Coach Steve Kerr calling for more poise from team in dealing with officials

Two months or so ago, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his team’s emotional outbursts towards officials over calls were “absolutely too much.” After last night’s win against the Dallas Mavericks, a game in which All-Star forward Draymond Green picked up his 14th technical of the season, Kerr is trumpeting his message anew.

* Recap: Warriors 121, Mavericks 103

Green was whistled for his tech after doing what he thought was an unavoidable action. After scoring on a layup, Green pushed the ball out of bounds so as to not have it hit him. But after hitting the ball out of bounds, he got called for delay of game warning and, based off his reaction to that, got his technical.

Mark Medina of The Mercury News has more on Green’s foul and Kerr’s reaction to his team’s bevy of techs of late:

“Maybe I should’ve missed the layup like I missed the rest of them,” said Green, who scored 12 points albeit on 4-of-17 shooting. “Then it wouldn’t have hit me and then I wouldn’t have gotten a delay of game. Then I wouldn’t have been told I threw an air punch. I’ll try to miss more layups. I missed a bunch of them tonight. It worked. I didn’t get another tech. That’s the goal: miss more layups and don’t let the ball hit me. Then don’t throw air punches.”

Green spoke with obvious sarcasm when he spoke those words. Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke with sympathy mere hours after arguing “we all need to do a much better job of staying poised,” including himself.

“I didn’t think that warranted a tech,” Kerr said. “But we know our team has been too emotional and too demonstrative. We’re going to be under the microscope. We have to be ready for that. We’re just going to have to show better poise.”

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While Green leads the NBA in technicals (14), Warriors forward Kevin Durant leads the NBA in ejections (four). While Durant is tied for second-most technicals (11), Green has the second most ejections (three). Kerr cemented a tie for fourth place in technicals among NBA coaches (five).

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“We have to do a better job in controlling the way that we react,” Warriors forward David West said. “But nobody is perfect in this game. It’s an even balance that has to be found between playing hard and playing aggressive and controlling our energy in terms of reacting to officials in terms of how the call the game. That has been very difficult.”

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