CLEVELAND -- Draymond Green was assessed with a technical foul in the first quarter of Game 4 Friday night that disappeared sometime in the third quarter.
Which is when Green was assessed with a technical that, by all appearances, was his second and thereby disqualifying foul.
That's when things turned weird.
Just when it seemed Green would be ejected the officiating crew of Mike Callahan (lead), Marc Davis and John Goble stepped in to convey that Green's first technical -- as stated on the original game book -- actually was assessed to Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Green and the officials may have been the only men during a 137-116 Cleveland win at Quicken Loans Arena to be fully aware of that.
"When the technical foul was called on Draymond Green, we reported it to the (scorer's) table," Callahan told a pool reporter. "The table informed us that it was his second technical foul and ejected. We informed the table that it was not his second technical foul."
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Green said he knew all along.
"Because after the first tech on Steve, which I didn't understand, Mike Callahan came up to John and asked him who the tech was on, and he said Kerr," he said. "So I knew I didn't have a technical foul.
"But I'm still trying to figure out why did I get the ‘second' one."
It was all very confusing, and afterward no less so to perhaps everyone beyond Green and the officiating crew.
Goble and Callahan shared blame for the puzzling sequence.
Said Goble: "After calling the loose-ball foul on Draymond Green (in the first quarter), I noticed the reaction by Coach Kerr and then assessed a technical foul. In the moment, I thought I had verbalized to the table that the technical foul as on Coach Kerr. After looking at the video, I did not verbalize (that) to the table and looking at video, I should have done a better job of making sure that the table knew the technical foul as on Coach Kerr."
Said Callahan: "The procedure is to advise the table who the technical foul is on and with the player we give a number. With a coach or a trainer, we just verbalize and at that time we should listen to the PA announcer to who it is on. At that time, we did not do a very good job of listening to the PA announcer and we did not hear him announce it. I take full responsibility for that."
In real time, though, both teams and everyone in the arena were clueless.
"I thought they called it on Draymond; I thought I deserved it," Kerr said of the first-quarter call. "But I thought I heard the PA announcer say that it was on Draymond. So then I thought on the second one Draymond was going to get kicked out. But they explained that the first one was on me."
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue also seemed mystified.
"Mike Callahan told me that the first one they called was on Steve Kerr," Lue said. "And I said, ‘Well, it's right here on the sheet that it was on Draymond, and our scorers' people said the same thing.'
"But evidently he said no, it was on Steve Kerr, the first one. So that was the explanation."
In a game in which 51 personal fouls and seven technical fouls were called, Green remained on the floor.
"He told me to keep playing," Green said of Davis. "I asked him, and he told me to keep playing . . . It's crazy to think to think he thought that was my second technical foul and I would get a technical foul for that."
To recap, Green stayed in the game and so did Kerr. The entire episode was strange, as was much of the officiating during the game. Given the way the teams performed, though, it had real no influence on the outcome.
