So, that game was wild.
It had everything: Back-and-forth drama, a game-changing injury, a weird turnover and … yes … an excessive timeout technical.
All that resulted in the Toronto Raptors winning their franchise’s first NBA championship with a 114-110 win over the Warriors in Game 6.
But let’s go back to that excessive timeout technical foul on Draymond Green. The Warriors forward scrambled for a rebound near midcourt as time winded down and signaled for a timeout with .9 seconds remaining.
The problem: The Warriors didn’t have a timeout.
NBA fans were quick to compare Green to Chris Webber because, well, Webber called a timeout his team didn’t have and cost Michigan any hope at a championship in the 1993 national title game. It was a play that followed Webber his entire career.
But yeah, let’s stop those comparisons right now. Green’s timeout — believe it or not — was the only play to make to keep the Warriors’ hopes of winning Game 6 alive.
See: Unless Green was going to throw up a halfcourt shot from his back, the Warriors had no other way to extend the game. Steph Curry’s missed shot effectively ended the game, and by taking the excessive timeout technical, Green at least forced Toronto to make free throws and inbound the ball.
Had Kawhi Leonard split his free throws, the Warriors would’ve had a chance at a game-tying heave — a shot Curry is capable of making. That would have all been because Green called a timeout that the Warriors didn’t have.
It didn’t matter, though, as Leonard hit all his free throws to make it a two-possession game. Still, Green’s technical was smart. Webber’s technical was infamously awful.
The two plays weren’t alike at all and shouldn’t be remembered as such.
