HOUSTON — A livid Steve Kerr said the officiating crew made a call he has never seen in his NBA career, and it cost the Golden State Warriors a 91-90 loss to the Houston Rockets and a chance to go to the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas.
“I’m pissed off,” Kerr said, echoing the Warriors locker room late Wednesday night. “I wanted to go to Las Vegas. We wanted to win this Cup, and we aren’t going because of a loose ball foul, 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.”
With the Warriors up by one in the final seconds, Stephen Curry missed a 3-point attempt and a scramble for the loose ball ensued as bodies from both teams hit the floor.
Gary Payton II got possession of a rebound on the floor, but Houston guard Fred VanVleet slid on top of him and Payton tried to pass the ball to Jonathan Kuminga. Kuminga and the Rockets’ Jalen Green hit the floor for the loose ball, and Kuminga was called for a personal foul with 3.5 seconds left. Kerr could only watch with his mouth agape.
Green buried both free throws to give the Rockets a 91-90 lead. On the final possession, Curry was blanketed near the sideline and passed to Brandin Podziemski, whose 3-point attempt from the corner was blocked by Jabari Smith Jr. to secure the win for Houston and snap a 15-game losing streak to the Warriors.
Houston will face Oklahoma City on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Afterward, a furious Kerr lit into the officiating crew, led by crew chief Bill Kennedy, who called the personal foul on Kuminga. Kerr and the Warriors argued that officials had allowed both teams to play a very physical game up to that point.
“I’ve never seen a loose ball foul on a jump ball situation, 80 feet from the basket with the game on the line,” Kerr said. “I’ve never seen that. I think I saw it in college one time 30 years ago. Never seen it in the NBA. That is, I mean, unconscionable. I don’t even understand what just happened. 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 for 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.
“So you’ve established you’re just not going to call anything throughout the game. It’s a physical game. And call a loose ball foul on a jump ball situation with guys diving on the floor? With the game on the line? This is a billion-dollar industry. You got people’s jobs on the line.”
Kennedy explained the call to a pool reporter afterward.
“The defender makes contact with the neck and shoulder area, warranting a personal foul to be called,” he said.
The Warriors (14-10) blew a six-point lead and failed to score in the final three minutes. Curry missed a step-back 3-pointer with his team up by one with 11.1 seconds left before the loose ball scramble that resulted in the ending that left Kerr beside himself and the Warriors locker room in almost a dead silence afterward.
“I haven’t seen the replay, but … if you’re telling me it was a clear foul, I’ll shut up, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Curry said asked reporters. “Was it? There’s indecision in the group, so that means then let the game play out and let us decide it and not two free throws, 90 feet from the basket.”
Curry and Kerr also were upset about another play that occurred minutes earlier in which they thought Curry was fouled on a 21-foot jump shot by Aaron Holiday. The jumper fell well short of the basket with 8:14 left and the Warriors up six. Curry and Kerr argued with the officials, but there was no call.
“We can talk about the refs all day, it’s not why we lost,” Curry said. “But there are swings in the game, obviously the last two free throws and that play, it’s a five-point swing.”
Curry said that official Mousa Dagher explained to him that the ball was already released when Holiday hit his hand or wrist.
“I am like, if I shoot an 18-footer and I miss it by 6 feet, then either you tell me he hit the ball or it’s a foul,” he said. “I have never shot an 18-footer [that went] 12 feet. And they go down and [Tari] Eason hits a 3 in the corner. That is a huge swing. We can’t let the refs take us out of it, which I don’t think we did. But those are clear plays that can dictate a very tough, low-scoring game where you give a team an extra possession which they don’t deserve.
“Which is why I was going crazy. I don’t yell at the refs like that. It was a clear foul.”
Curry and the Warriors said they were very motivated to go to Las Vegas to win the NBA Cup in its second season. Instead, they were left steaming in the visitors locker room at Toyota Center while the Rockets celebrated a huge win.
This was the second loss in eight days in which Kerr questioned a late call by officials that he believed cost the Warriors a game. At the end of a 119-115 loss at Denver on Dec. 3, Kerr argued that Denver’s Christian Braun signaled for a timeout after securing a loose ball while Denver had no timeouts left. The officials said they did not see Braun clearly signal for a timeout, which would have resulted in a technical foul and possession for the Warriors with 1.9 seconds left and the team down by four. The officials called for a jump ball instead.
“I am stunned,” Kerr said after Wednesday night’s loss. “I give the Rockets credit. They battled back. They played great defense all night. But I feel for our guys. Our guys battled back, played their asses off and 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 by a call that I don’t think an elementary school referee would’ve made because that guy would’ve had feel and said, you know what? I’m not going to decide a game on a loose ball, 80 feet from the basket.”
