The Warriors trail the Houston Rockets 3-2 in the Western Conference Finals. Having to win two straight games to avoid elimination, including Game 7 in Houston, seems like a daunting task, but the team has outwardly expressed optimism and confidence in their ability to get it done.
Head coach Steve Kerr has been part of this optimism, and he joined Tolbert & Lund Friday to flesh out his thoughts.
“I actually feel pretty good,” Kerr said. “I mean, under the circumstances, because I just feel like we’re ready to break through. I think Houston’s a great team, and they’ve absolutely defended us well. But we’ve defended them well too. And I think if we could just clean a couple things up, I really believe we’re gonna be in good shape. Last night, we defended the whole team well. Chris Paul made some incredible shots. Just almost willed the team to victory. But to me, our turnovers and too much reaching. We sent them to the line a lot, and just gave them 10 extra possessions then what we had. So that’s the difference. We gotta clean that up. If we do, I think we’ll be in good shape.”
Part of the reason for Kerr’s optimism had to do with to way the team has adjusted to playing without Andre Iguodala, who has missed Games 4 and 5 of the series with a knee injury suffered after his knee collided with Rockets guard James Harden’s late in Game 3, which the Warriors won by 41 points.
“Well, I think Andre’s absence the last two games has been … what it’s meant to our offensive flow. And I think it’s taken a couple games to sort of figure some things out. And he’s the guy who kind of, we talk about all the time, he makes the pass that leads to the assist, he gets the ball swung from one side of the court to the other to get the defense to have to react, and there may not even be a stat involved for that, with an assist or a point, but he makes the whole play happen. And so we’ve missed that, and as a result we’ve been stagnant. But I thought last night we found a few things that kind of started to get our rhythm back. And again, Houston’s done a great job defensively, and they’re switching everything just like we do, which is very disruptive. But I felt like there were some things that happened that could lead to more openings and more pace for us tomorrow.”
Listen to the interview below. To hear Kerr on his confidence in the Warriors, skip to the 2:15 mark.