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The Golden State Warriors lost their NBA Cup game against the Denver Nuggets 119-115 on Tuesday night, and head coach Steve Kerr was not happy with the way it ended. When he spoke to the media following the loss, he was upset about a crucial missed call in the closing moments of the game.
Kerr believes the officials missed Nuggets guard Christian Braun calling for a timeout after he dove for a loose ball in the final five seconds of the game. A player calling for a timeout isn’t normally a big deal unless your team is out of timeouts — and the Nuggets were all out of TOs when Braun made the motion with his hands.
Kerr saw it (as did a number of players) and frantically started shouting and motioning to the referees, calling for a technical foul, which is the punishment when a player tries to take a timeout that his team doesn’t have. It would have given the Warriors a free throw and possession of the ball, which could have changed the game with them trailing 119-115 at the time. But instead of a tech, the refs called for a jump ball with just 1.9 seconds left on the clock, and the 4th quarter ended with no further points scored.
After the game, the first question Kerr was asked was about that crucial non-call from the refs.
“Braun called a timeout. He dove on the floor, he rolled over,” Kerr said. “Everybody saw it except for the three guys we hire to do the games, and that makes me angry. That’s a technical foul. They don’t have a timeout left. We shoot a free throw, we get the ball, we got a chance to win the game.
“They [the officials] all told me they didn’t see it. … It’s up to the referees to see [it]. That’s why we have three of them. Somebody’s got to see it. So yeah, that made me mad.”
Crew chief Tyler Ford told a pool reporter after the game that it wasn’t totally clear what Braun was doing, which is why he called for a jump ball instead of assessing the Nuggets a technical foul.
“Christian Braun never fully or clearly signaled for a timeout,” Ford said via ESPN. “Therefore a timeout was not recognized.”
Not surprisingly, Braun said he didn’t call for a timeout, though he conceded that it may have looked like he did.
“It might’ve looked like it maybe. I was fumbling the ball on the ground a little bit,” Braun said. “My hands moved, but the refs didn’t call it.”
The game had been close throughout, but the Warriors had managed to scrape out a 10-point lead with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets managed to erase that deficit and secure the win thanks to a 23-9 run over those final seven minutes.
A win would have meant the Warriors could have stayed home next week and hosted the Dallas Mavericks for the NBA Cup quarterfinals. Instead, they’re packing up and heading to Texas to play the Houston Rockets.