SAN FRANCISCO — Once again, the “code” word has come up in a game between the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies.
Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins took exception to a Draymond Green transition take foul on Zach Edey with 7:06 remaining in the third quarter of Golden State’s 123-118 win over Memphis on Friday night.
“Overall, thought he was really good,” Jenkins said of Edey, who had 14 points and nine rebounds. “And very disappointing, there was that one play, we were about to start the break and he’s been playing really hard to try to outlet, and Draymond grabs his leg and pulls him down and it doesn’t get reviewed.
“So I know there’s a code in this league, and I don’t understand how that wasn’t reviewed. Very disappointing.”
Green lost the ball as he was driving around Jaren Jackson Jr. and fell into the paint at Edey’s feet. Edey picked up the ball for a steal and immediately threw an outlet pass for a Grizzlies break. Green’s left elbow got tangled with Edey’s right foot, and the Grizzlies rookie center tripped over Green’s sprawled out left leg.
“It definitely wasn’t a basketball play,” Edey said after the game.
Neither team loved the officiating. Golden State coach Steve Kerr got heated with officials at the end of the game, and Green was ejected for receiving two technical fouls within 33 seconds in the final two minutes.
Green and Kerr declined to comment directly about the officiating, but Kerr described the way the game played out in the fourth quarter as “disgusting” as Memphis clawed its way back from a 24-point deficit down to a five-point loss in an NBA Cup game.
“They reviewed the elbow Draymond took to the face,” Grizzlies point guard Marcus Smart said of a play that was reviewed and overturned in favor of the Warriors. “We took an elbow to the face, they didn’t review it. Get your leg grabbed, they didn’t review it. It’s a problem. Got to be consistent, that’s all we ask for.”
During the Warriors’ 4-2 second-round series win over the Grizzlies in 2022, Kerr took exception to a flagrant foul 2 in Game 2 by Dillon Brooks on Gary Payton II, who suffered a broken elbow on the play. Brooks was ejected for the foul. Afterward, Kerr said he didn’t know if the play was intentional “but it was dirty.”
“There is a code,” Kerr said. “This code that players follow where you never put a guy’s season [or] career in jeopardy by taking somebody out in midair and clubbing him across the head, ultimately fracturing Gary’s elbow. … He broke the code. Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
After Ja Morant got hurt after Jordan Poole grabbed his right knee during a trap in Game 3, Morant tweeted “broke the code” of Poole grabbing his knee before later deleting the tweet. But Jackson Jr. later added, “You know the code. Talk about the code all series at this point.”
