It was the kind of moment that showed why the Warriors can’t be left out.
Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and Draymond Green have been in the trenches together for 14 seasons, learning each other’s tendencies during battles that have won them four championships in eight seasons and made them the league’s modern dynasty.
That was never more apparent than when Kerr lost control in Monday’s 103-102 loss to the Clippers. In reality, he knew exactly what he was doing.
It may not have looked like it when Kerr started yelling while gesticulating wildly after he thought the officials blew the whistle twice, including disallowing a Curry shot with 8:44 left that appeared to be a continuation of a foul, followed less than a minute later by officials not calling John Collins for goaltending.
Kerr solved the referees. He ran along the sideline. His assistant coach had to restrain him. He received two technical fouls and was ejected.
It looked bad.
Snoop Dogg, who served as a guest analyst for NBC, chimed in, saying, “The Arizona Wildcat came out of him.” After the game, a reporter even asked Curry if he wished his coach could have remained calm in that moment.
But the opposite was true.
Not only did Kerr’s histrionics help the Warriors nearly erase a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, but it also prevented Curry or Green from having to get a fit of their own.
“Honestly, that’s what I was going to do until I saw him,” said Curry, who picked up his fifth foul after Collins’ block led to a Clippers fast break. “…I love that Steve set that on fire. Someone had to do it tonight.”
The symbiosis at that moment between a coach and his stars may seem like a small thing. But it is difficult to find a team with this level of knowledge and continuity.
After Monday’s defeat, there was even optimism in the locker room. Green, Curry and Jimmy Butler all said they felt the tide was starting to turn for the Warriors (19-18), who have won six of their last nine games and are on the cusp of an eight-game homestand heading into Wednesday’s showdown with Milwaukee.
“I think we’re starting to turn a corner,” Green said.
Curry added: “The atmosphere is good.”
Green illustrated that point perfectly, showing the team’s unique camaraderie when asked if he’d ever seen Kerr as pissed off as he was on Monday.
“Yeah, when he was about to kill me in the huddle the other day,” Green said, referring to a recent conversation with his coach on Dec. 22 that led to them exchanging snarky comments and Green walking back to the locker room during a game.
Just a few weeks after that tense moment, Green was able to joke about the incident.
That’s the magic of this team.
Every now and then Green and Kerr have an explosion. But they also know how to let things go after spending more time together than with their own families over the past fifteen years.
Green had Kerr back on Monday and said without hesitation that he had “the right response.”
In the end, things didn’t go the way the Warriors wanted against the Clippers. Curry made two threes in the final two minutes to cut the Clippers’ lead to one, but he fouled the zero with 43 seconds left. Butler then missed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer.
Despite the tough losses, including the loss of a coach and a star player, it felt like the Warriors were still the Warriors.
Kerr knew what to do when things started to go wrong.
Curry showed Curry magic with the game on the line. And Green repeatedly sacrificed his body, suffering a rib bruise after diving for a loose ball in the second quarter and later rolling his ankle and falling on his left wrist.
“Steve gets thrown out and Dray gets knocked down, hurt, and then he gets back up because he knows we need him, it’s stuff like that where you know everyone’s got two feet in it,” Butler said.
This much is certain: Curry and Green loved watching Kerr go crazy, and the significance of that moment went beyond what the naked eye could perceive.
But the big question is: How did the recently acquired Butler feel about seeing his coach lose?
Was the team’s third star on board?
“I like confrontation when mom starts yelling,” he said. “So that’s definitely good.”
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