Wednesday night's showdown between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors brought a rather sluggish, choppy stretch of preseason basketball, one that saw Finals MVP Kevin Durant foul out of the game after 24 minutes of action. Head coach Steve Kerr was frustrated by the excess of offensive foul calls (the reason of his ejection last game against the Phoenix Suns), but noted his star played won't face the same fate in the regular season.
“I'm pretty confident they’re not going to call 65 fouls and foul Kevin Durant out in 24 minutes when the regular season starts,” said Kerr, admitting to the league's concerned emphasis in calling offensive fouls this preseason, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “…Officiating is an art form, there is a flow to the game that has to happen and right now we're putting the officials in a really tough spot, having to call everything. I know it's preseason, but we're trying to make sure we have these points of emphasis down.”
Durant put up a stand-up double-double with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting and 12 rebounds, but was called for three of his six fouls in plays where he defended Brandon Ingram, who saw the majority of his gam-high 26 points come from the free-throw line, parading 15-of-17 from the stripe.
When it comes to the Warriors, besides Stephen Curry's spotless 9-of-9 from the foul line, every one of the nine other free-throw shooters shot 50 percent or less from the line, combining for 11-of-27 from the stripe in a 10-point preseason loss to the Lakers.
Golden State (1-3) will have a run-back against Los Angeles (2-3), when the Warriors take on the Lakers for the final preseason game at the San Jose SAP Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m. PT
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