How Steve Kerr Reacted To Warriors’ Brutal Blowout Loss To Celtics

Sunday’s downright ugly performance by the Golden State Warriors against the Boston Celtics could have sent Steve Kerr into orbit.

And no one really would blame the Warriors head coach if that’s how he felt.

The Celtics notched an 11th straight win by putting together a historic beatdown of the Warriors, running away with an absurd 140-88 victory at TD Garden. Boston led by as much as 56 in the contest and held an 82-38 halftime advantage, which represented their largest lead at the break in franchise history.

But Kerr didn’t publicly rip into his team after the abysmal showing. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

“This is flush it down the toilet,” Kerr told reporters, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “We had a great road trip, 3-1. We’ve had a million games. Boston was amazing. We weren’t beating them today. So, we head home and get ready for Wednesday.”

The Warriors entered the matchup with the Celtics having won 13 of their last 16 games. That strong stretch had to make it easier for Kerr to dismiss the outcome on the famed parquet floor as a one-off showing. The Warriors were also without guard Brandin Podziemski (knee injury), who replaced Klay Thompson in the starting lineup last month.

Kerr can also point to the way future Hall of Famer Steph Curry shot the ball as a reason for why the game got out of hand. Curry had his second-worst shooting performance of the season, hitting just 2-of-13 shots and going an uncharacteristic 0-for-9 from beyond the arc.

Kerr conceded defeat early, too, pulling his starters at halftime and not allowing them at least a chance to make the final score somewhat respectable.

The Warriors haven’t had many blowout losses this season — the only defeat resembling the one they suffered Sunday was a 36-point setback to the New Orleans Pelicans in January — meanwhile, the Celtics became the first team in NBA history to record their third win of at least 50 points in a single season, per ESPN.

Either way, Kerr wasn’t breaking out the panic button for a performance he clearly viewed as an outlier.