Golden State coach Steve Kerr will have a new clipboard when his team travels to Salt Lake City for Wednesday’s game against the Utah Jazz.
Upset about how his team was playing against the Orlando Magic, Kerr took out his frustrations on his clipboard during a first-half timeout. The outburst seemed to work, though, as the Warriors rallied to beat the Magic 104-99 for a home win on Monday night.
“Coach broke a clipboard in the timeout,” Golden State guard Moses Moody said. “Just lighting a fire under us, getting us ready, getting us woken up a little bit. That’s his first that I’ve seen this year. Since I’ve been here, we usually got more than that at this point in the year. He’s broken a few.”
Kerr admitted to occasionally using that tactic.
“I snap every handful of games,” Kerr told The Ringer. “I (expletive) lose my mind, and I go crazy in the locker room. Nobody out here sees it, but I’ve smashed a clipboard and I’ve slammed my fist against the wall. Whatever it is, it pisses me off. But same thing for Steph (Curry) or Draymond (Green). We hate losing. We’re not used to it.”
Golden State outscored Orlando in the key third quarter 39-24 en route to the victory. Andrew Wiggins scored a team-high 25, while Curry added 24. Green returned from a seven-game absence to contribute seven rebounds, five assists and four points.
It helped the Warriors climb one game above .500 at 25-24. They’ve won three of four games, including a 114-103 win over the visiting Jazz on Jan. 28. Dennis Schroder led them with 23 points in that victory, while Collin Sexton scored 30 for Utah.
The state of Utah might be in a clipboard shortage if Jazz coach Will Hardy reacted like Kerr in frustrating times.
The Jazz, whose eyes are on acquiring a high draft pick, have the second-worst record in the NBA (11-37) ahead of only the Washington Wizards, have lost nine of 10 games and have only won four out of 22 times in a building that’s historically given them a huge home-court advantage.
The Jazz led the Indiana Pacers by 12 points with six minutes remaining on Monday night before flailing down the stretch of a 112-111 loss.
Utah was hampered down the stretch by bad shots, bad execution and bad choices, including purposely missing a free throw.
“We’ve got to play through those things,” Hardy said. “We’ve got to play in straight lines. We’ve got to set up. We’ve got to help our teammates create an advantage. And these are great lessons for our team to learn, because, again, I think there’s a lot of good stuff happening in our locker room.”
Indiana overcame the Jazz, who were hoping to win consecutive games at home for the first time all season, thanks in part to a late 14-1 run.
But the Jazz are hoping to continue to learn from these rough situations. They had a number of solid outings, including double-doubles from John Collins (21 points, 12 rebounds), Keyonte George (16 points, 11 assists) and Isaiah Collier (11 points, 10 assists).
“Being in those moments, the physicality that’s happening in those moments, I mean it’s all good to take it on the chin,” George said. “We learn, we watch the film and we can only get better. That’s the best thing about this.”
