Tyronn Lue has little doubt that there was a little bit of intent behind Draymond Green’s flagrant foul on LeBron James.
The Cleveland Cavaliers coach wouldn’t go far enough to call the play dirty, but he definitely believes that Green was trying to send a message.
“Was it a dirty play? I don’t know,” Lue said Wednesday, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “Was it a statement? I think so. He didn’t want to let LeBron get in the open court and get a dunk or layup, and he took a hard foul. He wanted to try to send a message to our team.”
Lue seemed less than impressed with the timing of the foul, which came with the Warriors up 16.
“Of course, it’s easier to do when you’re up 25,” Lue said, exaggerating a bit.
You can see the foul here, and there was likely some intent to it. Golden State had lost four straight meetings to Cleveland since taking a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, and likely wanted to make a statement. That said, winning by 25, as Golden State did, was likely a much bigger statement.
