The Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies served up one of the spicier second-round matchups in recent time in the playoffs. We saw back and forth trash talk between these sides and it is evident that there is no love lost between them.
This is nothing new for the Grizzlies, who engaged in similar activities against the Timberwolves in round one. Following Patrick Beverley's celebrations after Game 1, Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks made it a point after the series to show up Beverley by dancing on the Timberwolves logo.
It was then no surprise that after all the chirping in this series, the Warriors elected to give the Grizzlies a taste of their own medicine, with Jordan Poole doing the griddy dance after Game 6. With the Grizzlies ever so keen to try to show up their opponents, they should expect to receive no less if they do end up on the losing end.
While the trash talk inevitably caused tensions to flare up, the added physicality of the series definitely played a part here as well. It started off with Draymond Green's flagrant 2 in Game 1 and then the Dillon Brooks foul on Gary Payton II which ruled him out of the series. Poole's play on Morant also came under question but there really wasn't much to it.
The back and forth talk continued after Game 6, between Brooks and Curry, who later claimed that Brooks has said a lot of crazy things. For all of our sakes, we can just hope that these teams keep up this newly formed rivalry for the near future, minus all the physical play that ended up going over the edge.
Memphis can be proud of what they have achieved this season, as no one saw them emerging as a serious player in the Western Conference this quickly. They only now need to look at the Warriors for inspiration as to the standards that they need to hit, to be a perennial contender for the NBA Championship for the years to come.
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