Steve Kerr knows the Warriors’ biggest challenge with Steph Curry out injured will be scoring.
Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga combined for 63 points on Saturday night, but it wasn’t enough to earn a win as Golden State lost 102-97 in Game 3 of its playoff series with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He’ll need more than 34 points from the rest of his team to win Game 4 on Monday (7 p.m. PT, TNT).
“I’m very confident that both JK and Jimmy will play well, but to expect 63 points combined again is probably unrealistic,” the Warriors’ coach said in a Sunday conference call.
Kuminga, who had been out of the Warriors’ rotation, scored 30, including three 3-pointers on four attempts. He is 19-of-29 from the field over the last two games as the Warriors have turned to his aggressive offense to keep them in games without Curry.
“Really a fantastic effort from JK and really happy for him,” Kerr said. “The way he stayed ready through the last couple of weeks where things hadn’t gone his way and we’re going to need him, obviously, going forward.”
Butler led Golden State with 33 points on 26 shots and 43 minutes. At 35 years old and less than two weeks removed from a glute injury that forced him to miss Game 3 of the Warriors’ series against Houston, Butler is still signaling to Kerr that he’s ready to take on more.
“In hindsight, I would have loved to have gotten him a couple more minutes (of rest) during the meat of the game, but it’s tricky,” Kerr said. “As I said, without Steph, we’re walking a fine line, so we’ve got to balance the risk of keeping him off the floor versus the gain of getting him a little more rest.”
Emphasizing the details
Curry is out for Monday’s game, and his hamstring injury, which he suffered in Game 1, will be re-evaluated on Wednesday before Game 5.
Kerr said he wants his team to focus on game plan details rather than anything they can’t control, including great individual efforts from Wolves stars Anthony Edwards (28 second-half points) and Julius Randle (triple-double), whom the coach credited for Minnesota’s surge after halftime.
“You can’t really control Anthony Edwards making a fadeaway 3 from the wing with one second on the shot clock. You’re not going to be able to do anything about that,” Kerr said. “But you can do something about the offensive rebounds, kick-out 3s, losing vision on cutters — all those things are controllable.”
About those foul calls
As for the officiating, Kerr lauded the control that crew chief Scott Foster and his group created early in the game, but disagreed with two late fouls on Draymond Green — a blocking foul that he challenged unsuccessfully and a shooting foul at the rim that was Green’s sixth.
“I thought the one we challenged was a charge. I understand when the league talks about legal guarding position, but I think that is superseded by an offensive player going through your chest,” Kerr said. “Those are always subjective calls and you just live with them. I didn’t like the sixth one, but it doesn’t matter.”