when Green mocked Pierce during the game Thursday night between the Clippers and Warriors, Pierce claimed Friday that he has no beef with the Golden State forward.
Green could be heard yelling at Pierce while he sat on the bench during the game at Oracle Arena.
“You can’t get no farewell tour,” Green said to Pierce. “They don’t love you like that…You thought you was Kobe?”
When asked about those comments before Friday night’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, Pierce, who is retiring after the season, laughed.
“He’s not beefing with me,” Pierce said, laughing, smiling. “That wasn’t no beef. I ain’t got no beef in the NBA. I done already settled all my beefs. Naw, that ain’t beef.”
But Chris Paul did respond on Twitter to Green’s comments.
“73 wins and u thought u was gonna win a title that yr…..3-1 lead oops,” Paul tweeted.
Paul was referring to Golden State’s NBA best-ever record last season and how the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead to Cleveland in the Finals.
“That’s just good banter,” Pierce said, laughing again. “That’s all it is. Just good back and forth banter. That’s all.”
Expect lineup changes
With Paul back playing for the Clippers after missing 14 games recovering from a torn ligament in his left thumb, Coach Doc Rivers said he’ll now be able to use different starting lineups.
The Clippers have 24 regular-season games left, and that’s more than enough time for Rivers to tinker with his players.
Though Rivers started Luc Mbah a Moute at small forward against the Spurs, his position is the most likely to see change. Rivers also started Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, J.J. Redick and Paul.
When Paul was sidelined, Rivers at times started a three-guard lineup of Austin Rivers, Raymond Felton and Redick.
So depending on the opponent the Clippers face the rest of the way, the coach figures that he has options to play big or small.
“We’ll make changes,” Doc Rivers said. “I think what we want to do now is go with what we talked about before the year. We really haven’t had a chance to do it, but we’re going to go to the matchups we like and play that way. We want to start this lineup most nights, but there will be nights where we probably have different lineups.”
Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter @BA_Turner
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
