Steph Curry was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Friday for throwing his mouthpiece into the spectator stands late in the Warriors' 122-120 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at Chase Center.
Curry, reacting to an ill-advised shot by Jordan Poole, was ejected from the game for chucking his mouthpiece as he ran back on defense.
After Poole scored the game-winning layup with 1.0 seconds remaining, cooler heads prevailed as he shared a laugh with Curry in the tunnel outside the Warriors' locker room. Poole even jokingly threw his own mouthpiece against the wall as he approached the reigning NBA Finals MVP.
At the podium, Curry offered an explanation for why he was so frustrated at that moment, as Poole decided to take a long 3-pointer rather than reset the offense and run more time off the clock.
"Crucial time in the game and the way our season has gone," Curry told reporters after the game. "There's questions about the heightened sense of urgency of every detail matters. When you want something so bad like getting the win and in the fourth quarter, execution, clutch situation, all that stuff does matter, so I reacted in a way that obviously put myself out of the game and put the team in a tough place.
"But the intentions and the energy around what matters in the sense of winning, that's what it's all about. Thankfully my teammates responded extremely well. Klay [Thompson] with a big shot. JP with the game-winner at the end. Execution was great. We needed that one, so there was a sense of urgency for sure. Kind of let my emotions get in the way of it."
Golden State Warriors
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was more focused on making sure Curry knows he can't let his emotions take control of him like that.
"I didn't see what happened at the time, so when the ref called it, I was confused and then the coaches told me he threw the mouthpiece down out of anger," Kerr told reporters Wednesday night. "And I guess he threw it into the stands? On the side, yeah. So I think that's an automatic ejection. He knows he can't make that mistake again. But I was really proud of the guys. They fought through and executed down the stretch and got us the win."
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This was the third instance of Curry throwing his mouthpiece, with the other two coming in the 2016 NBA Finals and in 2017 also against the Grizzlies, but this is the first time it wasn't due to a disagreement with a call by the referees.
The good news for Curry and the Warriors is that the NBA didn't suspend him, so he will be available to play against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night at Chase Center.