NBA – Without directly referring to the 18 free throws Nikola Jokic took against his team, the Warriors coach expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the players blow the whistle.
Dario Saric preferred to laugh it off, while Stephen Curry rolled his eyes and Steve Kerr seethed from the scorer’s table, his assistants on their feet in dismay. The Warriors were struggling to come to terms with the whistle blowing in Nikola Jokic’s favour, after Dario Saric’s movement was challenged near the halfway line.
In the midst of a complicated night for his shooting, the Nuggets leader was about to take his 13th and 14th free throws of the match at the end of the third quarter. The Serb obtained a career-high 18 free throws and never missed a single one (the record for the most converted free throws without a miss in a Christmas match).
After the game, rather than make a direct reference to the treatment of the opposing pivot, Steve Kerr, whose team took five more free throws (20/23) than the two-time MVP, expressed his dissatisfaction with the refereeing throughout the league.
“I have a problem with the way we’re legislating defence out of the game. Players are allowed to make their way to the foul line. If I was a fan, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch the second half of that game. It was disgusting”, says the coach, considering that it was all about “baiting the referees”.
Stephen Curry calls for consistency
In other words, to “sell” the whistles well, as Nikola Jokic did quite well in the action mentioned earlier. The Warriors coach believes that the players are “really clever” when it comes to getting favours from the officials. “Over the last ten years, they’ve become smarter and smarter. The players have been empowered and they take full advantage of it.”
“It’s a parade to the free-throw line, and it’s disgusting to watch,” he raged before suddenly leaving the press room. In response, the Nuggets pivot told ESPN that he wasn’t actively thinking about blowing the whistle when he sensed contact, but was simply trying to stay aggressive.
“I was missing shots, so I just tried to be aggressive in a different way, maybe playing a bit more physical. It turned out to be that kind of night,” said the pivot, who found himself on the line 14 times after the break.
Stephen Curry agrees with his coach that a player who sells well is more likely to be rewarded. “It’s complicated because it’s sometimes inconsistent on both sides. In a game like tonight, when you feel that there’s the physical dimension on one side and the junk on the other, it changes the complexity of the game. I’m not saying we don’t make mistakes, but consistency is essential to understand how we can defend,” says the Californian point guard.
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