OAKLAND — At shootaround before Monday’s game against the Clippers, Warriors forward Kevin Durant was contrite about his role in the Game 1 tango between him and Patrick Beverley – confrontations that resulted in two technicals apiece.
“I don’t want to disappoint my fanbase and owners who expect me to be out there on the floor, so I apologize,” said Durant, whose techs stirred concern with his team, including Coach Steve Kerr, who pointed out that players get only seven throughout the entire postseason before they’re suspended for a game.
“I mean, in the moment it was cool, but just the reaction after the game … I don’t want my coaches, my teammates, or the organization upset with me because of some (stuff) that I did. I don’t want to get in the way of what’s going out on the floor and I think that was a huge distraction.
“I don’t want that to be a part of this series. I just want to play. It looked like it was a huge distraction.”
Clippers coach Doc Rivers reiterated at his team’s shootaround that he didn’t see a problem with the Game 1 clashes between Beverley and Durant, especially because that’s what his guard is out there to do.
“I like Pat on anybody,” Rivers said. “I like him just because he’s a good defender, and I like the other stuff that comes with that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. And I don’t think either one of them carried it too far.
“Maybe in today’s world they ‘carried it too far,’ but it was not any cheap anything. There was no cheap play between either one of them, I thought it was clean, nasty, hard-nosed basketball and I kind of respect that from both ends, from both guys.”
LIVE AND IN-PERSON
The Pat Bev vs. KD matchup might be getting most of the early attention in the series, but it’s not the only interesting pairing: Consider Shanbo vs. Klay.
Golden State’s Klay Thompson locked down Clippers rookie Landry Shamet in the series opener, limiting the sharpshooting rookie guard to three points on 1-of-6 shooting.
On the other end of the floor, Shamet did a decent job guarding Thompson, limiting one of the NBA’s all-time great sharpshooters to 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
“You want to guard the best of the best,” said Shamet, who was quick to say his game has lots of Thompson in it. “I remember, obviously, not too long ago, watching his film and trying to take a lot of what he does and put it in game. And I’ll give him credit for being kind of a role model for me coming out of high school and college growing my development.
“Now I’m getting to guard him, seeing first hand … so it is kind of an interesting matchup.”
NOTE OF THANKS
Rivers ended his pregame press conference by thanking an anonymous, righteous individual with whom he’d crossed paths earlier Monday.
“Shout out to the San Francisco person at the corner today,” Rivers said. “I was walking down the street – true story – reached in my pocket to grab my phone, and unbeknownst to me, dropped about $2 grand on the street. Kept walking. Didn’t know it. The guy tapped me on the back and said, ‘That’s your money.’
“I don’t know a lot of places where that would happen, but it happened today, so whoever that was, you could’ve had free tickets if you hadn’t run away.”
Shout-out to you, San Francisco person.
🎥 @DocRivers closes out pre-game media with a story. pic.twitter.com/pkwjW00NEN
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) April 16, 2019
