The Golden State Warriors has lost their second straight game, this time to the lowly San Antonio Spurs who besides having a star rookie in Victor Wembanyama, they are last in the Western Conference at 14 wins. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spoke after the game to the media about the growing pains the team is currently going through.
Part of those pains is that their featured star in Stephen Curry is absent with an ankle injury suffered in last Thursday's loss to the Chicago Bulls. While Curry is expected to come back in around a week, the team is in the home stretch of the season where they have to rack up victories.
Kerr expressed after the contest that they played “a lot of young guys” in the matchup, even starting two players under the age of 25 in rookie Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Mixing the fact that Curry is out plus the inexperience of the young stars, Kerr said that the “different emotional swings” have to be experienced by them.
“We’re playing a lot of young guys, we started two of them,” Kerr said. “This is all part of it. You have to go through multiple seasons to really understand the different games that are going to happen, the styles, the different emotional swings. All of that has to be experienced by young guys in order to develop and grow and learn how to win.”
“We’re playing a lot of young guys, we started two of them… You have to go through multiple seasons to understand the different games, styles, emotional swings.”
Steve Kerr on growing pains for the Warriors’ young guys 🗣️
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Kerr talks “multiple breakdowns” by the Warriors
Kerr did say that he was pleased by the Warriors started the game as he mentioned the defense being “really good.” However, he would mention the breakdowns that made San Antonio get to the rim and per Kerr, “they got anything they wanted all night” according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
“I liked the way the game started,” Kerr said. “Sochan hit two 3s, which you don’t expect that. But I thought our defense was really good.”
“We had multiple breakdowns,” Kerr continued. “They got to the rim at will. We gave up 28 free throws and 17 3s. You gotta stop something, and I thought they got anything they wanted all night.”
Kerr talks about the lack of “confidence or energy”
Kerr would also admit that with Curry being out, “it changes dramatically for us” as he references the elite abilities the Warriors star provides. There was a severe lack of “confidence or energy” according to the head coach who has won four championships with the team.
“I didn’t feel like we had confidence or energy,” Kerr said. “Obviously we’re playing some lineups that haven’t played together a whole lot. With Steph out, it changes things dramatically for us in terms of what he provides, not only with his shooting but the spacing and the gravity. They did a good job of just staying in front of us. I didn’t think we moved the ball particularly well.”
The one bright side would be star Klay Thompson who scored 27 points off the bench. However, he was blunt as he called the game a “bad loss.”
“This is a bad loss,” Klay Thompson said. “Not good.”
The Warriors are now 33-30 which puts them 10th in the West. Consequently, they will try to get revenge in a rematch with the Spurs Monday night.
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