The Los Angeles Lakers’ flopping – or not flopping – became a point of contention in a second-round NBA playoff series against the Golden State Warriors.

And it eventually led to Lakers star LeBron James posting on his Instagram account a loop from the song “Tuscan Leather” by Drake, specifically where the lyrics are: “Bench players talking like starters, I hate it.”

If that was a message after Los Angeles won the series with a 122-101 victory on Friday night, it seemed to be for Warriors forward JaMychal Green, a former Alabama standout who was the state’s Mr. Basketball in 2008 at St. Jude in Montgomery.

Enough was said about flopping by Warriors coach Steve Kerr that James was asked about it.

“I just know that we, our coaching staff and us players, we don’t work on flopping,” James said after Golden State won Game 5 121-106 on Wednesday night. “That’s not even a part of our game. Our game is to attack, attack the paint. We don’t mind physical contact. We actually like the contact, and we don’t shy away from it, so we’re just not a team that goes out there looking for flopping opportunities. It’s just not us. It’s never been — it’s actually never been any team that I’ve played on in my 20 years, where we’ve been a flopping team. But it is what it is. They have their right to say what they want to say, but the game is always won between the four lines, and we got to be better on Friday, for sure.”

A portion of that quote showed up in Twitter posts with a photo of James from the press conference – and one of those showed up on Green’s Instagram Story on Thursday. And this time, a cap had been superimposed at the top of James’ press-conference hoodie, implying someone thought the Los Angeles all-star wasn’t being truthful.

During an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take,” ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins said he was sure James had seen Green’s post because he showed it to the Los Angeles forward. James and Perkins were teammates for two seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Green had an odd series against the Lakers. During the regular season, Green started one game. He started Games 2 and 3 against the Lakers, then didn’t play at all in the final two games of the series.

In the Warriors’ 127-100 victory in Game 2 on May 4, Green became the 12th player to score at least 15 points in less than 13 minutes on the floor in a playoff contest since 1977. Green shot 6-of-9 from the floor, including 3-of-6 on 3-pointers, and had two assists and one rebound in 12:32 of court time.

In Game 3, Green started again but had two points in 11:28 in Golden State’s 127-97 loss on May 6. Green played only 2:16 in the remainder of the series.

After the Lakers won 104-101 in Game 4 on Monday night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the Lakers’ flopping had helped make the difference in the fourth quarter.

“I think we had three or four illegal screens called, and that was disappointing,” Kerr said. “I didn’t get a look at the replay on any of them, but there were a couple that were very disappointing just live. But the Lakers are a team that plays with a lot of gamesmanship. They understand how to generate some calls. They took some flops and were rewarded. I’ll have to see the replays. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe those all were illegal screens, but it didn’t feel like it watching it live.”

Kerr stood by his assessment before Game 5.

“There was definitely some gamesmanship,” Kerr said, “and, look, I give them credit. If you can sell a call in this league and do it, then you do it. Whatever it takes to win. …

“You give them credit, but you lament the fact that as a league we’re going to reward that type of play. With the game and the series, all that stuff at stake, you would hope that the officials would recognize when a guy just takes a dive.”

The Lakers visit the Denver Nuggets for Game 1 of the Western Conference championship series at 7:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday. ESPN will televise the game.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.