The Warriors lost 102-103 to the Clippers tonight despite playing against a short-handed team that did not have James Harden available tonight. Steve Kerr was ejected from the game in the fourth quarter after an outburst that resulted in him chasing the officials on the court.
steve kerr ejected; warriors vs clippers pic.twitter.com/VuwmXrj5B2
— ◇ (@F0RGIAT0) January 6, 2026
According to Anthony Slater of ESPN, the outburst was triggered as a result of three controversial decisions by the officials that ended up costing the Warriors in a one-possession game down the stretch, as they lost only by one point.
It was the late whistle and a non-shooting foul on Stephen Curry, a shooting foul then given to Curry, and a clear goaltend from John Collins missed by the officials.
Following the game, Kerr was scheduled to speak to the media, but Warriors’ assistant coach Terry Stotts appeared instead of the head coach.
“I’m up here because I’m saving Steve some money,” said Stotts as he took the seat for the press conference. They seemingly anticipated that Kerr would probably get fined for the foul language he was prone to using while talking about the incident.
When the reporters asked Stotts about the incident that led to the ejection, he refused to speak on behalf of Steve Kerr in terms of speaking about his emotions.
Everything went wrong for the Warriors in the fourth quarter of a close game. They lost Stephen Curry as he fouled out in the clutch. He finished the game with 27 points, four rebounds, six assists, and three steals while going 9-23 from the field (39.1%).
Moreover, with 6.9 seconds left on the clock, Jimmy Butler had a good lock that he airballed as he got doubled at the baseline for the final shot. Even Stotts admitted after the game that two players from the Warriors were in position to take an offensive rebound had he hit the rim with his shot.
But an airball caught four Warriors in the paint by surprise as Kawhi Leonard managed to smack the ball away as time ran out. Draymond Green also addressed the media after the game and highlighted some key positive takeaways for the Warriors from this game.
“I thought we played well. We couldn’t hit shots, and missed a lot of shots that we normally make. But we took care of the ball, defended without fouling, I thought we did a lot of good things, like we forced turnovers.”
“We just didn’t capitalize enough on the game. When you force 20 turnovers and have only seven turnovers, we probably should have 130. So it’s unfortunate, some nights the ball just doesn’t go in,” Green further added.
“But I think the lesson for us is to know that there are going to be those nights, what are you going to do to give yourself a chance to win. And I think the blueprint is right there: defend, take care of the ball, and give yourself a chance.”
The Warriors fell to 19-18 after this loss and will face the Bucks in their next game on Wednesday, January 8. They should focus on the silver linings and lessons from tonight instead of lamenting over the loss now.
Meanwhile, the Clippers have won seven of their last eight games and improved to 13-22 after the win tonight. They will play the Knicks in their next game on Wednesday as well.
