The Warriors’ shot at the NBA Cup got decided at the foul line, not on the court.
With 3.5 seconds left in a one-point game, Jonathan Kuminga got called for a loose-ball foul 80 feet from his basket. He’d jockeyed with Jalen Green amid a helter-skelter play. As Green secured the ball, his teammates tried to call for a timeout. Kuminga tied him up on the ground.
Instead of granting Houston a timeout or calling a jump ball, the officials sent Green to the line for what became the game-winning free throws.
Right after the officiating crew made the call, the TNT broadcast panned to Kerr on the sideline, his mouth agape. He couldn’t believe what had transpired in the moment, and didn’t hide his feelings about it at the postgame podium after the traditional cool-off period.
“I’m pissed off,” Kerr said. “We wanted to go to Las Vegas, we wanted to win this Cup. And we aren’t going because of a loose ball 80 feet from the basket with the game on the line. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. And that was ridiculous.”
Kerr could have challenged the call, but said he decided not to because it wouldn’t have gotten overturned.
There was certainly contact on the play, but the officials had let a lot of physicality go. The game was tense and low-scoring, with each defense ramping up intensity in a game that had NBA Cup — and financial — stakes.
Kerr couldn’t believe that a game like Wednesday’s was decided by a whistle rather than on the court. He said an elementary school referee would’ve had the feel to know not to call a foul in that situation.
“I don’t even understand what just happened,” Kerr said as part of a two-minute rant postgame. “Loose ball, diving on the floor, 80 feet from the basket and you’re going to give a guy two free throws to decide the game when people are scrambling from the ball? Just give them a timeout and let the players decide the game. That’s how you officiate. Especially because the game was a complete wrestling match. They didn’t call anything. Steph Curry got hit on the elbow plain as day on a jump shot — no call.”
Early in the game, crew chief Bill Kennedy appeared to tap his chest to admit he missed a call on a Curry jump shot. In the fourth quarter, as Kerr referenced, Curry got hit on the wrist on another shot, but the contact went uncalled.
But there’s no individual call Kerr will remember more than the one on Kuminga with 3.5 seconds remaining.
“This is a billion dollar industry,” Kerr said. “We’ve got people’s jobs on the line. I’m stunned. I give the Rockets credit. They battled back and played great defense all night. But I feel for our guys. Our guys battled back, played their asses off. And they deserved to win that game or at least have a chance for one stop at the end to finish the game. And that was taken from us.”