HOUSTON – An angry Steve Kerr said that the referee’s team made a decision he has never experienced in his NBA career, giving the Golden State Warriors a 91-90 loss to the Houston Rockets and the chance Las Vegas tasted for a place in the NBA Cup semi-finals.

“I’m mad,” Kerr said, echoing what the Warriors’ locker room felt like late Wednesday night. “I wanted to go to Las Vegas. We wanted to win this Cup, and we’re not going to go because of a foul with a loose ball, 80 feet from the basket and the game on the line. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, and that was ridiculous.

With the Warriors ahead in the final seconds, Stephen Curry missed a 3-point attempt and a wild scramble for the loose ball ensued as bodies from both teams hit the floor.

Gary Payton II got a rebound on the floor, but Houston guard Fred VanVleet slid over him and Payton tried to pass the ball to Jonathan Kuminga. The Rockets’ Kuminga and Jalen Green hit the floor for the loose ball and with 3.5 seconds left, Kuminga was whistled for a personal foul. Kerr could only watch with his mouth open.

Green saved both free throws to give the Rockets a 91-90 lead. On the final possession, Curry was covered near the sideline and passed to Brandin Podziemski, whose 3-point attempt from the corner was blocked by Jabari Smith Jr. to give Houston the win and snap the Warriors’ 15-game losing streak bestow.

Houston faces Oklahoma City on Saturday in Las Vegas.

An angry Kerr then pounced on the officiating team, led by crew chief Bill Kennedy, who awarded the personal foul on Kuminga. In a game that felt like something out of the 1990s, Kerr and the Warriors argued that the officials had allowed both teams to play a very physical game up to that point.

“I have never seen a loose ball foul on a jump ball situation, 80 feet from the basket with the game on the line,” Kerr said. “I’ve never seen that before. I think I saw it once in college 30 years ago. I’ve never seen it in the NBA. This is…incomprehensible. I don’t even understand what just happened. Lost ball, bounced on.” The floor, 80 feet from the basket, and you’re going to give a guy two free throws to decide the game as people fight for the ball. Just give him a time out and let the players decide the game. Especially because the game was a complete wrestling match. They didn’t call anything.

“So you’ve decided that you’re just not going to call anything the entire game. It’s a physical game. And call a loose-ball foul in a jump-ball situation with guys jumping around on the floor? When the game is on the line? This is a multi-billion dollar industry with people’s jobs at stake.

Kennedy then explained the call to a pool reporter.

“The defender touches the neck and shoulder area, which warrants a personal foul,” he said.

The Warriors (14-10) blew a six-point lead and were unable to score in the final three minutes. Curry missed a step-back 3-pointer with his team ahead with 11.1 seconds left before a loose-ball scramble ensued that resulted in an ending that left Kerr beside himself and in the locker room Warriors there was almost dead silence afterwards.

“I haven’t seen the replay, but … if you tell me it was a clear foul, I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I don’t think that’s the case,” Curry told reporters. “Was it? There is indecision in the group, so that means we let the game play out and let it be decided, not two free throws 90 feet from the basket.”

Curry and Kerr were also upset about another play a few minutes earlier in which they thought Curry had been fouled on a 21-foot jump shot by Aaron Holiday. The jumper fell well short of the basket with 8:14 minutes left and the Warriors were up by six. Curry and Kerr argued with officers, but no call was made.

“We can talk about the referees all day, that’s not the reason we lost,” Curry said. “But there are swings in the game, obviously the last two free throws and that play, it’s a five-point swing.”

Curry said officer Mousa Dagher explained to him that the ball had already been released when Holiday hit his hand or wrist.

“I think if I shoot an 18-foot player and miss by 6 feet, then either tell me he hit the ball or it’s a foul,” he said. “I’ve never had an 18-foot throw (that went) 12 feet. And they go to the floor and (Tari) Eason hits a 3 in the corner. That’s a huge swing. We can’t let the referees take us out of it,” which I don’t think we did, but these are clear plays that can dictate a very tough, low-scoring game by giving a team an extra possession of the ball she doesn’t deserve it.

“That’s why I went crazy. I don’t yell at the referees like that. It was a clear foul.”

Curry and the Warriors said they are very motivated to travel to Las Vegas to win the NBA Cup in the second season. Instead, they were left steaming in the visitors’ locker room at Toyota Center while the Rockets celebrated a big win.

This was the second loss in eight days in which Kerr questioned a late call by the officials that he said cost the Warriors a game. At the end of a 119-115 loss in Denver on Dec. 3, Kerr argued that Denver’s Christian Braun signaled a timeout after recovering a loose ball while Denver was out of timeouts. Officials said they didn’t see Braun’s clear signal for a timeout, which resulted in a technical foul and possession of the ball for the Warriors with 1.9 seconds left and a four-second deficit. Instead, the officials called for a jump ball.

“I’m stunned,” Kerr said after Wednesday night’s loss. “I give credit to the Rockets. They fought back. They played great defense all night to end the game.

“And that was taken away from us by a call that I don’t think an elementary school referee would have made because that guy would have felt and said, you know what? I will not decide a game on a decision like that, a loose ball, 80 feet from the basket.”