Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic shot 18 free throws in his team's Christmas Day win over the Golden State Warriors. His big day at the charity stripe marked his highest total of free throw attempts in any game this season.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was none too pleased with the amount of whistles that went against his guys on Monday. After the game, he laid into the way that play has been being officiated, with players being allowed to "BS their way to the foul line."
“I have no problem with the officials themselves,” Kerr said (h/t Anthony Slater). “All across the league we have really good officials. I have a problem with the way we are legislating defense out of the game. That’s what we’re doing in the NBA. The way we are teaching the officials, we are enabling players to BS their way to the foul line.”
Steve Kerr calls play during second half of loss to Denver Nuggets 'disgusting'
Kerr continued to voice his frustrations throughout his postgame press conference. He went on to call the way that the officials were baited into calling fouls "disgusting."
“If I were a fan, I wouldn’t have wanted to watch the second half of that game,” Kerr said. “It was disgusting. It was just baiting refs into calls, but the refs have to make those calls because that’s how they’re taught. So I have a real problem with the way we’ve legislated defense out of the game in this league. The players are really smart in this league. Over the last decade or so, they’ve gotten smarter and smarter. We have enabled the players. They are taking full advantage and it’s a parade to the free throw line. And it’s disgusting to watch.”
Jokic scored 18 of his 26 points at the line against the Dubs, as he shot just 4-of-12 from the field.
Denver wound up outlasting Kerr's Warriors 120-114.