Warriors Coach Steve Kerr Reacts To GM6 vs Lakers | May 12, 2023

First of all, I want to congratulate the Lakers. They played a hell of a series. Great, great team. I want to congratulate Darvin and his staff. I thought they coached a brilliant series. Darvin has done an amazing job this year in his rookie year as a coach. He's pretty much seen it all. And you can see his poise and just his nature on the sidelines, how important that's been for their team, given everything that they've been through to get to this point. And so congrats again to Darvin and the staff and their team. Of course, LeBron and AD are just brilliant players. They controlled the series. I thought we had our chances. To me, the series came down to games one and four. And the Lakers outplayed us in the key stretches of those games down the stretch. And that's really the difference, but the better team won. So congrats to them, and good luck to them moving forward. Just want to also say how proud I am of our guys. It's been a long and difficult season in many ways. But our guys hung in there. And to be here, to have a chance in the conference semis, when for much of the season we were kind of adrift, it shows the character of our group and how they stuck together. And I want to really salute Wiggs for being there for our guys tonight. He's in a ton of pain. And he did everything possible to be available and did everything he could to make an impact. And it's been a difficult season for Wiggs in a lot of ways, but he's always there for us. And that's why we love him and need him. But our guys hung in there, and we had a shot. And we just couldn't quite do it, but the better team won. And as I said, couldn't be more proud of our group. Questions? Steve, what are your emotions right now? I mean, it's been a long time since you've seen this team season ended. I mean, you've never seen it ended at this stage. Yeah. Combination of just being just sad for our team, for our players. At the same time, very realistic. As I said, the better team won. And I can't fault our players for the effort, our staff, everybody doing everything possible to win. So there's no regrets. But losing sucks. It just does. This is the highest competition in the world. And our guys just thrive in competition. And we came up short today. So because these guys are such competitors, it's going to hurt. But that's why we play. It's to compete against the best and see what we got. And didn't quite have enough, but it wasn't for a lack of heart or effort. As you take the bigger picture view of the season, I know you even mentioned the adversity throughout. What do you think just overall went wrong this year? I think I'm more focused on what went right, to be honest with you. The way the season started, we were disjointed and had that 0-1-5 road trip. And it felt like we were swimming upstream from the beginning. I think we found ourselves down the stretch and in the first round of the playoffs. And to be fair, I think this team probably ultimately maxed out. I think we were barely in the playoff picture for most of the year. So to make that push, to get there, to win an epic first round series, and then to give the Lakers a fight in this series and have our chances, that puts us in the top among the top eight teams in the league. That's probably where we should be. This is not a championship team. If we were, we'd be moving on. So you can look at the year in total and see all the ups and downs. And there was all kinds of stuff that went on and adversity that hit. But our group stayed together and competed till the end and made a pretty good run. Steve, over here. Steph and Clay were, I think, 6 for 26 from 3 today. And obviously, that was an issue a bit throughout the series. Anything with the way the Lakers defended them? I mean, at the root of it, how difficult is it to win when the two of the greatest shooters ever struggle like they did? Yeah, the Lakers have a great defense. I felt when we came in this building late in the regular season, after they had made their trades and sort of reshuffled their deck, I remember walking into the locker room saying, that's a great defensive team. Not good, but great. And so I give them credit. I thought starting Schroeder today on Steph, Schroeder put a lot of pressure on him, made the passing angles a little tougher in pick and roll. And I just think Davis at the rim, he's obviously a huge obstacle and not only shot blocker, but a guy who takes up a lot of space and cuts down a lot of passing lanes. And so I thought the Lakers' defense was great. With that said, I thought we had some open looks early. And to me, we were just in a little bit of a rush. I thought we were forcing the issue in the first quarter and missed a lot of open ones that maybe could have gotten us off and gotten us into a better rhythm. Steve, that was pretty, you know, they made Steph work a lot. They had him isolate him a lot, trapped him a lot. How do you think he, I guess, handled that as the primary creator? And where do you think that ranks among how tough he was played or how much he had to work in the series? Yeah, I mean, he obviously, you know, there's two series in a row where he was playing about 40 minutes a night. And the