Channing Frye: Cavaliers Tried 'to Bait' Warriors' Draymond Green in 2016 NBA Finals

It wasn't an accident that Draymond Green wound up getting suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Appearing on The Athletic's A King's Reign podcast about LeBron James' career, former Cavs center Channing Frye said everyone on the team was "trying to bait" Green into committing a flagrant foul that would get him suspended for at least one game.

The incident that got Green suspended occurred late in the fourth quarter of Golden State's 108-97 win over the Cavs in Game 4. He and James had been tussling with each other throughout the game.

At one point, James stepped over Green after he fell to the ground either on a flop or because James is strong enough to pull him down with just his hand. The two men got tangled up under the basket, leading to a brief stoppage in play to separate them from each other.

The league determined on review of the incident that Green "made unnecessary contact with a retaliatory swipe of his hand" to James' groin in assessing him a Flagrant 1 foul. It was his fourth flagrant foul point of the postseason, triggering an automatic one-game ban.

On a 2017 episode of E:60, Green admitted he believes it's his fault the Warriors lost the series as a result of his suspension.

The Warriors took a 3-1 series lead after their Game 4 win, but the Cavs responded with a 112-97 victory in Green's absence in Game 5. James and Kyrie Irving both scored 41 points in the win.

Cleveland would go on to win Game 6 and 7 to become the first team in NBA history to erase a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.

Green did make his presence felt in Golden State's defeat in Game 7. He finished one assist shy of a triple-double with 32 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. No other Warriors player had more than 17 points in the loss.