After recent struggles, Steve Kerr said the Warriors are finally in the 'real NBA'
It’s been a rough stretch for the Golden State Warriors in recent weeks.
The reigning NBA champions have lost five of their last seven games — including three-straight on their road trip through Texas, which ended with a 104-92 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. The trip was also coach Steve Kerr’s first 0-3 showing on a road trip since he took over the Warriors.
The team has been without Stephen Curry, who is dealing with a groin injury, and an injured Draymond Green, who has missed two games with a foot issue. Green was also suspended for one game for “conduct detrimental to the team” after fighting with teammate Kevin Durant, causing talk of internal drama to run rampant about the organization.
All in all, Kerr said it’s been the toughest stretch he’s faced with this team.
“Oh, yeah,” Kerr said, via ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “But I’ve had a dream run for four and a half years. We’ve had such a charmed existence the last four seasons. This is the toughest stretch we’ve been in.
“This is the real NBA. We haven’t been in the real NBA the last few years. We’ve been in this dream. And so now we’re faced real adversity and we got to get out of it ourselves.”
The “dream run” was going to come to an end at some point. It always does. And for the Warriors’ sake, it’s probably good that it’s happening now in November rather than in the spring with the playoffs right around the corner.
In order to get that back on track, Kerr has a pretty simple message: Play with joy.
While Sunday’s showing wasn’t perfect, Kerr said he saw good stretches from his team against the Spurs. For now, that’s a start to get them back on track.
“Everyone has to come together and you can’t feel sorry for yourselves,” Kerr said, via ESPN. “You have to commit to fighting and executing, competing for 48 minutes. I thought we did that for maybe 24 minutes (against the Spurs). We had a couple good stretches. I was very proud of the group in the second half, got us back in the game and they fought.
“It’s not enough to do that for a stretch and then go through a bad spell. You got to be competing the whole time and playing with some poise and playing with a purpose. I didn’t think we did that tonight.”
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