Warriors’ Kevon Looney Issues Surprising Defense of Kings’ Domantas Sabonis

Getty Golden State Warriors pivot Kevon Looney reacts during a regular-season game.

“Livid” was the word that ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski used during a Get Up appearance to describe the Golden State Warriors‘ reaction to Draymond Green‘s suspension for Game 3 of their series against the Kings. And given the enormity of the situation, it’s difficult to blame them.

For the first time in the team’s dynastic era, the Dubs are in real danger of flaming out in the first round, having been tasked with avoiding an 0-3 hole without the aid of their defensive anchor.

What’s more: many are of the belief that the stomp that resulted in Green’s punishment was actually triggered by its perceived victim, Kings star Domantas Sabonis, who was grabbing onto Green’s ankle as he lay on the hardwood (just before the stomp came).

In the wake of the incident, video footage of Sabonis grabbing, pushing and pulling on Warriors players has circulated on social media. For his part, though, center Kevon Looney doesn’t see what the big deal is.

“I mean, as a big man, that’s what we do,” Looney told reporters of Sabonis’ actions, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “I think that’s pretty normal. The pushing, the shoving, the grabbing, that’s all part of protocol down there (in the paint)… Sometimes they call it, sometimes they don’t… I enjoy it.”

Draymond Green’s Suspension Looms Large as the Kings’ Offense Has Exploded When He’s Sat

Throughout their championship years, the Steph Curry–Klay Thompson-Draymond Dubs have throttled the competition with space, pace and precision shooting. Ahead of the current series, however, there was a real fear that Mike Brown’s Kings would be the ones running circles around their adversaries.

So far, Golden State has actually hung in with Sacramento relatively well on the whole — the Kings’ offensive rating of 115.4 currently ranks as the postseason’s sixth-best and represents a noticeable from dip its regular-season potency. Meanwhile, their effective field-goal percentage of 50.8 ranks just 13th out of 16 playoff teams.

Alas, a major caveat to this has been Green’s role in keeping things from getting out of hand. When he was on the bench during Games 1 & 2, it consistently got pretty rough.

In the 31 minutes Green has spent on the sidelines so far in the series, the Kings have ripped the nets to the tune of 127.5 points per 100 possessions. That’s a difference of 19.7 points/100 poss. compared to when he has played.

The Warriors have been punished on the glass in those minutes, too, having collected only 38.5% of available rebounds sans Green, which has resulted in additional possessions for Sacto.

Rapper E-40 Releases New Track Honoring Warriors

Bay Area legend and Warriors superfan E-40 made headlines recently after a run-in with security during Game 1 versus the Kings at Golden 1 Center, but he’s not letting that interfere with his support of the Dubs. After skipping Game 2, the West-Coast hip-hop pioneer plans to be in attendance for Game 3 at Chase Center.

Not only that: the 55-year-old just released a new track entitled “Front Row 40” that’s all about his support of the Warriors and other Bay Area clubs, likening his front-row fandom to that of Jack Nicholson and Spike Lee during the track:

As for him and Kings security, that beef has apparently been squashed — both parties called it a “misunderstanding” in a joint statement, as relayed by the Bay Area News Group.