The Golden State Warriors just put on a clinical first quarter in their championship close-out game against the Boston Celtics. Despite falling to an early deficit of 10 points, the Warriors ended the first quarter on an 11-0 run, which gave them a 5-point advantage heading into the second quarter.
Every series in the NBA playoffs seems to have made the referees a massive talking point, and that is true for the NBA Finals as well. Calls have been contentious throughout the last 5 games and seem to remain contentious in Game 6 after a visible flare-up from Steve Kerr after a foul was called on Klay Thompson.
Marcus Smart sold contact from Klay on a screen quite aggressively, falling to the floor and getting a call for the Celtics. That made Kerr quite upset who told the officials that they made two bad calls back-to-back and that they are not falling for flopping tonight.
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/153760543468454707
The Warriors are not leaving anything up to chance. The Celtics are formidable and have beaten the best teams in the Eastern Conference through the Playoffs. Even with a 3-2 lead, the Warriors can’t get complacent and will need to push to finish the series off tonight.
Kerr is probably one of the best coaches in the league right now, as he has proven his coaching versatility by taking three different versions of this Warriors core to the NBA Finals. His players respect him and he respects them, which is why he is willing to fight with officials to get the right calls for them.
Kerr can possibly win his 9th NBA Championship this season, his fourth as a coach, so the stakes are pretty high for him as well. Getting beat on the court is one thing and being beat by the referees is another. The Warriors will not want to lose because of the latter.
