The Golden State Warriors are struggling again, and after losing six of their last nine games, they’re in danger of missing the play-in tournament.
While they still sit in 10th place in the Western Conference, they’re just half a game ahead of the Houston Rockets, who have blasted off to a nine-game winning streak and are the hottest team in the NBA.
Golden State’s latest loss came to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are without All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, on Sunday after they led by 12 points in the first half.
Head coach Steve Kerr was asked about the way the NBA game is officiated today, and he had a clear message to the league’s referees about the way the game should be called, per NBC Sports.
“Just don’t call the bull—-,” Kerr said.
"Just don't call the bulls–t."
Steve Kerr gave a passionate rant on the current state of officiating 😳 pic.twitter.com/03JqhuyFrZ
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 26, 2024
Scoring league-wide has steadily risen over the last several years, and right now, it is higher than it has been in many decades.
It has led to a misperception that defense isn’t played anymore, but that simply isn’t true.
Players over the last 10-15 years have greatly improved when it has come to outside shooting and ball-handling, and the pace of the NBA game over the last five years or so is much faster than it was in the 1990s and 2000s.
One thing fans have complained about is offensive players baiting officials into calling fouls on a defender by invading the defender’s space, and that is what Kerr was referencing when he made his comment.
At the other end of the spectrum, Kerr referenced a recent game involving the Indiana Pacers where too much physicality was allowed, and he said it resembled a game from the 1990s.
Referees doing so on a regular basis would be a bad idea, as fans complained back then that the game was too slow and physical and that there wasn’t nearly enough scoring.
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