Even since Kevin Durant went down with a knee injury, the Warriors have been struggling to find their identity and more importantly, win ball games.The Warriors are 2-3 without their other MVP and the San Antonio Spurs are right on their tails, so the number one seed is not a guarantee at this point.
As the season winds down, this comes at a very unfortunate time. With only 17 games left in the regular season, the Warriors must find an answer while Durant nurses his injury. While the hope is that Durant will be ready for the post-season, you really don’t know what to expect.
One thing is certain, the Warriors need to find a way to without Durant. You can’t replace a player like that, but the Warriors are still an elite team without him.
You would think that this upcoming game against the Spurs would be a must win, but Kerr is opting to rest his best players instead of going out there and giving the San Antonio another loss.
According to the official Warrios PR Twitter account, Kerr has decided to Give Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala the night off in San Antonio:
Coach Kerr announced that Curry (rest), Green (rest), Iguodala (rest) & Thompson (rest) will not play tomorrow night in San Antonio.
— Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) March 11, 2017
While at first this sounds like a questionable move by the Warriors, it looks like the Spurs will be without two of their best players in Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Leonard will not play because of a concussion and Aldridge is out indefinitely with a minor case of heart arrhythmia. So the Warriors will not be facing the Spurs at their best, which should give the rest of the players motivation to win this game.
For Kerr, this move will allow his best players to get some necessary rest, both physically and mentally. When a team this good starts losing, everybody things the sky is falling. However, the reality is that all they need to do is regroup and get back to their style of basketball. The Warriors won 73 games without Durant and while this team is a little different than last year’s team, they are still very capable of winning convincingly.