Even though the Warriors won the series, Draymond Green is frustrated with one competitive advantage that he believes the Dallas Mavericks had throughout the Western Conference finals.
Following Game 2, the Mavericks organization was fined $100,000 by the NBA for multiple violations of the league's "bench decorum" rules. One instance included an errant pass from Steph Curry directed at Mavericks forward Theo Pinson, who was encroaching near the baseline while wearing a white shirt on the bench, the same color the Warriors were wearing that night.
On the latest episode of "The Draymond Green Show," the Warriors forward explained why he couldn't believe that the league didn't take further action after the Mavericks.
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"I think it is absolutely baffling that -- and I love the young fella ... Theo Pinson can try and match his shirt with us and stand up," Green said. "One game caused the turnover because he's in the same color as us and standing around the sidelines. And the only thing the NBA can do is fine. Mark Cuban don't care about a fine, at that point it's a joke. And the fact that an official can't call a tech during the game for their bench being in the way and they can only get fined is a joke because it's actually a competitive advantage.
"I thought that was baffling that at no point throughout these playoffs that they would not get a technical foul for that. Because that's the only thing that would stop it. The fine isn't going to stop it. Hell, Mark Cuban joined them in standing on the baseline."
Green believes that the Mavericks' bench continued to break the rules and that Pinson himself continued to match the color of the Warriors' jerseys.
"We played two or three more games in this series since the last time they got fined," Green added. "So pretty much what they said was 'OK, keep fining us' and they didn't keep getting fined. I thought that was absolutely insane, like insane. And again, the reason being, Steph [Curry] threw the ball to Theo Pinson in the white shirt. We then saw an official ask them 'Hey, can you change your shirt?' "
"Last game I'm sure he thought we were wearing a different color and he wore it and we were in a totally different jersey," Green continued. "Then last night he comes out in all black, black jacket, black North Carolina letterman coat. Man, it's so hot in that gym, my man Theo just trying to match us in any way that he can. I thought that was insane and that's something that I wanted to acknowledge in this series because it was just baffling to me."
Regardless of the "competitive advantage" the Dallas bench provided its team, the Warriors won the series in five games, advancing to their sixth NBA Finals in the last eight seasons.
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