Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr exchange trash talk before Clips-Warriors game
As anyone who's watched the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers over the last couple years can tell you, there's no love lost between the two Western Conference powers.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr may be new to the Pacific Division rivalry, but that hasn't kept him from trading verbal jabs with Clippers coach Doc Rivers.
With Draymond Green being held out of Tuesday's fourth and final meeting between the teams due to shin inflammation, Rivers mentioned that he thought the Warriors were just giving themselves an excuse in case they lost the game.
"That was pretty predictable, they didn't want to take the risk of going 2-2 with their regular guys," Rivers said of the season series, which the Clippers trailed 2-1 entering Tuesday.
"You could pretty much predict they weren't going to play everybody," Rivers added, as reported by ESPN's J.A. Adande and Arash Markazi.
Kerr responded the only way he needed to, by essentially pointing to the scoreboard.
"Oh, is that right?" Kerr asked of Rivers' comments. "Either that or we have a nine-game lead and a couple guys banged up."
For what it's worth, the league-leading Warriors actually have a 10-game lead over second-place Memphis in the Western Conference standings and an 11.5-game lead over L.A. in the division.
They're also five games clear of Atlanta in the overall standings, and can cruise to homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs while resting virtually whoever Kerr wants to.
The Clippers and Warriors have been at each other's throats for much of the past two seasons. The 2013-14 season series reportedly included the two teams refusing to partake in pregame chapel together and a Christmas Day skirmish between Blake Griffin and Andrew Bogut.
The rivalry then came to a head when the Clippers outlasted the Warriors in a seven-game playoff series that ended with the two teams reportedly needing to be separated in the hallway following Game 7.
Earlier in March, Clippers reserve Dahntay Jones was fined $10,000 for bumping Green during a postgame interview.