Kenneth Faried was so angry after his Denver Nuggets lost Game 4 of their first-round Western Conference playoff matchup to the Golden State Warriors that he kicked a hole in the wall of the visitors’ locker room at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.
The Nuggets forward unleashed his frustration after the 115-101 loss, which pushed the Nuggets to the brink of elimination in a three games to one hole.
“I hate losing with a passion. I hate losing more than I like winning,” Faried said after the loss to the Warriors .
It wasn’t a good time for Faried, who is nursing a sprained left ankle that kept him out of the first game of the playoff series. The power forward didn’t say which foot he used.
“I don’t know, I just kicked it, I was mad.”
Faried has been frustrated not only by the strong play of the Warriors and the team’s star Stephen Curry, who scored 31 points in Sunday’s game, but by his own hobbled leg.
“I don’t think for the rest of this year I’m going to be my like old self,” Faried said. “Still hurting, but I’m fighting through it. My team needs me and needs me to step up big. I’m trying to slowly but surely do what I need to do to help us win.”
With the Warriors solidly in control of the series, Nuggets coach George Karl said his team needs to find a spark quickly .
“The next 48 hours are going to be difficult, to say the least,” Karl said. “They found some magic, and we have to find a way to take it away.”
The Nuggets will get that chance on Tuesday night in Denver, when they play Game 5.
There’s no word if Kenneth Faried will have to pay to repair the hole he kicked in the Oracle Arena wall.
