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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 16, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game One

Warriors - 104, Rockets - 78

Q. Was the nature of Curry's injury such that you would not have played him even if the Rockets had made a deeper run at you in the second half?
STEVE KERR: Yes, I didn't like the way he was moving when he went back out in the third quarter. He wanted to stay in, but he wasn't moving well, so we weren't going to play him regardless of what happened.

Q. I guess a two-parter: What is his status going forward in addition on that little skirmish he had with Beverley early on, did you mind that? Did you object to what Beverley did, that's the two parter?
STEVE KERR: I didn't see -- I mean. I wasn't really locked in on the exchange and haven't seen the replay, so I don't really know what happened. But that's to be expected. Playoffs, both guys are competitive, good defender. That's what he does. He tries to get under your skin. He's just doing his job. But I haven't seen the play.

As far as Monday, I would say Steph is questionable. So we'll see how he responds the next couple of days and we'll go from there.

Q. Steph basically didn't play in the second half and you win by 26 or whatever it was. Are you satisfied with this game? Do you think there are issues with the way you played?
STEVE KERR: No, very satisfied. I thought our defense was excellent. We didn't reach. We made them earn every point. We did have the brief moment when Steph went out when we lost our poise and lost our focus a little bit. But we quickly recovered and a lot of guys played very well. It was a good, solid victory.

Q. Despite what's going on with the scoreboard, but obviously there is something going on from the court, the push and the fall down and something. How do you explain that?
STEVE KERR: The push and the fall down with who?

Q. With the players.
STEVE KERR: It's the playoffs. That's how you explain it.

Q. Do you describe it as dirty plays or something like that?
STEVE KERR: No, no, there was nothing dirty. Just two teams that want to win, so there were a few physical plays. That's to be expected.

Q. With Curry, I was wondering what the exact issue is. Is it his ankle again or a foot issue?
STEVE KERR: As far as I understand, he rolled his ankle. I don't know how bad it is, but as I said, we'll see tomorrow.

Q. (No Microphone) looked like even the coaching staff and Steph had a pretty good discussion when he was coming off the floor. How badly did he want to stay in the game?
STEVE KERR: You mean when he came out?

Q. When he came back towards the end.
STEVE KERR: Well, he saw I was writing the five players names on the board who I'm sending out there and he saw his name wasn't on there and he was incredulous. And I said I don't like the way you're moving right now. He said, no, I'll be all right, and of course he's going to say that. He's a competitor. He wants to play. But we're not going to let him play if there's any risk of making it worse. Obviously we're hoping that we're going to be in the playoffs for the next couple of months. So we don't want to make any chances.

Q. Pretty amazing to see James Harden in a playoff game without shooting a free throw? How proud of that stat are you?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, that was important. That's what he does western anybody in the league, you know, get to the line, draw fouls. So I thought Klay did a great job, Andre did a great job, our bigs stayed vertical. They didn't reach when he came in to the paint. He got going in the second half, but we kept him off the line, which was very important.

Q. What did you think of the way your bench performed in this game?
STEVE KERR: I thought the bench was good. When a guy gets injured, especially when the MVP gets injured, but when any starter gets injured, it kind of throws the rotation out of whack. So bringing Shaun in early in the third quarter kind of changed things. Bogut foul trouble, changed things. I thought everybody was ready.

Mo played really well. He did a great job for us, and you know Shaun settled us down. Andre I thought had a brilliant game. He didn't shoot it well, but this is a typical Andre Iguodala box score. He's plus-23 and he made one shot. There is a lot more to the game than making shots, obviously. His defense was good. He had seven assists. He settled us down. But all of the bench was great. L.B. came in and gave us good minutes as well.

Q. Did you have to tell your team we know teams are going to try to bump us around? We know they're going to go after Steph and how do you react or how do you want your team to react over something like that?
STEVE KERR: Just the way they reacted, with poise and physical play themselves without doing anything dirty. But our defense was physical and solid and that's the way to respond. It really is the playoffs. This is how these playoff games go. There's a ton of time to prepare. It's a different game from earlier in the season in terms of the intensity. This was only Game 1, and by the time you're at Game 4, everybody's tired of seeing each other. The physical play usually ramps up, and I think that's the way people try to play Steph in particular. That's what I would do.

As skilled as he is, I would try to hold him and grab him and do anything I could to keep him from getting into a rhythm. And we've got to be ready for that, but we've been preparing for that because we've seen a lot of defense like that.

Q. He responded to Beverley pretty quickly, pretty aggressively on that play. Do you like to see that from Steph, that kind of reaction?
STEVE KERR: Sure, sure. As long as he doesn't get carried away. But I've said since I've been here, Steph comes across as a choir boy, but he's a competitor, big-time competitor.

Q. History repeating where players will go after a guy who is maybe the top player on the court and try to get involved in the struggle and both get tossed. Do you think there was anything there with Beverley or was it just physical?
STEVE KERR: Oh, I don't know. I just thought it was physical. I didn't see anything dirty. I have a lot of respect for Beverley and the way he plays. He's a competitor, he's just trying to do his job and this kind of stuff happens.

Q. Right now it's obvious you should have never gone for 73 wins when your team's just dead tired in this game?
STEVE KERR: That's probably why Steph rolled his ankle because he went for 73 (Laughing) (No Microphone).

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