A bizarre sequence near the end of regulation stole the spotlight in the Warriors' 128-121 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
With just under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the shot clock malfunctioned, creating a lengthy delay as the arena operations crew worked feverishly to amend the issue, but time and time again were unable to remedy the situation with the game needing to be stopped a handful of times.
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Following the game, Steph Curry explained how the extremely unusual circumstances with the shot clock is unlike anything he's experienced during his 15-year NBA career.
"It was weird," Curry told reporters. "I don't know why we had the hope that we did after maybe the second one but every time they put the ball in, we were like 'All right, we're good.' And then two dribbles and the whistles came back. I had never seen anything like that in my 15 years because usually there's a backup plan, secondary clock or something.
"Thankfully there was only what, a minute and some change, a minute, 50 [seconds] left and once they did get the ball back in play, two possessions and we kind of sealed the deal from there. But definitely weird. I watch a lot of golf. I don't know if they did that, like playing through, the thing where you see the commercials running and they're just waiting for the game to come back. But it's probably not the greatest for TV."
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Coach Steve Kerr echoed a similar sentiment, empathizing for fans who had to endure the lengthy intermission while the shot-clock issues were tended to.
"It was bizarre. It was bizarre," Kerr told reporters. "It seems like a few times a year you get clock issues. That's about as extreme as I've ever been a part of, where the back-up unit doesn't work either. It's unfortunate. I feel bad for the fans. That was a great game and then all of a sudden, the last two minutes, everyone is just looking at each other wondering what to do.
"I also don't like the rule that you can go back and look at an out-of-bounds [call]. LeBron's 3-pointer, that seems to happen once or twice a year. Love to see that rule go away. I think we're trying so hard to get everything just right but at the expense of the flow of the game. I mean, who care if a guy's foot is half an inch on the line. Is that worth going back 45 seconds and changing everything with the unintended consequences? It's not my favorite rule for sure."
Kerr also explained he is not a fan of replay in general, stating he believes it should be reserved solely for buzzer-beaters.
"I'm not a fan of replay," Kerr revealed. "I think we should have replay just for buzzer-beaters and that's it. The whole goal with replay is to get everything right but there's a 100 plays at each end every night that are subjective. This is not tennis [with] Hawkeye where the ball is either in or out. There all kinds of subjective stuff that happens. We're never going to get everything right and I think the flow of the game is way more important."
Thankfully for the Warriors, the long break in action didn't halt their momentum as they were able to pull out a must-win victory against a Lakers team they've been jockeying in the standings with for most of the season.
With the victory, Golden State moved into the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference playoff picture, beating Los Angeles by virtue of a winning-percentage tie-breaker.
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