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Joakim Noah under fire from Danny Granger

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Joakim Noah under fire from Danny Granger
The first round playoff matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacer might be over, but the feud is still going on. After the game-5, Pacers forward Danny Granger had accused Joakim Noah of being a “dirty player”. Now he has come out with even more disparaging remarks against the Bulls man.
Granger believes Noah played the game in the wrong spirit and did not mince his words when talking about the Chicago centre, "He pulled a cowardly move, He cheap-shotted a couple of my teammates, and one gets thrown out ...”
Granger was referring to the incident in the third quarter of the Pacers game-5 against the Bulls, where Joakim Noah seemed to have caught Indiana centre Josh McRoberts with an elbow. McRoberts retaliated by lashing out with an elbow of his own, which missed Noah but was spotted by the officials. McRoberts was subsequently ejected for a 2nd flagrant foul.

Noah played a hard game that night. He was involved in a few skirmishes and picked up a technical himself. A.J. Price of the Pacers also picked up a technical in the game.
Granger wanted to confront Noah after the game but was stopped by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, weary of the fact that people can sometimes lose their heads in the heat of the battle. Granger however has refused to let the matter drop and now come out in open with his comments.
Joakim Noah had been defended by his teammates before and he himself responded to the accusations by Granger recently, pleading his innocence. Noah says he played hard but without any malice. He seemed rather surprised that Granger has dragged the matter on,

"I played dirty? OK. I'm just trying to win basketball games, man; it's the name of the game.”

"I'm just out there trying to do what I gotta do.”
Josh McRoberts, who was ejected in that game, however said that he held no personal grudge against Noah. "I'm not mad about it," McRoberts said. "He got a good hit on me. They caught me trying to hit him back.”
"It's part of the game.”
Indiana Pacers were the more aggressive side in the first three games of the series, and Bulls guard Kyle Korver believes they can have no complaints when the Bulls turned up the heat. After the game-4 loss, the Chicago Bulls needed to respond and he praised teammate Noah for leading the way.
Korver pointed towards Indiana Centre Jeff Foster, who has had a particularly physical series. Foster committed hard fouls against a few of the Bulls in the series and Korver said that was no different to what Noah had done. Every team has players like that. They are much appreciated within the team but the opposition are understandably upset with them.
 
 

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