Lakers made him work. Obviously, that's every team's strategy is to try to put him in pick and roll and try to wear him down. And I thought they did a good job of that. But, you know, playing every other day for the last few weeks, it's hard to sit here and claim that that didn't affect, you know, Steph and Klay's jumpers in these last few games. So maybe a little bit of fatigue and some great defense from the Lakers. And we just couldn't quite find the rhythm. Steve, I know that you're still in the wash of just the series. You've been in it. And obviously, we all turn our attention to what comes next. And you guys have, if it's not a championship team, this ownership group has historically been willing to pay whatever it takes to field a championship team. Does what you guys did this year, does it make a convincing argument to keep this all together or to retool it in certain ways? I think it's probably too raw right now for me to think about. The one thing I will say is that Draymond, Klay, Steph, are core guys. They've got plenty left to offer. There's still plenty in the tank there. I thought they all had great seasons. And it may not have ended on a high note, but all three guys are still high-level players. And I still feel like this team has championship potential. We didn't get there this year, but it's not like this is the end of the road. But the organization has some decisions to make, and we'll eventually get to that point. Steve, what was going on with Draymond's calf tonight? And how would you summarize what kind of season this was for him as a whole? What was going on with Draymond's calf? His cast? Calf. His calf. I was like, he had a cast of it? Yeah, when he went to the locker room, Drew Yoder told me that his ankle and calf were bothering him. So he was getting worked on for much of the second half. So I haven't talked to Rick or Yoder since, but he did come back and come back in the game. So I'm not quite sure how bad it is. Steve, along the lines of what you're talking about with looking ahead, what has working with Bob meant to you over the years? And I guess, how would you gauge your optimistic level that you guys will continue to work together? Yeah, Bob and I have been partners for nine years now, and he's an integral part of everything that we do. And I rely on him for a ton. So I hope he's back. He's a great friend. He's a hell of a GM. He's responsible for a lot of what has happened here. So hopefully he's back, but he has to figure that out. Steve, you mentioned before, like we're talking about not being a championship team and the trials that you guys went through this season. But when did that sentiment, when did you start to feel that? Was it just because of the loss tonight, or was it somewhere earlier in the season? No, I think, how many road games did we win? 11. So you go 11 and 30 on the road during the regular season, that's not what championship teams do. So it felt like all season we were desperately trying to recapture what we had last year. And we did a pretty damn good job of finding something here over the last month. I think we won our last five or six regular season games to come back from 2-0 against a hell of a Sacramento team. And to give this Laker team the fight that we did, be in this competition, we came close to recapturing what we had. But we didn't quite get there. So in my mind, we didn't feel like a championship team all year. But we had the guts and the fortitude to still believe. And we made a pretty good push. We just couldn't get there. Yeah, it's going to be my follow-up question. Was this playoff push, you have been really saying, we're a different team than we were the regular season. So I guess my question was just, how did you guys see that? Yeah, I think the reason it unfolded the way it did, and that we did come close to recapturing that, is we got Wigs back and we got Gary back. And last year, we were second-ranked defense in the league. Most of this year, we struggled defensively. And when those two guys came back, it gave us a lift. It gave our point of attack defense a dramatic lift. And I think we've been one of the best defensive teams in the playoffs through two rounds. So in my mind, we found it because of the return of those two guys and getting healthy and everybody really staying connected and competing. Steve, you've been through a lot of championship runs as a player and a coach. Where does this season rank as far as how exhausting it has been? That seems like the word that nobody's saying, but that's kind of what it feels like. Yeah, I left my guys in the locker room just now to come down here. And you could see the looks in their eyes, just the combination of fatigue and disappointment. And I think, at the same time, just a level of we really gave it a push. I don't think Draymond's going to come in here and have any regrets about the way this season ended. I think he'll probably agree with me that the better team won. But I love my guys, the way they compete, the way they stayed with it. They're champions for a reason. And you don't get to win it every year, but our guys sure think they're going to. And so again, love those guys, proud of them. And we just couldn't quite get it done. Thanks, everybody.