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Steve Kerr explained his sudden lineup change, starting the long-known “death lineup” to steal one on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans — a tactic that worked to complete fruition for the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors bench boss later downplayed the strategy, rather commending the energy and effort his guys played with.
“It’s not about the lineup, it's really not.” Kerr said. “It’s about how hard guys played and how focused they were and the effort from them tonight was night-and-day from Game 3.”
“I thought our guys were really dialed in.”
Steve Kerr on the Death Lineup pic.twitter.com/BgRwy6CDla
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) May 6, 2018
Surprisingly enough, this lineup played the most minutes that they had played together in a game, as they registered a plus-26 in a 26-point win, logging only 18 minutes as a unit.
The rare combination of so many two-way players on the floor gives neither defense nor offense any breaks at any time — making the opposition work through every minute on the floor.
A lot of the praise went to sixth man Andre Iguodala, who took a bench role and embraced it, as soon as Kerr took over the helm in 2014.
“Andre’s not going to get a lot of ink tonight,” Kerr said. “Everyone’s going to go, ‘Well, he was 2-for-7, had six points. Whatever.’ Then everyone’s going to write about KD’s 38 (points), as they should. But what Andre does for us is so dramatic in every aspect.”
Kerr noted Iguodala was a key cog in a machine that has proved nearly unstoppable through a seven-game series throughout the years.
“He settles us down,” Kerr said. “A lot of the spectacular plays that you see us make during the season, it comes when Andre is flying down the floor and he just makes a John Wooden jump stop, waits until everything happens and then swings the ball.
“Then somebody else throws this wild lob. But the only reason it works is because Andre sees the floor and sets it all up. He’s one of the most fundamentally sound players I’ve ever seen in my life.”
