OAKLAND, Calif. — An evening of collective catharsis for many basketball fans here reached its most satisfying apex in the form of a forearm shiver.
Midway through the second quarter, Draymond Green, no stranger to contact or controversy, prevented the forward progress of LeBron James by throwing the full weight of his 230-pound frame into the general vicinity of James’s sternum. James tumbled to the court at Oracle Arena on Monday with all the finesse of a sack of potatoes. Green stalked away in disbelief, fully convinced that James had flopped.