Warriors’ Steve Kerr Gets Brutally Honest on Steph Curry After Deflating Loss

Stephen Curry committed a game-high seven turnovers, none bigger than his errant alley-oop pass to Jonathan Kuminga with 1:53 left that kept the Golden State Warriors from coming back and eventually lost to a Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray-less Denver Nuggets 114-105 on Monday, March 17, at Chase Center.

The deflating loss snapped the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr made a brutal admission after the loss.

“He’s tired,” Kerr said of Curry.

The Warriors superstar had his worst game since the Jimmy Butler transformational trade at the deadline. Curry bled for 20 points on 6-of-21 shooting night. He nearly had half of the Warriors’ 20 turnovers.

“Steph has just been carrying us for a month,” Kerr told reporters. “He’s been amazing.  He’s tired so we got to get him some rest. I just can see it he doesn’t have his energy right now.”

Curry has been ruled out to play on the second night of a back-to-back schedule when the Warriors host the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night, March 18.

The costly loss kept the Warriors from creating a separation from the Minnesota Timberwolves, who also lost to the Indiana Pacers in overtime, for the sixth seed in the loaded Western Conference.

Before the decision, Kerr said after the game that they were considering it to get Curry “rejuvenated for his sake and the remainder of our games.”

Over his last five games, Curry struggled from the field, shooting only 37.2% and 32.2% from the 3-point line.

“I think he’s been tired the last few games and so we’ve got to find a way to get him get him his juice back,” Kerr said.

‘No Sense of Urgency’

Without Jokic and Murray, the Warriors “let their guard down,” according to reserve guard Gary Payton II, who had 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting off the bench.

“No sense of urgency,” Kerr said of his team’s listless effort. “There was no good energy,  no good body language. We’re feeling sorry for ourselves early. It was a tough night.”

Curry took the blame for the Warriors’ erratic game.

“Whenever we have the amount of turnovers we did and not even the amount, but the type – that can’t happen,” Curry told reporters. “Obviously that starts with me.”

They were badly outrebounded 53-38 and outshot by two more field goals made and six more 3-pointers as the Warriors could only hit 8-of-33 from downtown.

‘We Will Be Better’

Aaron Gordon picked up the slack for the Nuggets missing top stars with 38 points while Michael Porter Jr. added 21. Russell Westbrook wreaked havoc with a triple-double (12 points, 16 assists, 12 rebounds and 3 steals).

“They just had guys that played a lot harder than we did tonight,” Curry told reporters. “And as much as we tried to come back, every time we made a run it was like, ‘Oh, you’re down eight, you’re down 10, you’re down 12,’ as opposed to really threatening them with a real comeback.”

Butler led the Warriors with 23 points on 50% shooting from the field. He added eight rebounds and six assists.

“We know that we have to be better,” Butler told reporters. “We know that we will be better. We’re expected to win every game from here on out. We are. We put this behind us knowing that we can be better, and we will be.”