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Steve Kerr on Warriors' Blowout Loss: We Played 'Like It Was an Exhibition'
April 28, 2021
The Golden State Warriors are battling for playoff positioning in the Western Conference, but it surely didn't look like it during Tuesday's 133-103 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
"I'm the head coach, and I didn't have them ready to play, clearly," Steve Kerr said, per Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle. "Biggest game of the year. ... They came out like it was a playoff game, and we came out like it was an exhibition game. Very disappointing."
It was certainly an ugly performance for the Warriors.
While Stephen Curry finished with 27 points, the team turned it over 18 times and managed just 29 points in the entire first half. The game was over by intermission, with Dallas holding a 62-29 advantage that was largely fueled by a stunning 28-0 run.
Dallas never looked back with Luka Doncic lighting up the scoreboard with 39 points, eight assists and six rebounds behind 15-of-23 shooting from the field.
Kerr's frustration with the showing was apparent when he picked up a technical foul in the third quarter, and his comment that this was the "biggest game of the year" stands out.
The Mavericks clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Warriors as both teams look to avoid the play-in tournament that is reserved for the Nos. 7-10 seeds in each conference. Dallas is the final playoff team in the West not positioned to be in it as the No. 6 seed, while the 10th-seeded Warriors fell 3.5 games back of Doncic's squad with the loss.
A victory would have moved them just 1.5 games behind the Mavericks with a legitimate chance at climbing out of the play-in tournament.
Instead, Golden State fell further behind and looked like anything but a playoff team in the blowout loss.