With just under 4 1/2 minutes left, Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson rebounded a missed free throw by Warriors guard Klay Thompson, and passed the ball to LeBron James with the Cavaliers holding a 12-point lead. Curry, playing with five fouls, raced in to try to knock the ball loose; he did, but James leapt, regained possession, came down on Curry's back and went to the ground, resulting in a whistle and Curry's sixth personal foul, which would disqualify him from the game.
Curry lost his mind upon realizing he'd been whistled, ripping his now-signature mouthguard out of his mouth and chucking it toward the sideline in anger ... and it hit a fan sitting courtside.
"Yeah, I've thrown my mouthpiece before. I usually aim at the scorer's table," Curry said after the game. "I was off-aim."After calming down, Curry sought out the fan and apologized like a true gentleman.
"It was obviously frustrating fouling out in the fourth quarter of a clinching game and not being out there with my teammates," he said to press. "So it got the best of me, but I'll be all right for next game."His coach Steve Kerr defended him saying
"He had every right to be upset," Kerr said, launching into an answer that will all but demand a fine from the league office. You know, he's the MVP of the league.] He gets six fouls called on him, three of them were absolutely ridiculous. You know, he steals the ball from Kyrie [Irving] clean at one point. LeBron flops on the last one, [referee] Jason Phillips falls for that, for a flop. That's the MVP of the league we're talking about, these touch fouls in the NBA Finals.
"Let me be clear: we did not lose because of the officiating," Kerr added. "They totally outplayed us, and Cleveland deserved to win. But those three — three of the six fouls were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MPV of the league."
"Yeah, I'm happy he threw his mouthpiece," Kerr continued. "He should be upset. It's the Finals. Everybody's competing out there. There's fouls on every play. I just think that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson — the way we run our offense, we're running and 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."With this win, the Cavaliers have forced the match to game 7.