The Sacramento Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors 129-99 on Sunday in a heated duel that boiled over late in the third quarter when Draymond Green made a hard, legal pick on an unsuspecting Keon Ellis. Ellis fell to the ground and the officials allowed the contact to slide before calling the Kings a shooting foul a few seconds later. As Ellis lay on the hardwood insisting that there should have been an offensive foul, Warriors coach Steve Kerr became extremely animated and insisted that Ellis needed to stop flopping around all over the place.

Kings coach Doug Christie did not do this and jumped into the fray to support his player before Domantas Sabonis managed to calm him down. Green helpfully and colorfully told Ellis to get back on his feet. When the smoke cleared and cooler heads prevailed, Kerr was assessed a technical foul and the defeat continued.

Microphones caught Kerr saying, “Stop flopping, play basketball,” and one can wonder if he was giving Ellis that advice seriously.

There may have been other flops in the game. But Ellis made frequent contact there without warning, so it seems reasonable that he ended up on the ground. His frustration could probably be better focused on the teammate who didn’t warn him that Green was going to lower the boom.

Perhaps this incident will give momentum to the remaining three matches between these two teams. Golden State has an 18-17 record and the Kings have a 17-19 record, so it’s safe to assume that these contests could have a big impact on playoff placement.