Draymond Green took an incidental elbow to the face from Ivica Zubac during the third quarter of Wednesday's game between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers.
Green ended up going to the locker room before returning to the Warriors bench. Since he appears okay physically, we can all laugh about the comical sequence that followed that unfortunate blow.
Because Green crumbled to the floor and stayed there while literally everyone on the court outright ignored his plight or treated him like a chalk outline of a body.
This is the funniest sequence of basketball ever 😂 Draymond was dead on the court #Warriors pic.twitter.com/8hnkxEYM2d
— Chillbo Shwaggins (@TheColinCooper) February 15, 2024
Both teams played on for nearly 30 seconds of game time. Andrew Wiggins missed a three-pointer after an offensive rebound. The Clippers pushed it down the court with Paul George missing his own three-point attempt. The Warriors brought it back, with Jonathan Kuminga stepping around Green to dunk. Still, the game didn't stop. Terance Mann dished the ball to Zubac for a dunk as well.
Four possessions later, Stever Kerr finally called a timeout to see to Green.
NBA Twitter couldn't help but see the humor in it all.
Best memes and tweets after Warriors, Clippers play on with Draymond Green sprawled out on court
Draymond Green just laid dead on the ground for four possessions and the Warriors and Clippers just acted like nothing was wrong 😂😂😂😂
— Tim Preston (@TimmyTebrows) February 15, 2024
Draymond: on the ground, writing in pain
— 𝕃𝕒𝕪𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝔸𝕟𝕒𝕝𝕪𝕤𝕥 NBA™🤔 (@LaymanAnalyst) February 15, 2024
Other 9 players, refs, coaches and 20k fans in attendance: pic.twitter.com/egnsRyB6h0
Felt like Draymond Green was on the floor for 5 mins before the Warriors called timeout to stop the game 😂
— Austin (@AustinPlanet) February 15, 2024
Draymond Green pic.twitter.com/avNF8XuBHe
— PK (@PatrickKiley) February 15, 2024
draymond green fighting for his life on the ground.
— _ (@andres21vergara) February 15, 2024
steve kerr: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/187dycesJF
That’s got to be a 3 second call on Draymond green he was laying down in the paint 💀
— T.C (@brandthewatche1) February 15, 2024
Green did have to go back to the locker room but he was only gone for a few minutes. He was back in the game before long.
It was clearly incidental contact, so there was nothing controversial to see here. Just something that turned into pure comedy gold. The only replays necessary were the ones showing how absurd it was that the game kept going for so long.
Green had five points and nine rebounds in the opening three quarters of play. He was 2-of-9 from the field. The Warriors held a 97-87 lead with one quarter remaining.
The Warriors came into Wednesday's game on a roll. Winners of five straight and seven of their last eight, Golden State hoped to even the season series against the Clippers, who won two of the previous three.
Unfortunately, things did get ugly just a few minutes later as Ty Lue was ejected after Mason Plumlee swatted violently at Brandin Podziemski.