We begin our Monday edition of Odds & Ends with a question: Are the Warriors turning into a bunch of crybabies?

It sure seemed that way Saturday night when Golden State visited Memphis when late in the game, Stephen Curry was upset over a non-call where he took some contact following a lay-up. He threw his mouthpiece in the direction of Scott Wall and was immediately given an ejection from the game. Memphis won the game 111-101 and the Warriors fell to 1-2 on the season.

Kevin Durant was also ejected afted running over to Wall to have some words. He also appeared to give fans the finger on his way out.

Curry denied that he threw his mouthpiece at Wall.

“I didn’t throw my mouthpiece at the ref,” Curry told ESPN. “I got better aim than that. I threw it out of frustration.”

The league will now decide if the actions of both players warrant suspensions and/or fines.

Honestly,I do think to an extent that the Warriors have a tendency to act like children whenever a call or a game isn’t going their way and that they’ve been getting away with it for a while. I think Curry should handle a call he disagrees with in a proper manner than throwing his mouthpiece in disgust,whether it’s in the direction of an official or not.

He’s in his ninth NBA season now,he should know better. So does Durant,now in his 11th season.

Look,I have little joy whenever the Warriors do well and am taking a bit of delight in their struggles so far this season,but nonetheless these guys can’t be crying every time a game isn’t going their way. It’s been happening for a while,it needs to stop.

It only took three games,but the first NBA coach to be fired since the end of the 2015-16 season was Earl Watson of the Phoenix Suns.

Watson leaves Phoenix with a 33-85 record as their coach, a position he had held since taking over for Jeff Hornacek in 2015-16. Jeff Triano, who was once the head coach in Toronto, will serve as interim head coach, presumably until the end of the season. Triano’s tenure begins tonight against the Kings.

Watson had been having a rocky relationship with general manager Ryan MacDonough and owner Robert Sarver was involved in removing him so early in the year.

Phoenix opened the season at home and suffered the worst loss in their 50-year history by a score of 124-76 against the Portland Trail Blazers. Combine that with a young team that has been reported as having been dysfunctional and their star player in Eric Bledsoe wishing for a trade and you’ve got enough reason for Watson to be let go.

You hate to see anyone lose their job,especially early in the season and also because not one coach was let go last season (during or after). Here’s the thing,though,the Suns have been in rebuild mode for quite a while. They need to find the right coach to come in, the right people in the front office,and the right players to engineer a proper rebuild. I think they need to get as much value as they can out of the star players they have and ship them off to places where they can make a difference or be happier and they need to assure their fans that things will get better and to ask for patience. Will it happen? It’s hard to say,but we all know that it’s not getting any better with the morale of the team being the way it is now.

If you had the Los Angeles Rams being on top of their division at this point in the season, you certainly saw something the rest of us didn’t.

At 5-2, the Rams are probably one of,if not the biggest surprise team of the season. With second-year quarterback Jared Goff coming to life with a high-octane offense and a defense that’s coming into its own, this team may be off to the races with a division title when the regular season is over. Their latest win comes at the expense of the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 33-0 in London. Goff had 235 yards passing and a touchdown pass while Todd Gurley had a monster game with 22 carries and 106 yards and a touchdown.

Should the Rams continue their excellent play,they may be looking at securing their first postseason berth since 2004 when the franchise was based in St. Louis.

While they have a slight identity crisis with their uniforms at times, I think this team is headed to the playoffs. I really do. I like what I’m seeing from both sides of the ball and they’re not going away anytime soon. The tides are turning a bit in the NFC West and if you think the Seattle Seahawks don’t have any competition for that division title,think again.

As this week of NFL football comes to a close, so does one of the most impressive streaks the league has ever seen. Joe Thomas’ streak of 10,363 consecutive snaps,a streak that spans 10 seasons, has ended. Thomas may have torn his triceps tendon, something that may end his season if the injury is confirmed. He would need surgery and be out four to six months.

Thomas had played every snap for Cleveland since he was the third overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft, a streak that his team says is an NFL record.

“That one’s really personal to me,” Browns coach Hue Jackson said after the game. “He’s a huge part of what we do, a huge part of this organization. And we’ll see where he is, but obviously, that’s a big blow.”

His team lost to the Tennessee Titans in overtime by a score of 12-9 and fell to 0-7 on the season.

I gotta say that you have to give it up to Thomas for having such a streak. Not just to play that many snaps consecutively,but to do it for a franchise that’s been beyond bad the entire time he’s been there. When you’re doing so much for a team that hasn’t dome much to improve their status as a laughingstock of the league, that’s the ultimate definition of loyalty. For that alone,you have to respect what Thomas did in his decade-long streak of playing every snap for these guys.

Finally this Monday, we have a report that New Jersey Devils forward Brian Boyle has been cleared to practice.

Boyle,who signed a two-year deal worth $5.1 million in the offseason,was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a type of bone-marrow cancer that the team’s doctor had said could be treated with medication and was on the ice at practice with his Devils teammates on Sunday and was asking teammates to push him hard. However, there is no set timetable for Boyle to return.

New Jersey,off to a hot start so far in the young season at 6-2-0, hosts Ottawa on Friday.

It’s amazing to see Boyle back so soon after being diagnosed with a terrible disease and it looks like he’s going to make a full recovery. With all the negative stories about athletes we so often hear about,it’s a refreshing thing to hear that a player who’s in a battle to get healthy again and to rid himself of an awful and deadly disease is getting back on the ice again. I wish him the best in his continued recovery.

That’s my time for Odds & Ends this Monday,we’ll catch you next time,too!