Earlier in the 2021-22 NBA season, spectators and scouts did not expect the Golden State Warriors to accomplish what they did against the Boston Celtics – acquire their seventh NBA title. Now at the top, every franchise wants to take the Warriors down, but one franchise is taking it to a personal level.
After Golden State's 103-90 Game 4 victory over Boston, Klay Thompson mentioned in a postgame press conference that a player on the Grizzlies made a tweet and stated "Strength in Numbers" after the Warriors' loss to Memphis 123-95 on March 28th. That player was Jaren Jackson Jr.
"I can't wait to retweet that thing – freakin' bum," said Thompson in the presser when he brought up the memory of Jackson's tweet and that he couldn't wait to retweet.
Grizzlies' superstar and leading scorer Ja Morant began to weigh in on Thompson's comments about Jackson and made a tweet that stated, "got a lot of real estate," meaning Jackson's tweet has been lingering on Thompson's mind since the regular-season loss.
Eventually, the not-so-soft-spoken Draymond Green got involved in the Twitter madness by going back and forth with Morant, saying the property value was higher in Boston.
Following Morant and Green's exchange, a tweet reached Morant's timeline that said a Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors Christmas game in San Francisco is mandatory. However, Morant wants the heated matchup to be held in Memphis or "The Trenches," which he referred to the city as.
Memphis has been on top of the Warriors v. Grizzlies throne throughout the regular season, winning three of the four matchups throughout the regular season.
However, the bad blood between both organizations transpired in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals as Dillion Brooks took Gary Payton II out of the air on a fastbreak, causing Payton to fracture his elbow when he broke his fall. Brooks was given a flagrant two foul and was ejected from the game.
Brooks would take the rath of the Payton injury in Game 4 when every time he touched the ball at the Chase Center, he would be showered with boos by Warrior fans to throw him off his game. Brooks finished the game with 12 points, only going 5-of-19 from the field in the nail-biting 101-98 loss.
In this hopeful-to-be Christmas day matchup, you will see tons of aggressiveness – not in just play but body language directed towards opposing teams. Morant is a guy in this matchup that I see backing up his talk and will do the walking along with bold trash-talking throughout the competition.
As for Golden State, like in the NBA Finals, Green will be the energy driving the motor and will determine the Warriors' success in this one. If Green stays focused on his game, we could see a repeat of Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals, where Golden State pulled off a 110-96 victory over Memphis with Green's 14 points and 15 boards.
This might be the new rivalry of the decade.
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