Golden State Warriors Finish With a Quirk
As first reported by Hardwood Paroxysm, the Golden State Warriors finished their season on a very strange note.
First some background: the Warriors played their last game of the season in Portland last night against the Blazers. It was the conclusion of a season-ending road trip that saw them play four games in three cities over five days. If that doesn't sound tiring enough, the Warriors had three injured players in uniform to round out their minimum cache of eight players, rather than sign any 10-day contracts.
The problem came back to bite them, as so eloquently demonstrated in HP's video montage of the situation:
On the surface, the referees were right to enforce the rule. the three injured players cannot leave the game and be replaced by an already fouled-out player unless they are injured during the game (which they technically were thanks to Nellie's finagling).
That being said, is it really too much to ask that they make an exception to the rule so that it doesn't take Golden State four hours to play the last four minutes of their season?
Perhaps the most interesting detail, of course, is that after all that nonsense, Portland only made one of their three free throws, and a hot Stephen Curry wound up winning the game for the Warriors anyway. Luckily for Portland San Antonio lost to Dallas, so that mess didn't cost them the No. 6 seed.
Remember refs, the letter and intent of the law, even when referring to a basketball rule, are two different things.
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