Steve Kerr broke down the reasoning behind Stephen Curry’s limited minutes against the Nets.
A loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night in front of their home faithful was not how the Golden State Warriors wanted to start their week. After suffering a 10-point loss on Saturday to the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors and Stephen Curry fell 128-120 at home to the Nets on Monday night, arguably the team’s worst loss of the season.
Head coach Steve Kerr saw his team squander an 18-point second-half lead, and Stephen Curry’s brilliant three-point shooting was not enough to spark the offense late in the fourth quarter.
The 128 points surrendered by Golden State’s defense were the second most they’ve surrendered all year — the most coming against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a 136-117 loss near the start of November. This is the first time all season that the Dubs have lost back-to-back games.
What makes this loss sting, besides the fact that the Warriors led by 18 points in the second half, is that Curry only played about 15 minutes in the second half and 29 minutes overall in the loss.
Kerr spoke with reporters after the game and explained his reasoning behind what seemed like limited minutes for Curry, simply citing that this is the new norm for the 36-year-old despite Dubs fans being left scratching their heads.
“We usually pencil him in for 32 [minutes], and we like to keep it around that number,” Kerr said in his postgame comments. “We were able to give him a good rest in the first half because the second unit was playing really well.
“I don’t love to run him the whole fourth quarter. I like to have him close with some energy, and so that means if we can give him that last eight minutes, generally, I feel pretty good about that.”
“But at that point, Brooklyn was rolling, and we couldn’t slow them down.”
When Curry checked out of the game at the 4:33 mark in the third quarter, Golden State held an 86-77 edge over Brooklyn. From that point to when Curry checked back in with 7:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Nets outscored the Warriors 24-11 to take a 101-97 lead. The Nets ran away with the game from that point, outscoring the Warriors by a total of 17 points in the second half.
While this may seem like a puzzling decision for Kerr to make regarding Curry’s minutes, especially with the game being so close, this is nothing new for the Warriors star.
Warriors limiting Stephen Curry’s minutes
Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
Kerr and the entire coaching staff have been very cognizant of Curry’s minutes throughout the early portion of the 2024-25 season. Part of this was due to the ankle injury the superstar guard suffered just three games into the year, but it is also because the Warriors recognize that Curry is not getting any younger.
The team wants him as fresh as possible for big moments down the stretch run of games, which is something Kerr alluded to in his postgame comments when discussing that he likes Curry to “close with some energy.”
While it may appear to be a questionable decision to hold Curry to only 29 minutes against Brooklyn on Monday night, something that may have factored into the team’s loss, it is worth mentioning that he has only eclipsed 30 minutes in seven total games this season. Of those seven games where Curry played 30 or more minutes, two of them were NBA Cup games.
It is clear that Kerr and the Warriors want to manage Curry’s minutes closely, which is why this decision was made during the loss against the Nets, a game that Steph dropped 28 points with eight made triples in.
The Warriors will be looking to get back on track in their next game on Wednesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, a battle between the two teams with the best records in the Western Conference.
