Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr wasn’t happy with the way his team performed against the New York Knicks.
The Golden State Warriors beat the New York Knicks and Warriors coach Steve Kerr wasn’t satisfied with the way that his team performed.
It would have been hard for the Knicks to win last night as they faced a superteam in the Warriors without Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose.
According to Marc Berman of The New York Post, Kerr criticized his team for a lack of purpose.
“I didn’t think there was much purpose to anything we did on either end of the floor. We moved the ball because our guys are instinctive with that and unselfish and they enjoy playing together, but [there was] no purpose offensively, very little interest defensively. We’re probably lucky we played a team without a couple of its best players.”
It did seem like the Warriors were more concerned about passing and driving up their assists total than scoring. They had 26 assists on their 26 field goals in the first half.
Stephen Curry had eight points, eight assists, and ten rebounds. Kevin Durant had 11 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. JaVale McGee, starting at center in place of the injured Zaza Pachulia, had 17 points.
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek told Berman that the Knicks stayed competitive and played hard.
“We played hard,’’ Hornacek said. “I got to give our guys credit for at least trying hard.’’
While the Knicks played hard, they weren’t competitive. In the first half, they shot just 37.7 percent.
Lance Thomas, who filled in for Anthony, went 2-9 and had five points.
Brandon Jennings, who started for Rose, was 4-10 with ten points.
Kristaps Porzingis didn’t have a good night either as he finished for 13 with eight points.
https://youtu.be/NsEARGIaz6k
The bright spot for the Knicks was rookie guard Ron Baker who went 3-3 for seven points in the first half and finished with a career-high 13 points.
It did seem like the Warriors were messing with the Knicks and not trying to dominate them. While it is unknown whether or not the Knicks would have won had they had Anthony and Rose, Kerr should be happy about the result and got the Warriors to cut down on the passing.
