Getty/Sean Gardner Steve Kerr questions a call during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Warriors suffered their second straight loss, after a disappointing 116-114 loss to the New York Knicks. Klay Thompson had a chance to tie it as time expired, but his shot clanked off the back rim.
With the Warriors down four with just over three minutes to go, Andrew Wiggins missed a layup while falling hard to the floor. There was a lot of contact with Knicks’ center Mitchell Robinson, but there was no whistle. As the play was ruled dead and the Knicks were awarded the ball, the crowd and team became incensed at the referees.
The normally mild Steve Kerr slammed the scorer’s table in frustration and he was immediately called for a technical foul. With the score so close in crunch time, every possession and point matters, and Kerr understands how that could have potentially affected the outcome of the game.
This no-call got Kerr T’d up
“I can’t do that. That’s my fault. I slammed the table. I thought the game was a really well-officiated game but I thought that call was poor. That did not look like verticality to me. He was going from one side to the other. There’s a reason it’s called verticality. You’re supposed to go straight up. He was going sideways. That was horizonticality. Is that a word?
That’s why I was angry. I thought it was a clear foul. But I can’t do that. I deserved the technical. I slammed my hand on the table and cost the team a point, so that hurt.”
It Definitely Was Not Entirely Kerr’s Fault
As the saying goes, there’s never one singular play that defines the outcome of the game. Scoring runs, droughts, and other facets of the game are things that may lead to a certain outcome. Kerr may have cost his team one point, but just 20 seconds before that possession, he had iced Julius Randle by calling a timeout in between his free throws. Randle came back to the line and missed the second free throw, so an argument could be made that Kerr’s technical foul did not singlehandedly cost his team the game.
The Warriors did not help themselves when they blew a seven-point halftime lead, and were outscored 31-20 in the third quarter. The Knicks are not exactly a potent offense so the blame has to come back to the Warriors lack of focus, especially after an embarrassing blowout in Utah the night before.
The absence of Draymond Green has clearly led to inconsistent play from the Warriors. Operating as the engine of the team, the Warriors have gone on multiple scoring droughts or even lapses on defense, that would not happen under Green’s watch.
Second Place in the Western Conference
The Warriors currently sit four and a half games back of the defending conference champions Phoenix Suns. With 26 games remaining, it will be a tough hill to catch the Suns, especially with Phoenix winning at an 81% clip. The Warriors may want to watch teams behind them instead. The Grizzles are currently only 2.5 games back of the Warriors for second in the conference. Fans in the Bay Area remember last year, when Ja Morant and the Grizzles came into San Francisco and eliminated the Warriors from a playoff berth.
Hopefully the Warriors’ fifth home loss was just an outlier. The team will look to get back on track against the reeling LA Lakers on Saturday.