A wild Game 4 between the Kings and the Golden State Warriors on Saturday afternoon came down to the wire, with the Warriors holding off the Kings 126-125 to even the first-round playoff series at 2-2.
A crucial mental error by Warriors star Stephen Curry in the game’s final moments opened the window for the Kings, who nearly managed to roar back from a late 5-point deficit, and threw NBA fans into a bit of a social media frenzy.
With 42 seconds left and the Warriors up 126-121, Curry attempted to call a timeout as he was swarmed by Kings defenders, but his team had none remaining. The result: a technical foul, with possession going back to the Kings.
Malik Monk made his technical free throw, and De’Aaron Fox followed with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one.
Curry then missed his next shot, and the Kings took over again with 10 seconds left. Following a Kings timeout, Harrison Barnes shot a wing 3-pointer at the buzzer off a pass from Fox, who found him mostly open, but Barnes missed the potential game-winner.
Curry’s miscue almost immediately prompted the posting of memes comparing the incident to an infamous one from the college career of a Kings great: Hall of Fame member Chris Webber.
Playing in the NCAA championship game in 1993 for the University of Michigan, Webber notoriously attempted to call a timeout with his team trailing 73-71, also resulting in a tech, as Michigan had no timeouts remaining.
Numerous fans tweeted that Curry “pulled a Chris Webber” with the timeout debacle.
Luckily for Curry and Warriors fans, the outcome differed: Michigan lost to the University of North Carolina, but Golden State held on to win and evened its series, which will return to Sacramento on Wednesday for Game 5 at Golden 1 Center.
“It was kind of sloppy with not knowing how many timeouts (we had),” Curry told reporter Malika Andrews in a postgame interview on the ABC telecast.
“Some unfortunate foul calls that didn’t go our way. We had a couple dagger shots that didn’t go in, but we knew we needed to dig deep those last 10 seconds, make somebody other than Fox shoot it.”
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