The word "heated" gets thrown around way too much in basketball games. But Saturday night's game between the Warriors and Thunder was as heated as a game could get without featuring a fight -- a very rare sight in today's NBA. We had Westbrook pushing Nick Young after a celebration. We had Zaza living up to his dirty rep by falling on Westbrook's legs. And we had a couple of Melo not being so melo moments.
The first of these melo moments came in the second quarter, when he and Kevin Durant got in each others faces and exchanged some sweet nothings after the two got tangled up. Each was hit with a technical foul, which gives Durant his 12th of the season. The only player in the NBA with more techs than KD is his teammate Draymond Green (15).
Speaking of Draymond, Melo lost his cool in the third quarter after getting fouled and slapped in the head by the league leader in techs. Melo threw his headband to the floor and tried to have some words with Draymond, who gave him that look he gave Fergie at All-Star weekend and then clapped his hands in the air after Melo missed his first free throw attempt.
Melo finished the game with just 14 points on 6-of-17 shooting as the Thunder lost by 32.
After the game, KD said he hopes his latest tech is rescinded.
"It's unfortunate because I'm sure everybody is going to say I'm trying to act tough when he pushed me and they gave me a tech."
As for Draymond, he could not care less about the techs.
"I got kids. I'm worried about how they going to grow up. I'm not going to worry about a technical foul."
