It was only a matter of time until the Golden State Warriors’ franchise-record winning streak would — as all things must — come to an end. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. Playing their third game in four nights in the midst of a 16-game undefeated run, the shorthanded Warriors went up against the team with the best home record in the NBA: the Memphis Grizzlies. Entering the Grindhouse is daunting enough, but doing it without your defensive anchor makes life even tougher against Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.
Warriors center Andrew Bogut was sidelined for a fourth consecutive game, forcing head coach Steve Kerr to trot out a smaller lineup than they would have liked against Memphis’ twin towers. On top of that, the wear and tear of their recent run finally started to show in the second quarter as the Grizz blew the game wide open with a 20-0 run — building a lead that seemed nearly insurmountable. However, the Warriors came charging right back, and slowly chipped away until late in the game, when they found themselves trailing only 90-88.
Then, something bizarre happened.
Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley drove to the basket and scored on an obvious traveling violation. The referees missed it (or didn’t call it, depending on whose side you’re on), and that resulted in Andre Iguodala busting out his version of the Chris Duhon Memorial Travel Dance.
Referees didn’t take too kindly to Iggy’s mockery of their non-call, and whistled him for a technical foul. Kerr didn’t take too kindly to that, so he complained, and was also T’d up. Two made free throws later, and the non-travel led to a four-point swing that Golden State never recovered from.
The Warriors dropped to 21-3, while the Grizzlies improved to 20-4, meaning the Warriors can take solace in the fact they stood toe to toe with a bigger (for the moment), physical team, while the Grizzlies know they can hang offensively with a team like the Warriors.
After the game, Iggy took to Twitter to acknowledge his antics.
That was an expensive ass dance…
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) December 17, 2014
[.gif via cjzero]
About John Ferensen