NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: WARRIORS vs KINGS

April 20, 2023

Steve Kerr

Media Conference

Warriors 114, Kings 97

Q. How important was the defense, down the stretch missing two of your top defenders, led to some spectacular offense; how much did that mean?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, the defense has been good all series. It's just that in the first two games, we didn't rebound, so we didn't complete the possessions and we turned it over so they scored a ton in transition.

Tonight was about taking care of the glass and taking care of the ball, and our halfcourt defense was really good. Our guys were playing with a lot of energy, and eventually, that's going to lead to offence, just getting out in transition. And I thought we finally broke through offensively in the second half. But the game went the way it did because we took care of the ball.

Q. You said you were extremely surprised by Draymond's suspension. Just what did you think about in general the way that you guys responded without having him on the floor tonight?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, our guys were locked in yesterday when the news came in, and we turned the page pretty quickly. There's no need to, as I said yesterday, there's no need to belabor the point. It's just the League made the decision. You only have one path to take and that's get ready for the next one and that's what our guys did.

Q. Pretty important minutes out of Moody and Kuminga. Did you know you were going to rely on them?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, both guys were in the rotation plans going into the game and I thought Moses really got us going in that first half with those two threes, and JK, after a slow start, gave us some good minutes in the second half.

So it's good to see the young guys come through.

Q. Before the game, you mentioned John Wooden, "Be quick but don't hurry." How do you feel your guys did, not rushing, remaining under control?

STEVE KERR: That was the key. Just wasn't so much about the pace as it was about the decision-making, and we had some early crazy ones that we kind of got away with, and as the game went on, I think the guys understood just what that decision-making was doing, forcing Sacramento to play in the halfcourt where we have been making it tough on them throughout the series.

Q. Looney had 20 rebounds, nine assist, guarded Sabonis obviously. What overall did you think of his game and particularly with the nine assists, how much does his responsibility there go up with no Draymond?

STEVE KERR: The way we've been playing, the two of them have been trading off on Sabonis after -- after we started -- start with the first six minutes or so with both of them on the floor. First two games of the series, they were flip flopping, but tonight obviously, he took in most of the game. I thought JaMychal came in and did a really good job on him as well.

But this is Loon. This is who he is. We've seen it in the playoffs for years now. He's always locked into the game plan. He never makes mistakes. He rebounds like crazy. He makes the right decision. The game is much simpler when Loon is out there for our guys.

Q. Following up on Kevon, we were talking a lot about rebounding heading into this game. What did you see from his effort on the board, how is it different than past games?

STEVE KERR: Just the energy from our whole team allowed us to control the glass. We are hitting bodies early rather than what we were doing in Sacramento where we were ball watching, and everybody else boxing out aloud Loon to get a lot of those defensive boards.

Then offensively, you know, I think we spaced them out pretty well, and then Loon was in the pocket on our pick-and-rolls and just going right to the rim, so he found a lot of offensive rebounding opportunities.

Q. You mentioned Moody and Kuminga. How essential is it if you're go going to win the series, to get contributions from seven, eight, nine on the roster in the bench, in the context of throughout this run, in the last nine or ten years, you've always got some unexpected big games from Livingston, Ian Clark, whatever?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, that's what the playoffs are about. You ride with your stars and then the guys, the role players need to step up and make plays, and our guys did that tonight.

So could be someone different next game. I just thought that all those guys came in. I thought Donte was fantastic. He didn't shoot the ball particularly well but he was all over the glass. He handled the ball. He had eight assists. Took some pressure off of Steph and Jordan and got us into our flow.

Q. Steph took 25 shots, they looked like all really about shots. Was it a schematic change or just Steph being Steph and figuring out the defense?

STEVE KERR: No, there was nothing different. Schematically. Just we controlled the gale, and again with our rebounding, with our defense and he saw what he -- where he could attack and he's been doing this for so long, he figures out the game pretty quickly and sees what's out there and then reacts accordingly.

Q. Did you do anything when he hit 12 turnovers? The goal, hitting 12 turnovers, did you celebrate somehow?

STEVE KERR: I'm going to have a margarita right now. But I was going to do that even if we had 25 turnovers (laughter).

Q. Before the game you said that you expected the crowd to supplant Draymond's energy. You're 12-1 in this building. How do you think the crowd did tonight and what is it about Chase?

STEVE KERR: Crowd was great. I know it's a different arena than Oracle but it's the same dynamic, which is the Bay Area. It's a basketball hotbed. People love basketball here, and whether it's at Oracle or Chase, we just have great basketball fans in the area.

And I do like that this building, the roof is not sky high like a lot of the new arenas. They have built this arena so that it was pretty intimate and our crowd, you can feel the crowd, they are right on top of you, and it's become a great home floor for us.

Q. We have seen big scoring nights from Steph but 36 points and one turnover, what does that say about his style to kind of have everything under control like he did tonight?

STEVE KERR: Again, that's been the message and that was the key, and Steph is our point guard, so it starts with him, and our guys followed suit and we for the most part just stacked good possessions on top of one another, and understood the value of even if we're not scoring, get control of the ball, don't give them transition opportunities and make them score in the halfcourt. That's kind of playoff basketball in general but definitely against a team like Sacramento that thrives in transition.

Q. Feels like a simple question but how does this win change the dynamic of the series?

STEVE KERR: Well, nothing's happened yet. You know, this is how the series -- or these series are designed, right. It's 2-2 and then you go 1-1-1 until somebody wins a road game, it's just you're kind of -- everybody is just holding serve.

That's all that's happened so far.

Q. They are 27 percent from three in the series on a pretty high volume. Do you feel like you guys are defending the three very well or is it just kind of variants and their cold right now?

STEVE KERR: You know, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that we have forced every three that they have taken to be a difficult one, but that's the plan. We're trying to do that as best we can. I'm sure they are going to have a game where they knock down some more threes, but we can withstand that as long as we're doing what we did tonight, rebounding, and taking care of the ball.