Draymond Green is back at it again. Green earned his first ejection of the 2026-27 NBA season in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 116-113 win over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night after getting tangled up with Suns big man Khaman Maluach and forward Dillon Brooks. The situation started after Maluach went up for a layup and Green tried to defend him, but wrapped him up and threw him down. Green explained the play on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” and justified his actions as simply protecting the rim while alluding to the fact that Maluach had it coming for how he finished the play. “The one with Maluach, I’ll take that one. That’s got to happen,” Green said. “I can’t fall down in the middle of the paint, you just finished and I’m still landing. That don’t work, respect gone. It just don’t work. So with that being said, little tech for throwing him. Yeah, no problem. I’ll take that because the next time you try something like that, you’ve got to note that that comes with something else. Like it don’t just end with, like ‘Oh, you do that.’ “So the next time you’re going to try something, you’ve got to think about it. That’s all a part of protecting a rim, being an anchor of a defense, that’s all a part of it. So I want to help y’all understand that and let you know that yeah, that will happen again. I saw people like, oh man, he got mad that he fell and crashed out. No, that ain’t no fall and crash out. Crash out would be throw him down, run over him, want to fight him and run over him. No, I threw him down and I stood there.” Green, known as an enforcer for Golden State, has a reputation for being physical and, at times, a dirty player. But his elite defensive skill set is what makes him the player he is, and in situations like that, he is trying to do his job as a defensive anchor while making sure he is not disrespected by the opposition. “He was talking. I stood there and looked at him. I talked back, but I didn’t throw him down and run and stand over him and try to fight him,” Green said. “No, I threw him down because you’ve got to sit down, and it’s just that simple. I can’t fall and you score, and you just take off running back down the court, the story can’t end like that. You can’t anchor a defense if you’re going to let the story end like that. You can anchor a defense if you’re going to let the story end like that [but] it won’t be a well-anchored defense. You just can’t let the story end like that, and you won’t be a well-respected anchor. That’s just what it is. That’s what comes with the territory of anchoring a defense.” When Maluach went down, Brooks immediately came over to de-escalate the situation. Green grabbed Brooks by the collar, and it was that moment that ultimately led to the ejection. Green called him out, saying there was nothing to de-escalate, with Brooks’ antics in the situation making things worse. “Plot twist,” Green said. “Dillon Brooks ran in to de-escalate the situation. “However, there’s nothing to really de-escalate because I’m actually just standing there, like he’s [Maluach] down on the floor because I threw him down, and now I’m just standing there because yeah, he’s got to sit down, and that’s that. He ran up to my shoulder, spewing some things that when you run up to de-escalate a situation, A, you don’t run shoulders, you don’t run and put your chest on somebody’s shoulder, and B, you also don’t run up spewing the things out that he was spewing out and de-escalate. “You would actually be a little more respected if you just stood on the type of time that you stood on, which is you’re running up because you’re supposed to be the tough guy, and you’re coming to set the situation straight in a sense, and with that, that’s just not how the story is going to end. The story just ain’t going to end that way. But there would be a lot more respect though if you just stood on the type of time you’re standing on, which is I ran over there because that’s the situation I’m going to go into, and I’m going to be on the type of time that I was at least started speaking about and then afterward, when I talk about it in the media, I’m not going to go and say that he was tweaking all game when nothing had happened all game.” Green reportedly will not be suspended by the NBA and will play for the Warriors when they host the Miami Heat on Thursday night. In six games, he is averaging 3.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.3 assists. Golden State is in the midst of a five-game winning streak and will need Green to play at a high level if it wants to keep winning. Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less