Steve Kerr of the Warriors stands firm in breaking NBA’s unwritten rule that sparked Hornets brawl

Don’t tell NBA lifer Steve Kerr that Lester Quinones and the Golden State Warriors broke some unwritten basketball rule in the waning moments of their 97-84 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night at Chase Center.

As the surging Dubs salted away their 10th victory in the last 12 games, Quinones went up to finish a layup that was quickly goaltended by Miles Bridges. The Hornets forward then gave Quinones a forearm to the chest, prompting a fracas between the teams that ultimately got both Quinones and Charlotte’s Grant Williams ejected.

After the game, Kerr explained why he found no fault with Quinones trying to score with the game already decided—a justification of which Bridges, Williams and the Hornets should’ve been fully aware in real time.

“For 10 years I’ve told our team if there’s a shot clock differential, you keep playing. To me, the game tells you to keep playing. We’ve always done it that way,” he said, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Nobody’s ever been offended. They were pressing the last few minutes. You still play the game. As soon as there’s no shot-clock differential then you sit on the ball and you let the clock run out. But if there’s a differential I think guys should always keep playing. To me, it’s very strange why that would be offensive to anybody. I’ve never understood why that would be offensive.”

There was about a two-second differential between the shot clock and game clock as Quinones attempted his layup. It’s not like you can even chalk the Hornets’ wildly outsized response up to youth and inexperience, either. Bridges and Williams would have over a decade of NBA playing experience between them if the former hadn’t missed all of last season after pleading no contest to charges related to domestic violence.

The Warriors and Hornets meet again on March 29th. Needless to say, keep an eye out for fireworks.