The Golden State Warriors lost their Western Conference Semifinals series with the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 on Wednesday night. However, the series was overshadowed by a hamstring injury to Warriors star Stephen Curry, which kept him out of the last four games of the series, all losses.
After the series closing Game 5, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr talked about how differently things might have unfolded had Curry been able to remain healthy.
“I don’t even have to think what [if],” Kerr said, according to ESPN. “I know we had a shot. I know we could have gone the distance.
“Maybe we wouldn’t have, but it doesn’t matter. Again, everything in the playoffs is about who stays healthy and who gets hot. Are you playing well at the right time?”
Kerr also acknowledged that guard Jimmy Butler, whom the Warriors traded for midseason, was dealing with an injury that left him limited on the court.
“I think he was definitely compromised through all series,” Kerr said. “I think the injury in Houston definitely impacted him. He’s been playing through pain. And I think the biggest thing in this series is that without the spacing that Steph gives us, Minnesota did a great job of just playing us one-on-one. They guarded us on the perimeter. They were trying to take away our 3s. And that forced Jimmy to play a lot of one-on-one against a long, athletic team.”
“They just made the decision not to leave our perimeter guys, even our non-shooters on the perimeter,” he added. “They just stayed with them everywhere and made Jimmy play one-on-one. And because they have a lot of length in athleticism, it wasn’t easy for him to get anything at the rim.
“Once Steph went out, it changed everything for our whole team, but especially for Jimmy.”
The Warriors have already moved on from Klay Thompson, and with their current core of Curry, Butler, and Green all on the back end of their respective careers, the Dubs have found themselves with a rapidly shrinking title window.
