Steve Kerr and Steph Curry were not happy with the amount of fouls called against them on Christmas Day v the Nuggets and Jamal Murray has responded to their complaints.
Kerr was very vocal after his team’s 120-114 loss about how he thinks the NBA is legislating defense out of the game and remarked, “If I were a fan, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch the second half of that game. It was disgusting.”
Nikola Jokic had a game-high of 18 free-throw attempts, compared to the Warrior’s team total of 23 free throws.
The big man made only 4-12 shots from the field, but was 100 percent from the free throw line, which helped him to 26 points.
Denver guard Murray came to the defense of his teammate.
“[Jokic] does a great job, man. You see his arms everywhere? Those are fouls,” Murray told reporters after Monday’s game. “I think he gets beat up down there, kind of similar to like how Dwight Howard used to. Such a big body, it’s hard to call every foul, I understand, but when he’s going into his shooting motion at least, they can only do so much and [Jokic] can only do so much.
“[Jokic] can only do so much, so I think we got to just keep feeding him and [Jokic has] to continue to be aggressive. That’s another thing, not looking for the foul, but just playing the game and getting to his spots. Stuff like that.”
Four-time NBA champion Curry was just as frustrated as his head coach after only taking one free throw the entire game, and agreed with Kerr about where the game is headed.
“It does cater to the guys that can sell calls,” Curry said. “When there’s physicality, it’s tough because it’s inconsistent at times on either side, just what’s the tone of the game. Then game to game it changes, that’s the nature of basketball, but a night like tonight, you feel like there’s physicality on one side and then ticky-tack on the other. Then they get into the bonus and it changes the [complexion] of the game. It’s not like we don’t foul, I’m not saying that. It’s just consistency is key when it comes to understanding how you can defend. I know what [Steve Kerr] is talking about. It was tough tonight. Slowed the whole game down. Obviously [Jokic] made every free throw. It changed the momentum, played into their hands. Until things change, you have to adjust, but it’s frustrating.”
