Stephen A. sounds off on Draymond's ‘utterly ridiculous' ejection

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The Warriors found themselves without Draymond Green for the second half of Sunday's Game 1 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. 

With 1:18 remaining in the second quarter of Game 1, Green was ejected after receiving a Flagrant 2 foul on a play under the basket involving Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke. 

Green clearly grabbed and pulled down on Clarke's jersey, but many, including ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, believed that the Flagrant 2 call was unnecessary. 

"I think that's an utterly ridiculous decision by the officiating crew," Smith said at halftime on "NBA Countdown." "What are you doing, looking for Cottonelle tissue commercial endorsements or something? It is utterly ridiculous, it's a damn shame that this happened. You want to give him a (technical foul)? Fine. He clearly tried to hold the person up, he's making a defensive play, it happens. To have the guy ejected and to compromise the potential outcome and to leave us in a position where we're talking about this ejection as opposed to talking about two high-end competitors going after it, I think this tarnishes the level of competition that was out there today. There is no excuse for this decision as far as I'm concerned. It was utterly egregious."

While the officials were reviewing the play, Green appeared to have known that he was about to get ejected, putting on one final show before running off the court. 

"It was a wrong call but I will say, I don't like seeing Draymond Green depart from the game like that, it's nothing to celebrate or to egg someone on," Smith said. "The Golden State Warriors are deficient without Draymond Green, he's one of the elite defensive players in the game of basketball so the odds were stacked against them to some degree ... but now you're deficient on the defensive end of the floor. Good luck to Golden State, it's a horrible decision, horrible!"

RELATED: Draymond's mom rips refs for controversial Game 1 ejection

The Warriors know first-hand just how much of an impact Green has on the court. When they were without him for 31 games this season, the defense struggled immensely. 

Against Ja Morant and a hungry Grizzlies team, the Warriors' defense was already being tested. Without Draymond for the remainder of the game, Golden State's assignment becomes much more difficult. 

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