SAN FRANCISCO —In the waning seconds of the Warriors’ blowout win over Charlotte, tempers flared when Lester Quinones took a layup in garbage time.
The tension sparked when Quinones shot a layup when the game was out of hand. There was a two-second difference between the shot and game clock, but players often take a turnover if the game’s essentially over. Miles Bridges blocked Quinones’ attempt for a goaltending call, and frustrations boiled over into an all-hands skirmish.
In the dust-up, Quinones was assessed two technicals and an ejection. Bridges picked up a technical and Grant Williams, who joined the scrum late, got ejected for escalating the conflict.
Williams, a Warriors foe from the 2022 NBA Finals as a Celtic, doesn’t have many fans in the Chase Center. Draymond Green, who launched into a comedy routine at the postgame podium, sure doesn’t seem like one.
“Grant Williams gotta stop it, man,” Green said. “Being like this tough guy is going absolutely wrong for him. Like, he’s a really nice guy. For some reason, he keeps like trying to jump onto the unlikeable side, and I must tell you: it’s not always fun over here. It’s not always a good time. I don’t know man, he needs to figure it out. Because boy, talking too much kind of got you out of Dallas. Overdoing it. He’s over there talking too much now. You might want to slow down, and stop all the tough guy stuff.”
The scuffle reached its apex when Quinones and Williams went jaw-to-jaw, with the Warriors guard repeatedly calling Williams a profanity. Williams was finishing his fifth game as a Hornet after the Mavericks traded him at the deadline, reportedly because he rubbed some Mavericks the wrong way.
Williams is regarded as a smart player, but has always played with a lot of emotion — and verbosity. He was elected as the National Basketball Association Players Association vice president last February.
“Being this tough guy is going absolutely wrong for him … Talking too much kind of got you out of Dallas … “
Draymond went in on Grant Williams pic.twitter.com/SbtAT7k5oh
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 24, 2024
“You want to be the president of the PA and stuff, you can’t be out here doing all that stuff,” Green said. “You don’t see CJ McCollum being a tough guy. Chris (Paul) was tough as hell as the Players Association president. But CP’s 6 feet. You got to have some nastiness to you to be that great and be 6 feet tall. I don’t know what Grant Williams out here doing. That dude — and he’s doing it with everybody this year. Then he came over to our bench, thought he was about to have a friend. Ain’t no friends for you over here, my man. You gotta go down there and talk to your guys. You can’t come over here and talk to us about what just happened with our players, like no, we support our players.”
“Pray for Grant Williams,” Green’s soliloquy ended.
Green and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr defended Quinones after the game, saying there shouldn’t be a problem with someone taking a shot instead of taking a shot clock violation. The Hornets were pressing late in the fourth quarter despite Golden State having removed their starters, and the Warriors believe there’s nothing wrong with playing, with reason, to the final horn.
“I don’t really understand why people get so mad at somebody scoring at the end of the game,” Green said. “It’s like this dumb, unofficial, unwritten rule that everybody gets mad. Like, if y’all were winning by 13 points, would you get mad if he laid the ball up? I doubt it. And so it’s kind of like a sore loser type thing.”
Warriors rookie Brandin Podziemski revealed that Kerr — who reportedly agreed to a two-year, $35 million contract extension — told the team postgame that he’ll pay Quinones’ ejection fine. Williams could be so lucky.