Golden State Warriors: Kerr’s bold rotation move saved by Curry’s 47-point explosion

Steve Kerr promised a change in rotations heading back home, and that’s certainly what we got. But if the head coach believed he’d cooked up some kind of secret sauce for his Golden State Warriors, then it wasn’t overly evident against the Sacramento Kings on Monday night.

In what’s become a staple under Kerr, and revolutionised the league in a lot of ways, the Warriors went to a heavy diet of small-ball action before Stephen Curry single-handedly pulled out a much needed 116-113 win.

The Golden State Warriors went to their patented small-ball lineups, but it was only a 47-point Stephen Curry explosion that saved them from a sixth straight loss.

Starting big man Kevon Looney played just over eight minutes in the first half, while James Wiseman was absent from the Warriors new-look rotation. Most would have expected JaMychal Green to see a large portion of time as a small-ball five, but even he was completely withdrawn from Kerr’s plans.

Instead, the Warriors had a look at a frontcourt of Anthony Lamb and Jonathan Kuminga once Looney and Draymond Green left the floor. Golden State’s starters had built an early ten-point lead, but in standard fashion for the season, it was all erased once the bench entered.

Green returned as the small-ball five to close the half, but it proved initially ineffective as the Kings got to the free-throw line at will on the way to a 12-point halftime lead.

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To fully punctuate Kerr’s transition to going small, Golden State came out with Poole in place of Looney to open the third. It was impactful early, with the Warriors starting on a 13-2 run to cut the margin to one. Looney returned briefly but the Kings weathered the storm to rebuild a nine-point lead.

Kerr’s idea was obvious, but the combination of players not so much. The mix-and-matching continued as a Lamb-Green frontcourt closed the third but Sacramento ultimately ended it with a nine-point lead.

For once, the defense wasn’t the issue, but instead the Warriors were leaving points on the table with sloppy turnovers and uncharacteristic misses. Looney returned and at one point, with less than six minutes on the clock, he was sharing the frontcourt duties with Lamb.

It all felt very discombobulated but after everything that had came and went, Kerr went back to the old reliable starting unit to close. The urgency felt like a must-win playoff game — no Wiseman for the night, no Kuminga in the second-half, limited time for Moses Moody.

For all the issues Golden State have, they still possess one man who can compensate for almost all problems. In what’s become all too familiar this season, Curry put the team on his back with a ‘refuse to lose’ type performance — a 47-point masterclass on 17-for-24 shooting, 7-for-12 from three, to go with eight assists and eight rebounds.

He was ably supported by Andrew Wiggins’ 25 points and ten rebounds — a truly performed two-man solo act. The Warriors really had no right to win, but Curry was simply that special. After his pair of free-throws gave them a three-point lead with 1.3 seconds to play, contentious contact from Klay Thompson went unwhistled on a Kevin Huerter three.

Golden State return to the winners list, even if it was far from convincing. It’s a superstars league and sometimes that’s all you need — the Warriors have one of the best in the league and he showed it yet again in another absurd display.