Mark Jackson had to know he sounded like a hypocrite saying the Nuggets were being too physical with his players. Jackson was the guy who sent out his players to commit hard fouls on Rockets players when Houston threatened to set a record for most three pointers in one game. This is Mark Jackson, former 1990s Knicks point guard. He knows what playoff basketball is like.
But Jackson is a coach now and his role is to protect his star players and work the referees a little, so he came out after the Warriors loss to the Nuggets in Game 5 Tuesday and said Denver had sent “hit men” after his players.
Stephen Curry appreciated his coach having his back.
Curry went on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio channel with host Adam Schein and appreciated what his coach did.
“For sure, you appreciate your coach sticking up for you and his opinion. You don’t know what his motives were, if he [was] just trying to get his voice out there in the series as to what should be looked at. We have a big game coming up, Game 6 at home, to try to close this thing out. He spoke about it, I’m sure it’s going to be talked about, but in our locker room we’re not worried about nitpicking those plays that he was talking about. We’re just going to make the adjustments that we need to make on the defensive end and get back to winning ways hopefully in Game 6.
So Curry, you think some of those players were dirty?
“Um, there was a couple of plays in the first quarter where you started initiating a play and you’re not involved with it and kinda elbows come out of nowhere and he’s chucking cuts and things like that, which, that’s playoff basketball. I understand there are going to be some hard fouls and I’m not going to complain or whine about that at all. But there are situations where you notice they are going out of their way to make a point. And we had a couple of flagrant fouls as well. Andrew Bogut hit Faried one time. Draymond Green hit him one time on a rebound. So I’m not going to say they’re the only team making plays. You just gotta go with the flow of the game. Whatever happens, it’s not going to faze me on the court.”
The physical play did faze Golden State for much of Game 5. Golden State needs to get past this and close it out at home on Thursday night, because what they don’t want to do is have to go back to Denver to win a Game 7. The Nuggets aren’t going to lose two in this series at home.
