Steph Curry has been kicked out of three games in his NBA career, all for the exact same gross reason.

Somehow, though, he said that he shouldn’t have been tossed Wednesday night for tossing his mouthguard, which is by rule an automatic ejection.

The first two spittle receptacle tosses came years ago — one famously in Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals, the other in an Oct. 2017 game against the Grizzlies, the same team the Warriors narrowly beat in San Francisco Wednesday night. Both of those were in reaction to what he thought were bad calls.

His most recent germ javelin was in response to Jordan Poole’s taking an ill-advised shot Wednesday night.

With the Warriors up two with just over a minute remaining, Poole took a deep, deep 3 with 13 seconds left on the shot clock while Curry was calling for the ball behind him. Curry trotted back on defense, then hucked his mouthpiece into the corner in rage. He was ejected almost immediately.

“I didn’t see what happened at the time, so when the ref called it, I was confused and then the coaches told me he threw the mouthpiece down out of anger,” Kerr said. “And I guess he threw it into the stands? On the side, yeah. So I think that’s an automatic ejection. He knows he can’t make that mistake again.”

Curry admitted he threw the mouthpiece out of anger when Poole wasn’t running down the clock.

“It was in a crucial time of the game and the way our season has gone, there’s questions about the heightened sense of urgency and every detail matters,” Curry said. “I reacted in a way that obviously put myself out the game, put the team in a tough place. But the intentions and energy around what matters in the sense of winning, that’s what it’s about. Thankfully we all responded really well.”

Poole redeemed himself with a game-winner with a second left, clinching a 122-120 victory over the hated Grizzlies to improve the Warriors to 24-24. And as has been clear all year, Poole isn’t changing for anyone or anything. When he saw the ejected Curry waiting for him in the tunnel after the game, Poole greeted him with a cheeky mouthpiece toss.

“It’s like one of those ‘too soon’ jokes,” Curry said with a laugh. “I was still hot. I was still hot.”