
It was a wild fourth quarter at the Intuit Dome on Monday night as the Golden State Warriors took on the Los Angeles Clippers. Although the Warriors shot poorly throughout the game and went into the final frame down 10, the quarter saw a near comeback, an ejection, and everything in between.
The Warriors eventually lost the game 103-102, but it was not without a valiant effort down the stretch.
In a heated contest that featured both teams feeling miffed by both foul calls and missed calls from the referees, Steve Kerr didn't make it to the end of the game. With about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Draymond Green found Gary Payton II on a cut for what looked to be an easy layup.
John Collins blocked the shot after it hit the backboard, but the referees did not call goaltending. On the other end, Steph Curry was called for a shooting foul, and the back-to-back decisions led Kerr out beyond halfcourt, yelling at the refs with all of his might. Kerr was quickly given two technical fouls and ejected from the game.
The play ultimately became a three-point swing with the missed goaltending and the technical free throw.
After the game, assistant coach Terry Stotts, who took over for Kerr after his ejection, attended the postgame press conference, saying he's there to "save Steve some money."
"That goaltending call (was what set Kerr off). There was probably some other things, but that was the last straw. I didn't see a replay, but it sure looked obvious at that time that it was a goaltend."
Stotts also discussed how he felt the team was reacting throughout the game and whether he thought frustration was building throughout.
"There's always going to be some frustration in a close game. There is going to be an ebb and flow of the game, but I thought, for the most part, we kept our composure. You look at the stat sheet, we did a lot of good things. You look at how many turnovers we forced, we played our asses off. I don't know if frustration is the right word. When you're not making some shots, that can be it. I don't think any frustration affected our game."
The major flaw for the Warriors tonight was their shooting. They ended up shooting 38% from the field and 24.4% from three. Compared to the Clippers, who shot 48% and 34.5% from beyond the arc, it's a world of difference.
Curry posted a game-high 27 points, including back-to-back clutch threes to cut the lead to just one with a minute left, but still shot just 9-23 from the field and 4-15 from the outside and fouled out with 42 seconds remaining. Beyond Curry, not a single Warrior made more than one three.
It's a demoralizing shooting game on a night where the Warriors forced 20 Clipper turnovers, racking up a season-high 18 steals. They were on a 21-9 run in the game's final five minutes, but just couldn't get over the hump as Jimmy Butler missed a fading jumper on the last play.
The loss dropped the Warriors to just 8-13 on the road, but their next 8 games will be at home. The first such game will be on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.