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Kerr cites conditioning as Warriors’ downfall, but players disagree after loss to Rockets

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OAKLAND–The Golden State Warriors controlled the first three quarters of action on Opening Night.

And though that’s often been enough for Steve Kerr squads of the past, it wasn’t enough to take down the Houston Rockets.

Houston needed a 34-20 fourth quarter to do it, but the Rockets pulled off a stunning comeback to down Golden State two and a half hours after the Warriors slipped on their championship rings for the first time. After a preseason trip to China left his team with jetlag last week, Kerr didn’t want to put the blame for Tuesday’s loss entirely on weak legs. Still, the Warriors’ fourth-year head coach said conditioning was a problem.

“It doesn’t matter what it’s because of, we just have to get in better shape,” Kerr said. “We’ll see how long that takes but in this league, it takes a lot of energy to play 48 minutes. Especially defensively, to get stops and to chase shooters like Houston has, taking all of those threes, a lot of energy that you have to expend. So we have to keep working. We’ll get there, but obviously we’re not ready yet.”

After the game, Kerr’s players actually disagreed with his comments about their conditioning, and blamed their fourth quarter breakdown on communication and defensive lapses. Without Andre Iguodala who missed Tuesday’s game with a back injury, and Draymond Green, who was sidelined after three quarters with a knee injury, Golden State didn’t just run out of juice. According to Klay Thompson, they ran away from their game plan.

“I don’t think so, I just think our communication wasn’t very good,” Thompson said. “We didn’t stick to the game plan, gave them too many wide open three’s, but other than that, we played a great game. We were up 17, usually the normal us would close it out, but we just let them back in the game unfortunately. We’ll learn from it, we’ll get better and it’s good for us to play these close games early and grow from it, believe it or not.”

The Warriors’ leader, Steph Curry, said that conditioning was no excuse for Tuesday’s loss. Though Curry acknowledged he and his teammates aren’t in “playoff shape” just yet, he said Golden State needed to close out Houston.

As for Kevin Durant, he thought the Warriors failed to capitalize on the positive energy created by the team’s ring ceremony. Though Golden State got off to a hot start, it failed in the closing minutes when Durant was forced to play the five in an ultra-small lineup.

“Nah, I mean, I wouldn’t say that,” Durant said, when asked if conditioning was an issue. “The energy in the building was really, really high. You know, our adrenaline was pumping before the game and you know, maybe we kind of brought that a little bit, but I think overall, I think our conditioning was pretty good, definitely could get better but just a tough loss, man.”