Engaged in a back-and-forth battle down the stretch with the San Antonio Spurs (SAS) on Monday, Draymond Green, down three, failed to win it for the Warriors as he launched a halfcourt shot from the Spurs logo and it ricocheted off the backboard. Indeed a tough ending for the Golden State.
After a Stephen Curry 3-pointer, Spurs’ DeMar DeRozan immediately responded with a pair of free throws. With this, Steve Kerr called for a timeout as his ward was trailing 103-100 with just 8.7 seconds remaining.
During crucial moments like this, it is expected that the team’s ace would make a game-winning shot or at least a game-tying shot. Curry time, right?
But when Damion Lee lobbed an inbound pass to Draymond Green near the halfcourt, Green didn’t pass the ball to Curry, the best 3-point and free-throw shooter in the history of the game.
Instead, Green, with eight seconds remaining on the shot clock, immediately chucked up a desperation heave from the Spurs logo that predictably ricocheted off the backboard. He then launched the shot as Spurs guard Derrick White closed in, apparently expecting White to foul but he didn’t.
DeRozan secured the rebound off Green’s miss, and the Spurs went on to a 105-100 victory sparked by a 27-point effort from Dejounte Murray.
“What’d he do that for?” the Warriors broadcast crew wondered aloud. “No. Why?”
Meanwhile, in a Twitter post, Anthony Slater said: “One of the Warriors’ worst losses of the season ends in a blunder. Draymond Green, down three, thought Spurs were coming to foul him. They didn’t and he chucked a 40-footer off the backboard with five seconds left.”
For his part, Kerr, who takes the blame off the veteran Warrior, told reporters that he didn’t do a good enough job of coaching his players not to expect a foul.
“The Spurs generally do not foul in those situations. Probably my fault for not informing the team that the Spurs don’t usually foul (up three late),” said Kerr.
In a separate interview, Green told reporters: “I felt like that was the smartest dumb play in history. A very smart play that ended up being dumb as hell.”