Following his team's NBA Finals Game 1 defeat against the Toronto Raptors, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has admitted that he is feeling a bit concerned regarding his players' current physical and mental state.

According to the three-time NBA champion coach, his team may be experiencing what he has labelled as “championship fatigue” — something that he himself has experienced during his playing years.

“I knew from playing my third year in Chicago, that third year of that championship run, ’97-98, you could just feel the wear and tear not just physically but emotionally, getting up for so many games, being circled on everybody's calendar, making deep playoff runs,” Kerr explained, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.

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The 53-year-old went on to explain that in his mind, this has been a long time coming, and that this fatigue saw its onset towards the tail end of last season.

“We started feeling it on this team, in my mind, last year. We went to the Finals the first two years, dream run. Then we got Kevin,” Kerr said. “It kinda relit the fire. The first year with Kevin, nobody could touch us. Sixty-seven wins [in 2017], 16-1 in the playoffs, it was a new cycle. Last year was when I could kind of feel the length of the journey kick in.

“This [year] is a continuation of that.”

This is a rather surprising statement for Kerr, who is not usually one to make excuses for his team's shortcomings. The again, this could be the champion coach playing mind games, as his team hopes to even out the series in Game 2 on Sunday.