The Warriors fell in overtime against the Celtics (118-121) in a re-match of last year’s NBA Finals. Golden State entered the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead, but couldn’t close out the game and Boston forced the overtime.
In this game Dubs’ head coach Steve Kerr put Jordan Poole in the starting lineup instead of Kevon Looney in an attempt to spread the floor.
Despite the loss, Kerr was satisfied with what he saw from the 23-year-old shooting guard who scored 24 points in this game.
“I though Jordan was fantastic,” Kerr said postgame. “It’s a tough matchup against this team. They’ve got so many big wings and so for us to start that smaller group Jordan has to hold up and he did. I thought his defense was excellent.
“For much of the game we did a good job of not fouling. Fourth quarter that became a problem. I think they were in the bonus like the last nine minutes. But all in all I love the level of competition, the way the guys played together. We looked like what we are which is a championship team. But we didn’t close the game. Better now than in playoffs.”
“Just wanted to open up the floor, give us a little different look, maybe get a spark. We’re past the halfway point, and we’re .500. Let’s try something different,” Kerr said when asked about putting Poole in the starting lineup.
“First time in a while we’ve had all those guys healthy, too. It’s a lineup that we know can be explosive, but against Boston in particular you’ve gotta open up the floor. They got a big frontline, big wings, so it just felt like we could possibly get a little boost from it.”
He was then asked if he intends to keep Poole in the starting lineup. “I think I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes. It went well tonight. Loon was great off the bench. Obviously we’re still took got some injuries, so we just decided to keep it tight with the eight-man rotation. But I thought everybody came in and played hard and played well. But, like I said, you got to close the game, especially on the road against a great team.”
