Steph Curry not getting any traction on fouls calls was the biggest story coming out of the Warriors’ loss to the Rockets this week.
Curry didn’t shoot a single free throw in the loss despite encountering an extremely physical defense.
His longtime teammate Draymond Green explained why he thinks Steph doesn’t get as many calls as he probably should.
“He don’t talk to the referees and he gets penalized for that,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis. “I also think he gets penalized because he is not a flopper. And so, it’s almost as if, ‘Oh, he’s not getting fouled,’ or, ‘It don’t matter because he ain’t showing that he getting fouled.’ I think in this league, we reward flopping.
“We put a flopping rule in that you never see get called,” Green added. “But we reward flopping and flailing, and Steph does neither. It doesn’t really hurt him because he still do what he do, but it hurts him as far as getting the call and getting to the free throw line because he don’t flop and he don’t sell the calls.”
The game was full of tense moments, including when Rockets coach Ime Udoka and Steph Curry were jawing at the half time break.
“When people start complaining about foul calls or crying about physicality, you’ve done your job,” Udoka told the media after the game. “That’s the first step in winning the battle. So I told my team, when this team starts crying about it, up the intensity, up the aggressiveness, and make the refs adjust to you.”
The team held he and Stephen Curry to a combined five points. Green was 1-for-5 while Curry was 1-for-10.
Despite his complaints, Green gave the Rockets credit in the end.
“Nonetheless though you got to give them some credit,” Green said. “They stepped up. They made some big shots. Jalen Green had a really good game. Dillon Brooks played well. Amen Thompson – you know I’ve been a fan of him. He’s so athletic and he’s just getting more and more confident. I think he’s really the key to that team and then Jabari [Smith Jr.] had a good game off the bench. Sengun also played well.”
Curry is averaging 4.3 free-throw attempts per game in 2024-25 – his lowest since he averaged 4.2 per game in 2018-19.
