Quinones-Bridges scuffle mars end of Warriors’ win over Hornets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Warriors’ 97-84 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night at Chase Center was fairly uneventful until the final few seconds.
With the clock running down on the Warriors’ 29th win of the season, Hornets wing Miles Bridges took exception with Golden State guard Lester Quinones attempting a layup.
Quinones likely was taking the shot because there was a one second difference between the game clock and shot clock. That didn’t matter to Bridges, who was called for goaltending.
Quinones and Bridges exchanged shoves, leading to chaos as all the players in the game converged on them under the Warriors’ bucket.
The wild scene unfolded as Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Hornets coach Steve Clifford were shaking hands. Once both realized what was happening, they went to help de-escalate the scuffle.
Warriors nemesis Grant Williams was in the middle of the altercation and exchanged words with Draymond Green, who was on the bench.
The referees reviewed the situation for several minutes before assessing two technical fouls to Quinones, one technical foul to Bridges and one technical foul to Williams, while also ejecting the former Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks forward.
Shortly after the game, Kerr was asked about what transpired and admitted he didn’t understand why the Hornets were upset.
“I’ve always told, for 10 years, I’ve told our team if there’s a shot clock differential, you keep playing,” Kerr told reporters. “To me the game tells you to keep playing. We’ve always done it that way. Nobody’s ever been offended. They were pressing the last few minutes, you still play the game. As soon as there’s no shot clock differential, then you sit on the ball and you let the clock run out but if there’s a differential, I think guys should always keep playing and to me, it’s very strange why that would be offensive to anybody.
“I’ve never understood why that would be offensive and as I said, nobody’s ever been upset with us in the past for doing that. Why take a turnover? Why? You know, the clock says keep playing? You keep playing and that shouldn’t offend anybody.”
“If there’s a [shot-clock] differential, guys should always keep playing … that shouldn’t offend anybody.”
Kerr shares his thoughts on the play at the end of the game that caused tempers to flare 👀 pic.twitter.com/N2irbS8fqW
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 24, 2024
On his way to the locker room, Williams hilariously waved goodbye to the Warriors’ bench.
Quinones, who just had his contract converted to a standard NBA deal, finished with five points in 10 minutes.
After the game, Green and Steph Curry appeared to be talking Hornets guard Seth Curry and Bridges about what was going on.
The Warriors and Hornets will see each other one more time this season, on Friday, March 29 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte.
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