Monday night’s game between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers featured many elements of a rivalry. LeBron James may choose to ignore that, but Draymond Green is embracing it.
Over the weekend, LeBron reiterated that he does not believe the Cavs and Warriors are rivals. After Golden State pounded Cleveland by a score of 126-91, Green disagreed with James.
“Yeah, I think this is a rivalry,” Green said, via Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. “It’s definitely fun. A team that you beat, beat you, it’s definitely fun. If you look at the last two years and this year, we’ve been the top two teams in the league each year, and so I look at it as a rivalry, and it’s definitely a fun game to play in.
“But I don’t really care if anyone else sees the game the way I see it. I see how I see it, and they can see it how they see it.”
In an obvious attempt to get his teammates to remain focused, LeBron played the whole “just another game” card when talking about facing the Warriors. It’s also possible LeBron could have been trying to play mind games with the Warriors since the Cavs had beaten them in four straight games — including Golden State’s infamous NBA Finals collapse — prior to Monday.
“I don’t really think it’s about losing the last four that you want to win this game,” Green added. “Regardless of if LeBron thinks this is a rivalry or not, I know he wants to beat us and we want to beat them. And that’s enough in itself. You see each other two times a year; you want to beat each other. And then obviously if you’re fortunate enough to make it to the NBA Finals like the past few years, you see each other again.”
Maybe LeBron will change his opinion after he was sent to the floor on a hard foul from Green. While he mocked James and felt there was a major flop, Green was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul. You can see a video of the play here.
