Kerr happy Curry threw mouthpiece: 'He should be upset'

While the ejection of Stephen Curry from Game 6 of the NBA Finals didn't impact the end result, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr believes his star guard was justified in fuming over a series of calls he feels should have never been whistled, especially on someone with The Chef's credentials.

"Well it had nothing to do with the outcome. The outcome was decided," Kerr said of the ejection. "He (Curry) had every right to be upset. He's the MVP of the league. He gets six fouls called on him, and three of them were absolutely ridiculous. He steals the ball from Kyrie (Irving) clean. LeBron flops on the last one. Jason Philips falls for that for a flop. As the MVP of the league, we're talking about these touch fouls in the NBA Finals."

The Cleveland Cavaliers dominated the defending champions nearly every step of the way on Thursday, taking Game 6 by a score of 115-101 to tie the series at 3-3. While Kerr applauds Tyronn Lue's squad for its performance, he still struggles to comprehend where half of Curry's foul calls even came from.

"But let me be clear: We did not lose because of the officiating. They totally outplayed us and Cleveland deserved to win," Kerr said. "But, those three ... three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league."

It was the first ejection of Curry's young seven-year playing career. After receiving his sixth foul, the 28-year-old got into the official's face and whipped his mouthpiece into the first row in frustration - something Kerr wasn't opposed to seeing from one of the team's leaders.

"I'm happy he threw his mouthpiece. He should be upset," Kerr said. "Look, it's the Finals, and everybody's competing out there. There's fouls on every play. It's a physical game. I just think that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, the way we run our offense we're running, we're cutting through the lane, we're a rhythm offense."

"If they're going to let Cleveland grab and hold these guys constantly on their cuts, and then you're going to call these ticky-tack fouls on the MVP of the league to foul him out, I don't agree with that."

Curry finished with a team-high 30 points on 8-of-20 shooting and 6-of-13 from behind the arc in 35 minutes.