The NBA released a statement on Tuesday saying that Sacramento Kings head coach Doug Christie made no intentional effort to give Golden State a shooting foul or to cause the Kings to lose the Warriors game on Tuesday.
In Tuesday’s 110-105 loss to the Warriors, Christie motioned to Doug McDermott to intentionally foul Seth Curry, who did not have the ball, with 3:15 left in the fourth quarter. The Kings were leading by one point at the time of the foul. Curry is shooting 90% from the free-throw line this season and has shot 86.4% from the stripe this year. Curry went 1-2 from the line after the Kings’ foul.
Christie reportedly attempted to use the strategy to foul in and use a timeout before it was taken away at the under-three-minute mark and did not realize the Kings were in the penalty.
After the game, Warriors’ Draymond Green questioned why teams are not getting fined for intentionally tanking.
“I saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go for no reason, in the penalty” Green said. “I get fined when I do wrong. Just fine the hell out of people. We love taking money from players. Keep fining the teams… If it was players they would have snatched that money in a heartbeat. Why isn’t it the same? We know exactly what to do when someone gets a technical foul. Suspended for a game. We know exactly what to do. All the sudden we have teams with issues and we don’t know what to do.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver emphasized that the league will make future changes this offseason to prevent tanking.
After starting the year 12-46 and setting a franchise record in February with a 16-game losing streak, the Kings have gone 9-13 despite being without most of the team’s best players. The Kings are 21-59 and 14th in the Western Conference.
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