Five minutes into the third quarter, Jordan Poole picked up his 10th technical foul of the season, joining Draymond Green as the only two Warriors in double-digits.
Poole was arguing a no-call in which he thought Anthony Davis hit him on a contest. The officials didn’t take kindly to his case, and slapped him with a tech.
Green, the often demonstrative forward, has an NBA-leading 14 technicals this season and more experience dealing with officials than arguably any other player in the league. After Saturday night’s game, a 109-103 loss to the LeBron-less Lakers, Green was asked about what he’d tell Poole about working with referees.
“I don’t want him to walk the line,” Green said. “I think I’ve spoken about that before. It’s not really one you want to walk. It’s a battle you can’t win. But, every man is going to speak for themselves when they feel they need to speak, and I support everybody having their voice if you want to use it.”
Green added that he thought the whistle on Poole was borderline.
Players who accrue 16 technicals in a season must serve a one-game suspension. Green is approaching that limit, something he’s well aware of.
“You’ve got to make sure you don’t get to 16,” Green said.
Green looked like the best player on the court for much of the loss to the Lakers, bottling up Anthony Davis and registering 12 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Poole, meanwhile, dropped 17 points in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, but then went cold — emblematic of Golden State’s overall struggles to close out the game.
Poole’s technical fed into a free throw disparity in which the Lakers took 24 more foul shots than GSW. Technicals make up a finite portion of Golden State’s season-long free throw disparity, but perhaps heeding Green’s advice would help.
“Don’t talk to them,” Green said. “That’s my advice. Don’t talk to them. I’ve told him that. You don’t want to get into that battle, you can not win it. Once you get too deep in it, take it from me, you can’t get out. Go the other way is what my advice has been, will be moving forward. It is today, it will be tomorrow. It’s a battle you can’t win, so just go the other way.”