Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted that his team’s chase for the NBA regular season wins record and subsequent media attention have taken a toll on the team.
The Warriors lost at home for the first time in 54 games on Friday just days after being taken to overtime by the Utah Jazz, and Kerr conceded that the scrutiny is impacting Golden State.
“I think they want the [wins] record,” Kerr said of the team on Saturday, via ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss. “But I think what they probably realize is maybe all the talk and all the focus on the record has gotten us away from the process of who we are.
“I do think the constant questions and talk about — whether it’s home win streak or record or whatever — I think all that stuff does take its toll, whether the players know it or not, whether it’s a conscious thing or not, and it probably has taken a little bit away from, as I said, our process or our work.”
Kerr admitted that the same thing had happened to the current recordholder, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that he was a part of.
“It’s exactly the same,” Kerr said. “Honestly, it was exactly the same. Constant media questioning about the streak.
“In fact, if you look back at that season, we lost two home games in the last week, 10 days of the season, both by a basket or one point,” he added. “We were, I think, I want to say 37-0 or something that season at home, and we lost two of our last four. When we did break the record, in Milwaukee, I still remember it. It was a horrendous basketball game. We won like 85-80 or something. So yeah, it was like the same kind of thing. Constant scrutiny, little slippage in our execution, eking out wins, so it does feel the same way.”
Kerr is willing to push for the record and not rest his players, but it’s understandable that the noise has gotten very loud around the team. Ultimately, they have handled it extremely well to this point, but it will only grow more and more difficult as they close in on the record.
