The Golden State Warriors think they had every right to put up a shot with five seconds left in overtime instead of taking a shot clock violation.
The play, with the Warriors up ten, led to Tristan Thompson’s ejection, but nobody on Golden State would do things any differently. In fact, it was done on coach Steve Kerr’s orders, as he has told his team to never take a shot clock violation if they can avoid it.
“If there’s time on the clock and the shot clock differential, whatever, just play it to the end. I don’t think we would get on our feelings if somebody came down and finished out a possession and got a shot up,” Stephen Curry said, via Mark Medina of Bay Area News Group. “Obviously, if they’re doing some taunting or doing some crazy stuff, that’s a little different. But if you’re just playing the game of basketball and finishing out a possession instead of taking a turnover, I don’t see any problem with that at all. Guys are out there to finish a game and play the right way. So I think that’s part of playing the right way.”
“It’s no disrespect to any other team. It’s just what we do,” Kevin Durant said. “We don’t want to take the turnover. We take the shot. So we’ve been doing that all year, since I’ve been here, too.”
All the same, that did not sit well with Thompson, who likely won’t care for these explanations either.
