Clippers, Warriors have strong dislike for each other
It’s probably too much to say the Clippers and Golden State Warriors have a rivalry.
But it’s not a stretch to say the Clippers and Warriors each have a deep-seated animosity toward
the other.
There’s no other way to explain how during the Christmas night game between the two teams that there were two ejections, two flagrant fouls, three technical fouls and much trash-talking, even when the two teams walked off the court after the Warriors had defeated the Clippers.
When the subject of the Clippers and Warriors having a rivalry came up Wednesday, Golden State Coach Mark Jackson maintained that wasn’t the case.
Then again, maybe Jackson was just saying that because his Warriors host the Clippers on Thursday night in a Pacific Division showdown.
“It’s not a rivalry,” Jackson told reporters. “We don’t have bad blood. In this league, when you’re competing and teams are getting after it and you’re jockeying for playoff position in your same division, it makes it exciting. We embrace it. They embrace it.”
What the Clippers didn’t embrace is what Blake Griffin called “cowardly basketball” on the part of the Warriors after the loss Dec. 25.
Griffin didn’t like that Golden State’s Draymond Green elbowed him in the face at the end of
the third quarter.
Green was called for a flagrant foul 2 and ejected from the game. Griffin was issued a technical foul for trash-talking Green after the elbow.
Later in the fourth, Warriors center Andrew Bogut grabbed Griffin by his jersey, resulting in a wrestling match between the two while they were going after a rebound.
Bogut was called for a flagrant foul and a technical. But Griffin was also whistled for a technical foul, his second, which meant an automatic ejection.
The day after the game, the NBA said Griffin should not have been given a common foul and not ejected from the game.
Obviously it was too late.
With that as a backdrop, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any more fireworks between
the Clippers and Warriors on Thursday night.
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broderick.turner@latimes.com
Twitter:@BA_Turner
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