Steve Kerr defends Stephen Curry’s low minute total after loss

MINNEAPOLIS — Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry watched from the bench as his team took blow after blow from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the fourth quarter of their eventual 114-110 loss Sunday night.

He was ready and expected to return, but he remained on the bench for 11 straight minutes.

After being knocked out of the game with four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Curry was not reinstated until just over six minutes remaining in the fourth. He pushed them, but the damage was already done.

“I want to play as many minutes as I'm fresh and capable of, so I'm a little [surprised] knowing they were going to run,” said Curry, who played only 30 minutes. “Our lead was fading.”

Curry scored 31 points on 9-of-21 shooting in his 30 minutes, including five 3-pointers. Golden State was plus-6 in the minutes Curry was on the court, and minus-10 when he wasn't.

But Warriors coach Steve Kerr isn't willing to blame Curry's minutes for the recent loss.

“We can’t expect to ride Steph game after game after game,” Kerr said. “We've been putting the burden of this franchise on his shoulders for 15 years. We can't expect him to play 35 minutes… If you mean playing 30 minutes instead of 32, that's a difference between a win and a loss, I totally disagree with that. We're trying to win the game. And we're also trying to keep it fresh.

Against the Indiana Pacers on Friday — a game in which the Warriors struggled to find urgency or connectivity — Curry played 35 minutes, including the entire fourth quarter.

“I played the whole fourth quarter against Indiana and it didn't work, it didn't work [against Minnesota]. We have to find a happy medium,” Curry said.

He added: “The situation will define itself in real time. Every game counts as we get closer to the other end of the table that we never thought we would be in. No one will hold up the white flag and will say we'll mail it in. If it means playing more minutes I'll be willing to do that.

Just two weeks ago, the Golden State Warriors were motivated to get out of the play-in tournament to secure a spot in the top 6. But now, as Curry mentioned, their hopes for tenth place aren't hanging by a thread. They are one game ahead of the Houston Rockets, one of the hottest teams in the league right now, with an eight-game winning streak.

Golden State is two games behind the Los Angeles Lakers for ninth place.

Earlier in the week, Curry said he didn't care as much about where the Warriors finished in the play-in race, just that they spent the last few handfuls of regular season games at develop habits that will allow them to survive and move forward. the playoffs.

“What Steph is saying is if we don't build habits, it doesn't matter,” Kerr said. “You get in the play-in, you don’t, if you don’t have the habits, you don’t get anywhere.”

Heading into Sunday's game, the most glaring habits to fix were energy and focus. These were most problematic in transition defense, shot selection, physicality and communication against the Pacers.

They all fall under what the Warriors categorize as “stays” — where someone isn’t crashing the boards or sprinting on defense. Instead, they stay there.

The Warriors believe their habits improved a lot against the Timberwolves. Kerr went so far as to say that if his team competes like it has in Minnesota over the last 12 games, they will put themselves in a position to do something.

There is one caveat: improvement did not lead to a victory. For that reason, Draymond Green said Sunday's performance shouldn't serve as a beacon of hope.

“We keep losing,” Green said. “It’s not encouraging.”