After surveying the scorched landscape and calculating the damage on Sunday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr reached for the white flag, raised it above his head and waved it in emphatic surrender.
At halftime.
With his team trailing the rampaging Celtics by 44 at TD Garden in Boston.
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“[The Celtics] were great,” Kerr told reporters after a 140-88 loss. “They were physical right from the start. They were switching, they put ball pressure on. They were fantastic. Boston is a hell of a team, and this was a really impressive performance by them at both ends.”
It was so lopsided that Kerr decided to bench Golden State’s four-ring trio – Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson – for the second half of the blowout-in-progress. This was, all things considered, the prudent move.
Playing the first half like a team at the end of a successful road trip and yearning to come home, the Warriors took the flame-broiling in stride not because they enjoyed it, but because this game is but a blip relative to the 22 remaining on their schedule.
“You flush it down the down the toilet,” Kerr said. “We had a great road trip, 3-1. We've had a million games. Boston was amazing; we weren't beating them today. So, we head home and get ready for Wednesday.”
Golden State Warriors
Golden State will take Monday off, return to practice Tuesday and prepare for a game against the surging Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday at Chase Center.
The Warriors had good reason to enjoy the long flight home. It was a successful swing through the Eastern Conference despite being, well, calamitous. Andrew Wiggins took a leave of absence as the team traveled from the Bay Area and missed all four games. Brandin Podziemski tweaked his right knee on Thursday and missed the last two games. Curry came away from the back-to-back set in New York and Toronto feeling bursitis in his right knee.
Winning three of four under those conditions is worthy of pride. If Golden State can continue to win 75 percent of its games – at least 16 of the final 22 – it will have a very good chance of achieving its goal of a top-six finish in the Western Conference.
That will, however, require optimum health. Curry was listed as questionable before being cleared after his pregame warmup. Thompson’s left hamstring reportedly tightened up in the first half. Playing either in the second half of this game would have been a pointless risk.
Sitting Thompson was cautionary. Sitting Green was logical. Sitting Curry, who played 17 minutes in the first half, was both.
“At least there wasn't a lot of wear,” Kerr said. “But it's different when you give a guy a day off. If he gets a day off, it's mentally refreshing as well. So, this was not a day off for Steph, although he probably could have used one. He's played so well and for so long this year.
“But hopefully, the next few days will get him recharged. Hopefully he'll go out and play golf or something and get away from it and come back Wednesday night ready.”
Clearly, this game meant much more to Boston than the Warriors. Having lost to Golden State in December at Chase Center, the Celtics felt it was important to avoid being on the dustbin end of a season sweep. They own the best record in the league and the best home record. Yet 21 months after losing to Golden State in the 2022 NBA Finals, the Celtics still consider the Warriors a mountain they must scale.
“We feel like we’re the best team in the league,” Jaylen Brown said during a halftime interview with ABC. “Obviously, a couple years ago they got us in The Finals. We still think about that.”
We still think about that is an admission that the Celtics’ collective psyche was aching for this nourishment.
The Warriors, by contrast, have moved on. They’ll take the season split against any team in the East rather than risk injury that could further compromise them in crucial games against foes in the West.
This was one game. Their bodies were reeling, and after Boston closed the first quarter with a 23-1 run, it’s conceivable that indifference crept into their minds. The Celtics outscored the Warriors 61-17 over the final 18 minutes of the half, prompting Kerr to capitulate.
As he should have. One loss, even if hammered into splinters, won’t dictate the direction of this season. That will be determined by how the Warriors perform over each of the next 22.
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