In Draymond Green’s return, Warriors flop against shorthanded Grizzlies

MEMPHIS — The city’s yearly snowstorm sent Memphis into hibernation, leaving FedEx Forum half-full and quiet enough to hear every coach’s plea, player’s yell and fan’s cry throughout the Warriors’ 116-107 loss to the Grizzlies on Martin Luther King Jr. Monday.

But the arena filled with boos for Draymond Green, making his anticipated return from his indefinite suspension and 16-game absence. Fans booed when he first entered the game midway through the first quarter and continued any time he touched the ball. At one point, a fan drew the Golden State bench’s ire from his spot three rows back.

“Let’s send Draymond back to the asylum,” the fan yelled.

Curry turned back, stared and shook his head. After Green hit a 3-pointer and Memphis called timeout, Lester Quinones got up and talked back to the fan, defending Green.

Green’s impact was felt — he was active on defense, pushed the pace on offense to get Curry looks. But his return wasn’t enough to clear the rot. Against a Grizzlies team playing without most of its stars — Ja Morant, Desmond Bane among them — the Warriors’ defense was out of sorts and gave up far too many 3-pointers.

After the game, Green said the team’s defense “sucks” and called out a lack of pride from his teammates individually to get stops and prevent drives to the rim.

“If you don’t take pride in one-on-one defense, communication doesn’t matter,” Green said. “Until every guy takes pride in themselves, and wants to stop the guy in front of him, we’ll suck.”

The Grizzlies pulled away with an 11-2 run in the fourth quarter in which the Grizzlies hit a trio of 3s in one minute. In all, Memphis hit 20 3s, the most Golden State allowed this season, on 54 attempts. On top of that, the Grizzlies took 40 free throws and made 32 of them while the Warriors took 10 free throws, making nine.