Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry has escaped serious punishment after his ejection from Saturday’s defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies.

The two-time NBA MVP threw his mouthguard in the direction of an official towards the end of the game and he was joined in the tunnel soon afterwards by his team-mate Kevin Durant. Curry was also ejected after hitting a fan with his mouthguard during the 2016 NBA Finals but escaped this time with a $50,000 fine rather than a suspension. Curry is due to make $34m in salary this season.

Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) Here's video of the Steph Curry mouthguard throw via @World_Wide_Wob pic.twitter.com/fEvxRlqtHT

“I didn’t even need to watch it,” said Curry on Monday after practice. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s game three [of the season], we were playing terrible, I was frustrated because I was fouling and I thought I got fouled on the last play. The reaction was definitely a little over the top.

“Stuff happens. I’ll try to continue to be myself and show some fire but do it in a way that doesn’t take away from the team and misrepresent kind of who I am when it comes to a reaction like that. I don’t necessarily think it will be something going forward that you’ll see, but you obviously have some regret about going overboard a little bit and lashing out.”

Curry, who spent Sunday playing golf with Jordan Spieth and Barack Obama, said he did not intend to hit anyone with the mouthguard. “I think once [the official] saw the mouthpiece flying, he was already throwing me out,” Curry said. “I don’t even know if he knew where it went, let alone where it ended up. I would say I wasn’t trying to hit him with it or put him in danger by any type of stretch of the imagination. Again, it was a dumb thing to do. It was stupid. Learn from it and try to move on and be better.”

Golden State are the reigning NBA champions, and are favourites to retain the title, but have lost two of their three opening games of the season. That record won’t worry the Warriors too much – they also lost the first game of last season heavily.