Warriors' Steve Kerr: Ref Said Draymond Green Ejection vs. Knicks Was 'Mistake'

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said officials acknowledged the ejection of forward Draymond Green during the second quarter of Thursday's game against the New York Knicks was a "mistake."

Kerr told reporters referee Ben Taylor approached him at halftime to say fellow official John Butler mistook comments Green was making toward Dubs teammate James Wiseman, leading to a second technical and the automatic ejection.

Taylor explained after the Warriors' 119-104 loss the technical was given for "profanity that was deemed to be directed at the official" and said no discussion was held to consider changing the decision based on the team's efforts to explain Green was yelling toward Wiseman, per ESPN's Nick Friedell.

Green provided a statement to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, saying he believes that type of call should be reviewable:

The 30-year-old three-time All-Star recorded three points and eight assists in 17 minutes before the ejection.

Golden State's Stephen Curry also sought some clarity on why the technical wasn't rescinded when it became clear Butler made a mistake:

"It's pretty self-explanatory. He's been very vocal with James. I know he had already gotten a tech early in the game, and obviously mindful of that, he was just talking to his teammate. The refs got confused. And I don't know what the rules are in that situation when it's pretty clear who he was talking to, and I don't know if you can take it back in the moment, but it was pretty glaring that he was talking to his own teammate and kind of unfortunate that it got confused, so move on."

The Warriors trailed by nine after the first quarter but had trimmed the lead to five at the time of Green's ejection. The Knicks outscored them in both the third and fourth quarters to pull away.

Kerr said Green's absence was important but noted the Dubs can't pin the loss entirely on the officiating error.

"Obviously, Draymond is one of our best and most impactful players, so it hurt us," he said. "But we were playing very poorly to that point anyway, so I'm not going to talk about the officiating; I'm going to talk about our poor play. ... We're undisciplined, and we got to find a way to defend without fouling, obviously."

Golden State returns to action Saturday night when it travels to Vivint Smart Home Arena to face off with the red-hot Utah Jazz, who've won seven straight games.