The Golden State Warriors have never been a team that sells foul calls or looks to pressure the game officials by flopping. This season, they’re 21st in the NBA for free-throw attempts per game. Steve Kerr prefers his roster to play through and embrace contact rather than looking to over-embellish.
When speaking to the media following the Warriors win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, Draymond Green discussed why the Warriors aren’t a team that frequently gets to the line, and why that’s something to be proud of in a league where foul baiting continues to be on the rise.
“Because we’re a team that don’t sell calls,” Green said. “You can’t get Steph to sell a call if his life depended on it. Klay’s not going to sell a call. So, we’re a team that naturally plays through that. We’ve always said, you don’t want to learn and practice flopping because all of a sudden you get to the playoffs and you’re doing what you’ve been practicing, they don’t call it and those are turnovers. And we feasted on teams that did that over the years. So we don’t want to be that team. We take pride in playing through the contact and just getting the job done. So, I think it’s great for us.”
The Warriors are fighting for an opportunity to participate in the postseason. They are ninth in the Western Conference, having leapfrogged the Lakers with their win on Saturday.
Dray on recent change in reffing: “You can’t get Steph to sell a call if his life depended on it. So we’re a team that naturally plays through that…you don’t want to learn/practice flopping b/c you get to the playoffs & you’re doing what you’ve been practicing, they don’t call it & those are TOs.”
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Green is right. If the Warriors want to be a force in the postseason, they should learn how to embrace and play through contact in the regular season. Now, Golden State fans will hope that mindset continues to pay dividends, as they hope this year’s roster can prove it was designed for playoff basketball rather than excelling in the regular season.
