Warriors Steve Kerr: 'It's Pretty Clear What We Have To Do'
LOS ANGELES (KPIX 5) -- During an 82-game regular season, there are times when even the best NBA teams lay an egg and put on a lackluster perform. Those games films are generally tossed into the garbage bin moments after the final buzzer.
But in the playoffs, even in a nightmare like the Golden State Warriors 31-point second-half collapse in Game 2, the films are played over and over and over.
"You watch the hell out of that video," Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reports while preparing for Thursday night's Game 3. "You flush the ones during the season down the toilet. Playoffs, you got to watch everything. So I've watched the game several times. It's pretty clear as a (coaching) staff what we have to do. And let's face it. We were doing all right. We won Game One and we were up 31 in Game Two. We were doing fine."
Kerr and his staff let the stunning performance wear off a bit, but were in the film room early Tuesday morning.
"Coaches came in and we watch the tape together," he said. "We talked about our adjustments -- all that stuff. I'm sure everybody watched it again at home. Some guys did watch it right after they got home from the game, I don't usually do that. I usually try to get to sleep and watch it in the morning. In the playoffs, the tape is gold because you are playing the same opponent over and over again."
Turnovers and the offensive surge of Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell keyed the Clipper rally. Coming off the bench, Williams is averaging 30.5 points per game in the series while Harrell is chipping in 25.5 points per contest.
"We let go off the rope," Kerr said of the collapse in the second half. "I don't like using that expression unless you really have to use it. We let go of the rope. We got what we deserved."
When asked if watching the film was a grim task, Kerr chuckled: "We're cyborgs. We just lock in. There's no emotion involved." But it had to be difficult to watch the lackadaisical turnovers soar in the second half.
"If you watched the tape, there were so many unforced errors," Kerr said. "I know our guys, They know what they doing. They've won titles. They know what they have to clean up. That number should be down to 15. If you take out the plays of insanity. It would be below 15."
Nothing gets Kerr worked up in the film room or during the game than a careless turnover. A bad shot may get a bit of reaction from him as he sits on the bench. A careless turnover gets Kerr on his feet and often leads to an angry time out.
"It's because you have to work so hard to get the damn ball," he said of his reaction. "You play 24 seconds of defense. My two pet peeves are not boxing out because you play 24 seconds of defense and then you let them get the ball back. You got to do it again just because you couldn't turn and look and find your guy. That gets me out of my seat."
"And then on offense, we have just done all that work down there (on the defensive end), we're going to come down and throw an alley opp off the backboard? You can't do that. Our guys know that. That's what I have to constantly enforce...The chaos is good but at times it came bite us."