Tom Izzo: Draymond Green needs to chill

Draymond Green's emotional boost was a catalyst most of his four years at Michigan State, but coach Tom Izzo said the Golden State Warriors' All-Star forward must learn how to get to the edge and stop.

For all his fist-pumping, trash-talking motivational antics that have been successful, Green's four flagrant fouls in the playoffs led to him sitting out the Warriors' Game 5 loss on Monday night. He'll be back in the lineup Thursday for Game 6.

"Draymond Green to me, is one of the most competitive guys in that league. Unfortunately for him, them and me, winning is the most important thing. Learning how to curb that is something we all had to do, and he had to do in college and he's going to have to do it a little bit more," Izzo said on ESPN.

Izzo said he doubts Green intentionally hit LeBron James in the groin, the Flagrant 1 foul that drew a one-game suspension as part of the culmination of offenses this postseason.

"He goes all in, he doesn't go halfway in," Izzo said. "The passion of being angry, feeling like he let his teammates down, his city down, his owner down. I did talk to him quite a bit the last day and a half. ... One thing he doesn't get credit for, sometimes when you live on the edge you don't get credit for how smart you are. ... He can self-evaluate and figure it out. It was hard on him. He said he'd rather give up a million dollars in fines than be held out.

"Do I think he understands there's an edge, a line he can't cross? Yeah, I think he understands that."

Izzo said passion is Green's game but he felt James acted "a little different when pressure was on," and continued to say Green is not the "streetfighter" or "thug" he's being described as after the Game 4 ruckus.