Mike Malone smirks. “I hope my guys will have the image of Christian Braun throwing himself to recover the ball that is lying around… before he calls a time-out” said the Nuggets coach after his team's victory against the Warriors, triggering laughter from the journalists present.
This is because his Golden State counterpart, Steve Kerr, was furious with the referees. The Bay technician was thus convinced that the Denver guard, on the ground, had requested a time-out five seconds from the end. As his team no longer had any, it would have generated a technical foul, and therefore a throw and possession to the Warriors.
At -4 (119-115) at this point in the match, Stephen Curry and his gang could have hoped to win overtime…
“Braun called a time-out” maintains Steve Kerr. “He threw himself on the ground, he rolled. Everyone saw it except the three guys we hire for the games, and it drives me crazy. It's a technical fault. They no longer have any downtime. We could have had a free throw, then the ball, and therefore a chance to win the match. »
A gesture that never ends?
On the side of the referees, we assure that “Christian Braun never clearly and completely requested a time-out and therefore no time-out was whistled”. And in fact, if we look closely at the images, we can see that the rear begins his gesture but never seems to finish it, as if he were remembering the situation in progress.
« Non » he responds like this when asked if he called for a time-out. “One might think that was the case, perhaps. I lost the ball a little on the ground. My hands moved, but the referees didn't whistle anything. »
They perhaps could have, by anticipating the player's gesture a little. In any case, it was not whistled, and Steve Kerr recognizes that it is not the main cause of his team's defeat.
“We didn’t lose because of that. We lost because we couldn't finish. Again. It's almost the fifth game in a row, well that's not the case in all defeats, but in this series (five defeats), we can't finish, we don't execute things well and we let's not make the right decisions. »
