In the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s Warriors-Trail Blazers game, referee Kenny Mauer went to the replay monitor to check a hard foul from Draymond Green on a cutting Zach Collins. The game had already gotten chippy, after a huge Collins chase-down block at the other end seemed to unsettle the Warriors. Seconds after the block Collins and Klay Thompson, of all people, needed to be separated after Klay was whistled for an offensive foul with a sharp elbow on a drive. The Warriors were starting to bitch about calls and non-calls, and the Blazers were starting to stretch out what had been a slim lead, and the Portland crowd was getting juiced up and noisy.
So when Mauer came back from the monitor and ruled Green’s foul on Collins a Flagrant 1 penalty, someone on the Warriors was bound to lose it. It was a very iffy call, and seemed to take into account both the tension between the Warriors and Collins and Draymond’s history with excessive on-court violence. In the replay the play in question sure didn’t look like much—Collins didn’t even fall over:
Sensing, perhaps, that Draymond was not likely to handle the news real well, and maybe wanting to step out in front and do enough shouting for everyone, Steve Kerr completely lost his mind:
The lead was seven when Kerr went nuts. Damian Lillard sank both technical free throws, plus a third granted when Green picked up a technical after Kerr’s ejection. Collins also sank both his free throws from the foul. The Blazers were rewarded the ball as a result of the flagrant upgrade, and their possession ended with a Jake Layman three-pointer from the corner with 3:34 on the clock. Just like that, without the Warriors touching the ball even once, Portland’s lead jumped from seven to 15 points, and that was that. After the game, Kerr described the call as “a head-scratcher,” but seemed to have cooled down considerably:
The Warriors had a one-point lead less than a minute into the fourth quarter, and from that point on were outscored 33-10, to lose 129–107. They made five buckets in the whole quarter, and committed seven fouls and four turnovers. This was very fun to watch, but the Warriors will find a way to use it as motivation, and will not lose again between now and next season. Sorry.