MEMPHIS – Greater competition has turned into a fight. Competitive water has become a hostile geyser.
The stories, tied 1-1 and back at the Chase Center, have caught fire.
“There is a key in this league,” Steve Kerr said after the Golden State Warriors lost Game 2 106-101. “The system that the players follow. You don’t put a person’s season at risk. Get someone out and hit him on the head.
“Dillon Brooks broke the code.”
It took less than three minutes for the promised body to appear. The Grizzlies, down 1-0 in their home, were desperate. He never took a chance on the Warriors in Game 1, although Draymond Green was released for two fouls. Kerr has said in the past that his team will face a lot of playing tests.
“He’s following us,” Kerr said.
She was right. The Grizzlies ran the Detroit Pistons Bad Boys in the late 1980s and disrupted the game from the start.
Ja Morant (12) starts jumping and dancing at the end of the fourth quarter when the Golden State Warriors lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 106-101 in Game 2 in the second round of the NBA Playoffs at the Fedex Forum in Memphis, Tenn., At. Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The ChronicleBy 2:52 after the first quarter, Gary Payton II went to bed and Memphis guard Brooks surrounded him on the head and heard him circling the floor, where he slept for several minutes. The repetition of the incident shocked the Memphis team by surprise.
Official Scott Foster quickly dominated 2 and brought Brooks out of the game. Contrary to Green’s claims two days earlier, there was no gray area in the election.
“Do you insult a man who is on his knees and has blood on his face?” Green said after the game, with his eye about to swell. “You must be upset. He’s been so bad, I could be too bad.”
The news is getting worse. Three starters missed the first three minutes of Game 2, one ejection, two injuries. Minutes later, Stephen Curry had blood on his hands. The bodies are hitting the ground. Players fall.
The energy in the building was desperate, angry. Green was severely criticized in both the pronunciation and the play.
“He likes to play bad,” Kerr said in the past.
Now there is a bad side, as Brooks will learn when he arrives at the Chase Center. That would not be the case if Brooks received a suspension from the league in addition to the ejection.
This has been a growing competition. Memphis has been a bad matchup for the Warriors and knocked them out of the playoffs last year. This season, the Grizzlies finished ahead of the Warriors, and as you know to come, this series will be a competitive, physical and waste-filled one.
There has been a cry. Jaren Jackson Jr. was revealed at the end of the Warriors’ winning season by posting a picture of Kevon Looney being suspended with the insulting words, “Strong in numbers.” Brandon Clarke, the player made a mistake when Green was called up for two games in 1 game, talked about Green after the game. The Grizzlies are full of swagger and I think their time has come.

Jordan Poole (3) fights football with Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) In the first half when the Golden State Warriors played the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 2 in the second leg of the NBA Playoffs at the Fedex Forum in Memphis, Tenn., Tuesday, May 3, 2022.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle
But the Warriors are not ready to give up. She is competing with the young with everything she has.
“It’s in our DNA. We know what to do, ”said Curry. “Games like that, stuff here, stuff there, you feel like you have to win that. We’re ready to go back and make the right adjustments.”
After two games, with dirty and outgoing, blood and boos, anger and emotion, the series is more dangerous than some might have predicted.
“That’s the way the playoffs are,” Curry said. “Lots of challenges, adrenaline and mind and back and forth. I just have to win four games in some way.”
Payton’s loss is particularly painful as he is not only the Warriors’ best defender at Morant, but he has also been a beloved member of the team. His teammates love his story, love his perseverance, and now Payton could be stripped of his experience in the game, while waiting for an MRI exam on his broken ankle in the Bay Area.
The game was another good one, and the Warriors kept it close, despite shooting 18.4% from the 3-point range, having a daring shooting decision and making 18 appearances. This can be a long list.
No one should be surprised. The Grizzlies are the right enemy. And bad, too.
Ann Killion is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion