Warriors' Draymond Green, Steph Curry Comment on Technical Foul, Scrum with Pelicans

Draymond Green picked up his 17th technical foul of the season Tuesday night, but it helped energize the Golden State Warriors en route to a 120-109 win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

The technical was called during the second quarter after Green put his shoulder into Pelicans wing Brandon Ingram without making a play on the ball.

A scrum ensued with several Warriors and Pelicans players pushing and shoving, and the decision was made to "T" Green up:

Green will have to pay a $5,000 fine if the technical foul is not rescinded, and he is now just one technical away from an automatic one-game suspension.

Per ESPN's Kendra Andrews, Green suggested after the game that he went after Ingram in an attempt to get the Warriors out of the malaise they were in for much of the first half:

"It was perfect. Perfectly executed. We looked dead those first 18 minutes. We had to find some energy somewhere. It wasn't just going to come, especially after losing the game like we did last game; that can carry over. I felt like it did. I knew we had to do something and do it fast before the game got out of hand."

On the ensuing sequence, Green nearly earned another technical foul when he plowed through Pelicans forward Herbert Jones on a drive to the basket and then got tangled with him on the floor, leading to more pushing and shoving:

Instead, Green was merely assessed an offensive foul, and the Dubs were off and running from there.

Stephen Curry, who paced the Warriors with 39 points in a win that got them to 40-37 on the year, noted that the whole team had Green's back:

"He knows that guys are backing him up. I'm sure [Green] wouldn't go out on an island like that if he didn't have that confidence. ... There are times where I got to keep him in check and bring him back in when it's turning in the wrong direction in the sense of staying focused on just winning."

While things could have easily gone off the rails, Green did seem to provide the team with a spark, and head coach Steve Kerr even said he "willed" the team to victory with his antics.

Given how late in the season it is and how tight things are in the Western Conference, every win is paramount.

By coming from behind to beat the Pels, the Warriors put themselves in sixth place in the West with five games left to play.

Golden State has only a half-game lead over the seventh-place Minnesota Timberwolves, which is an important distinction since the top six teams avoid the play-in tournament, whereas the seventh through 10th seeds must participate in it.

The win over New Orleans also dropped the Pelicans to 38-38, putting them 1.5 games behind Golden State in eighth place.

Now, Green will have to be careful moving forward so as not to incur a one-game suspension that could hurt the Warriors significantly during the most important time of the year.