Warriors Steph Curry on timeout blunder: 'Just an unfortunate sequence'
SAN FRANCISCO -- Fate tugged on Superman's cape Sunday afternoon and Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry proved that even he can have a mere mortal moment on a basketball court.
With the Warriors leading 126-121 and having the ball with 42.4 seconds to go, facing pressure from the Sacrament Kings defense Curry inexplicably called a timeout when the team did not have one.
The Kings converted the technical free throw and De'Aaron Fox then hit a 3-pointer to pull Sacramento to within 126-125 with the clock counting down.
Curry then missed a 2-point floater from the foul line, giving the Kings a chance to steal a victory but Harrison Barnes jumper clanked off the rim and Golden State came away a winner.
The blunder overshadowed what was yet another outstanding game from Curry, who scored 32 points, dished off 4 assists, pulled down 5 rebounds and had only one turnover.
"I knew we challenged but I didn't realize when we lost the challenge that we didn't have any time-outs left," Curry explained after the game. "I know Coach mentioned, he took the blame for it, as I ain't going to lie, I thought it was the smartest play in the world when I got the ball, turnaround and saw the trap, realized there was no real outlets instead of turning it over."
"It's kind of the heady play, but it turned out not to be...everybody was shaking their head (on the Warriors bench). It was an unfortunate situation in that respect but good learning lesson. Thankfully we came away with the win but a good learning lesson on how important all those details are. We know it. But knowing time-outs, knowing the situation, it was just an unfortunate sequence right there."
Both head coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green came to Curry's defense after the game.
Moments before the timeout, Kerr had challenged a foul call on Kevon Looney. But the challenge was unsuccessful and the Warriors lost their final timeout.
"We took the challenge and when the challenge was unsuccessful, as we were exiting the huddle, it's on me," Kerr told reporters. "I've got to remind the guys, we're out of time-outs and I didn't say that, and so Steph wasn't aware. That's on me for not making that clear.
"And then on that play, we had all four of the other guys running to the other end and they hit Steph in the backcourt and we didn't have a trail man. So we've got to handle the pressure better, late game, and taking care of the ball."
"But the time-out is 100 percent on me."
Green said he should have been up-court, helping Curry so he never would have needed to call the timeout.
" I don't ever want to blame Steph and say, man, he called a time-out," he told reporters, "But I'm supposed to trail the play and not leave him on an island and I left him on an island, and then I gave up a three to Fox and let them cut it to one."
Kerr said once the timeout and technical were called, there wasn't time to dwell on it.
"There's no time to be angry or frustrated," he said. "You just have to keep going and our guys did that."
The most famous excessive timeout in basketball history came in the NCAA championship game on April 5, 1993, when Michigan's Chris Webber called a timeout the Wolverines didn't have late in a loss to North Carolina. Webber went on to star for the Kings.