MINNEAPOLIS — It wasn’t Steph Curry’s patented lookaway that caught Steve Kerr’s attention, it was everything that led up to the two-time MVP’s latest game-sealing dagger.
With an eight-point lead and just over two minutes left in the Target Center, the Warriors went for the kill. Not like other teams do, with their star player walking down the shot clock and pulling up for a contested jumper. But with the type of elemental Warriors Way play that has too often deserted them this season.
Curry and Trayce Jackson-Davis ran a high pick-and-roll, with everyone in the building expecting a Minnesota blitz. Sensing two defenders coming to the ball, Curry flipped a pass to the center in the short roll. Jackson-Davis skipped it quickly over to Andrew Wiggins in the corner, who swung an extra one to point guard Dennis Schroder.
Even though he’s the new guy, Schroder knew enough to find Curry with one last pass.
One dribble, four passes, and one big celebratory scream from Curry.
“That’s the game right there,” Kerr said after the Warriors’ 113-103 win over Minnesota.
“That’s what we’re trying to impart on our young players. We have Steph Curry on our team. So, pass the ball. Move the ball. And if Steph gets off it early because he’s gained an advantage, now the defense is scrambling. This is how we’ve played for 10 years.”
When Kerr wants to make a point, he repeats it. At practices, in film sessions, during timeouts. And not just with his team, he reiterates it through the channels available to him.
That can even include using a press conference pulpit.
“It’s important for our young players to understand we don’t need contested 17 footers with 12 on the shot clock — that’s a bad shot,” Kerr said.
“It’s something we have to recognize and get better at. When you have Steph Curry on the team, you pass the ball. Because if you pass it two or three times, the defense is scrambling and all hell breaks loose. So it’s a choice: we can either do that and win games, or we could shoot a whole bunch of 15-foot contested shots in the middle of the shot clock and be a lousy NBA team. It’s up to us and we are hammering that point home for our team.”
Kerr didn’t name names, but that’s about as pointed as a coach can be.
The Warriors don’t have many young players on their roster, so the process of elimination can be pretty specific. Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Moses Moody — who missed his fourth straight game with knee soreness — are the only rotation players under 25.
Jackson-Davis and Podziemski played arguably their best games of the season in the win over the Timberwolves. The center, who was pivotal in the game-sealing play Kerr raved about, finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and a plus-7. He also has taken one shot outside nine feet all year. He is not the culprit of Kerr’s ire.
“He played decisive, aggressive the entire game,” Curry said. Played with energy.
Podziemski, meanwhile, logged 12 points, seven rebounds and two steals against Minnesota. He has had a tough start to his sophomore season but has come on stronger in the past week and played much more decisively on Saturday, driving closeouts and pulling the trigger on open shots.
Asked about Kerr’s comments postgame, Podziemski said he doesn’t think, he just plays.
“I know we have Steph Curry on the court, and if he’s open I’m going to throw the ball to him,” Podziemski said.
Then there’s Kuminga, who has returned to a bench role after a very public yet brief elevation into the starting lineup. The fourth-year wing put together three straight 20-point games, plus a massive 31-point performance in a win without both Curry and Draymond Green this month. He has generally been a good passer with wide court vision, but is more of an isolation scorer than Kerr’s system tends to lend itself to. He needs the ball, and occasionally stops it.
One play against the Timberwolves, Kuminga drove into the paint and had Podziemski open on the wing, but instead threw up a tough shot in the lane that badly missed.
Kuminga finished with 11 points on a rough 3-for-11 shooting, but was a part of some of Golden State’s best fourth-quarter lineups. And, apparently, part of Kerr’s frustration.
Kerr made his impassioned plea not in the heat of the moment after a tough loss, but rather after a hard-fought, much needed win. He did it while answering a question about getting over their late-game scoring struggles — an inquiry only tangentially related to the point he got across.
Curry, in his own words, seemed to concur with his coach that the Warriors are going to be better off if they figure out how to operate around him.
“For me, anybody who plays with me, you have to play confident and decisive,” Curry said. “And you’re okay with mistakes as long as they’re done with the mindset of you trying to be aggressive. I’m cool with that. We also could talk about adjustments and sets and reads that allow me to be a threat on the ball, off the ball, to create easy shots. And over the course of 48 minutes, if we have more of that bucket than the bucket Coach is talking about, we’re going to be in good shape.”
