“I feel strongly about getting him rest” – Steve Kerr on resting Steph Curry for majority of 4th quarter in Golden State Warriors’ loss to Memphis Grizzlies

Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors will be disappointed with tonight's result. The Warriors lost their first game of the new NBA season to the Memphis Grizzlies, despite a 36-point and eight-assist outing for Curry at the Chase Center.

The Grizzlies nicked a 104-101 victory in overtime, riding on a terrific all-round performance from ace point guard Ja Morant (30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals). The loss to Memphis puts the Golden State Warriors’ overall season record at 4-1.

Steph Curry had an opportunity to win the game for the Warriors but missed a 33-foot shot attempt at the end of regulation. That miss came after Curry had gone scoreless in the last four-and-a-half minutes of the ball game. Having scored all his 36 points in the previous three quarters, head coach Steve Kerr opted to rest Curry for the first seven-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter.

The period of Curry’s rest coincided with the Grizzlies turning a 73-79 deficit at the end of three quarters into a tied game at 91 apiece. That was when Steph Curry was inserted back into the game. Curry did not score a single point in overtime as the Grizzlies outscored the Golden State Warriors 6-3 in five minutes of the extra period.

Speaking to reporters after the loss, Kerr defended his decision not to introduce Steph Curry into the game earlier in the fourth quarter. Kerr said:

“He played 19 minutes in the first half, which is pretty heavy. I felt strongly about getting him some rest. He ended up obviously with the overtime and almost 41 [minutes]. We don’t need that. Over the course of 82 games, we’ve got to manage his minutes well.”

Kerr believes the Golden State Warriors have to be better in Steph Curry’s absence

Responding to reporters’ questions about how much better the Golden State Warriors need to be when Steph Curry rests, Kerr commented:

“We’ve got to be a lot better when he does rest. I didn’t feel like we executed. I thought we had a decent start to the second quarter and then we got a little crazy… We’ve got to understand, we’re a different team from a year ago. We’ve got to learn how to learn to play with this group. And that includes me. I’ve got to do a better job of putting certain lineups in certain sets, but we’ll get there.”

The Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry will have an opportunity to make up for the loss when they host the OKC Thunder on Saturday.

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