They had it coming to them.
Midway through the third quarter of Golden State's 107-88 win over the Celtics, Ime Udoka was barking at the officials as Marcus Smart and Steph Curry fought for position on an inbounds play.
The Celtics head coach was hit with a technical, and Curry made his free throw. Essentially, Udoka gifted the Warriors a free point.
But he didn't seem to care. At that point in the game, Udoka appeared to just want to let out some frustration. The Warriors were receiving undoubtedly favorable treatment from the refs, most notably when Draymond Green wasn't whistled for a second technical foul after tussling with Jaylen Brown.
When Udoka was called for his technical, he called the officials a five-letter euphemism for "cat."
As Jeff Van Gundy explained on the telecast, it doesn't take an expert lipreader to decipher Udoka's commentary.
"I don't think we want to go back to Ime Udoka and show what he's saying right now," said Van Gundy. "I'm not a great lip-reader, but I know he's not saying 'hello' to Josh Tiven right now."
After the game, Udoka admitted he tried to bait the referees into T'ing him up.
"I just let them know how I felt throughout the game, in a demonstrative way, on purpose, to get a technical," he told reporters.
The Celtics went on a 6-0 run following Udoka's technical, though they didn't get any closer.
The officials were bad, but the Celtics beat themselves with turnovers and sloppy play. Once the Warriors expanded their lead, the C's appeared to pack it in.
As furious as Udoka was to the refs, he probably saved most of his vitriol for his players in the locker room afterwards.
