Champion head coach Steve Kerr was not happy with his team's effort during Thursday night's road game against the surprising Indiana Pacers. Short-handed as they might be, the Golden State Warriors showed a rather uninspired play from the top down, which drew the ire of the man at the helm.
“I think just caring, caring in general, that was the main problem,” Kerr said, according to The Associated Press. “Just in general, it's hard to win an NBA game if you don't put forth an effort at all.”
The defending champions were coming off a string of three straight wins since getting three of their All-Stars back for this stretch to end the regular season. However, the Warriors looked too comfortable after a not-so-convincing win over the Russell Westbrook's Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.
While the Pacers managed to carve a double-digit lead by the half, the Warriors showed they could easily close it through some stretches, but just as easily give it away, with Kevin Durant struggling to make shots from his usual spots, yet refusing to seek an alternate way to find his way to the basket.
“Yeah, I'm mad. I'm embarrassed,” added Kerr. “I know that this game doesn't mean anything in the seeding, but the playoffs start next week. It was an embarrassing effort, a pathetic effort.”
Kerr tried different lineups to see how they interact with each other, which would likely determine minute allocations in the postseason, but some felt completely short of his expectations.
In this clip here, there are many mistakes to name — from Shaun Livingston not scrambling for the ball to a lazy run back on defense for Nick Young, which impeded a chase-down challenge by Damian Jones.
Despite having the No. 2 seed locked up, this Warriors team has certainly lost any air of invincibility which they boasted in prior seasons, looking more unmotivated as games go on. A 20-point defeat to the Pacers should serve as a wake-up call, hoping to make some progress in the last three games of the season.
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