Golden State won the 22 minutes after Draymond Green's ejection by 14

The Warriors were losing to a rested team on the second night of a back-to-back, and then Draymond Green threw a 7-footer on the floor, and then they were not losing anymore.

That is the order the box score gives you. Nobody has to like it.

What happened#

With 10:00 left in the third quarter, Phoenix center Khaman Maluach knocked Green to the floor under the basket. Green got up, grabbed Maluach, and was whistled for a personal foul. Then, after the whistle, he tossed Maluach to the court, and the officials called that a "throwdown" and gave him a technical, Anthony Slater of ESPN reported. Dillon Brooks ran in from the top of the key. Green and Brooks grabbed each other's jerseys, the Associated Press described Green's hand on Brooks' neck, and after a review the officials called a double technical.

Two technicals is an ejection. Green was done after 17 minutes.

"I was just trying to de-escalate it," Brooks said, per Slater. "He was just tweaking all game."

Steve Kerr's version: "That's just the greatest NBA basketball players on earth competing. Nothing serious happened."

Green did not speak to reporters.

The 22 minutes#

Devin Booker made the technical free throw and Phoenix led 68-57. There were 22 minutes left. Golden State won them 59-45.

The man who walked on for Green was Charles Bassey, and he scored on a tip-in 24 seconds later. He finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes, the most points he has scored in an NBA game, per the AP. He also, with 7:26 left, kept his arms wrapped around Jalen Green's head in a fight for a rebound, and Miles Bridges ran to the baseline and shoved him, which got Bridges a technical of his own. (So the backup center inherited the minutes and the theme.)

Stephen Curry did the rest. He scored 34 in 33 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back, went 11 of 12 from the line, and was plus-21. Curry and Green both sat Sunday's win over the Clippers, so the two men who sat out Sunday played a combined 50 minutes on Monday, and the one who played 17 of them changed the game more.

"He lit a fire in all of us," Curry said of Green, per Slater. "We had to respond."

The Warriors are 5-3 after starting 0-3. Booker scored 26 and fouled out with 58 seconds left.

Anyway, the league#

Here is the part nobody knows yet. As of early Tuesday the NBA had announced nothing beyond the ejection.

Green's file is long enough that the league has said, in writing, that it counts against him. He has been ejected 31 times in his career, 23 in the regular season, by Slater's count. In November 2023 the league suspended him five games for putting Rudy Gobert in a headlock, for "escalating an on-court altercation." A month later he struck Phoenix's Jusuf Nurkić in the face, was ejected, and was suspended indefinitely. Both times Joe Dumars, the league's executive vice president for basketball operations, cited Green's history of unsportsmanlike acts in the statement.

And yet. In March 2024 Green appeared to grab Patty Mills by the neck and pull him to the floor against Miami, and after review the officials called it a common foul. No suspension. The thing that gets Green suspended has usually been a strike or a hold that the officials themselves treated as more than a technical. Monday's officials looked at it on video and called two technicals, which is the same outcome Brooks got.

The read: a fine at most, and no games. Green has three technicals in six games, so the count that suspends a player automatically, 16, is a long way off.

Golden State is home to Miami on Thursday, the fourth game of a six-game homestand. For most of the roster, who plays in it is Kerr's call.

For one man it is the league's.

Sources: The sequence of the ejection, both technicals, the review, Brooks' and Kerr's and Curry's remarks, Green's 31 career ejections (23 regular season, 8 playoffs), his three technicals in six games, and that he did not speak postgame from Anthony Slater, ESPN, November 3, 2026. Green's hand on Brooks' neck, Bridges' technical with 7:26 left and the Bassey sequence that drew it, Bassey's career high, Booker fouling out with 58 seconds left and the 5-3 record after 0-3 from the Associated Press game story, November 2, 2026. Score at the ejection (67-57, then 68-57 on Booker's technical free throw), Bassey's tip-in at 9:36, and every individual line from ESPN's play-by-play and box score for game 401909919. Curry and Green not playing November 1 from ESPN's box score for game 401909905. Green's 2023 five-game suspension and its quoted reason, the indefinite Nurkić suspension, Dumars citing his record both times, and the March 26, 2024 Mills play from Wikipedia's Draymond Green article. Miami on Thursday from ESPN's Warriors schedule; the six-game homestand from the AP. Maluach's listed height from ESPN's Phoenix roster.