Warriors decide to pick a fight with referees on the eve of the playoffs

In an interesting wrinkle in the Warriors’ quest for a third straight championship, the team decided on Friday to open up a new front by engaging in battle with the league’s referees.

Here’s the full breakdown.

The shortish version: at the end of overtime of a choppy, messy game against the Wolves, the Warriors were down three with six seconds left when the team ran a play to get Kevin Durant a look from the the top of the key. Obviously, you foul him before he gets a shot off. Keita Bates-Diop got there with the ball ... and fouled Durant, but it looked like KD was already in the motion. He nailed the three, but the ref (Marat Kogut) waved it off, saying the foul happened before the act of shooting began. (The league’s last-two-minute report later confirmed this. I remain skeptical.)

So the Warriors inbound again with slightly less time left. The Wolves decide not to foul this time. Stephen Curry gets the ball on the wing, rises over Jerryd Bayless ... and nails it. He celebrates by taunting Kogut, the ref, in his face while jumping and dancing down the court. This is the most demonstrative Curry has been toward refs since the thrown mouthpiece incident.

There’s still 0.5 seconds for the Wolves to do something. And that something was to get the last laugh. Anthony Tolliver threw an out-of-bounds lob to Karl-Anthony Towns that went about five feet over the highest Towns could have gotten had been able to jump. But he wasn’t able to jump, because Durant was holding him a bit. Which led to Durant getting called for the foul. Which led to free throws for Towns with basically no time left. Which led to a Timberwolves’ victory.

To recap: the refs screwed Durant on a fringe call, the Warriors made up for it and taunted the refs, and the refs screwed Durant again for the Warriors’ loss. Perfect.

The Warriors spent the postgame calling out Kogut and you have to imagine fines will come down on Monday. The biggest question I have is whether the Warriors really want to do this two weeks before the playoffs begin? NBA officials are a fraternity and won’t likely take kindly to what a huge example the team is making of Kogut. Some implicit angst toward Golden State could follow. And clearly, if they wanted to, refs could make life difficult for any team, including the Warriors.

They probably won’t, and the Warriors are certainly good enough to overcome even that most nights. But is that really a war you want this time of year?

Bucks 135, Hawks 136 (OT)
Mavericks 106, Thunder 103
Lakers 130, Pelicans 102
Kings 113, Spurs 106
Wizards 95, Nuggets 90
Hornets 90, Warriors 137
Grizzlies 96, Clippers 113

All times Eastern. Games on League Pass unless otherwise noted.

Pistons at Pacers, 7
Heat at Celtics, 7:30, NBA TV
Bucks at Nets, 7:30
Bulls at Knicks, 7:30
Magic at Raptors, 7:30
Blazers at Timberwolves, 8
Sixers at Mavericks, 8:30
Hornets at Jazz, 9
Cavaliers at Suns, 10, NBA TV, who authorized this being the only late game on the second-to-last Monday in the regular season?

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