Kerr breaks clipboard to wake up Golden State

WARRIORS

Warriors coach Steve Kerr was not happy with the way his team was playing early on in Monday’s win over Orlando. His frustration boiled over, and his players responded. JANE TYSKA — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP

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By Evan Webeck

Bay Area News Group

SAN FRANCISCO >> The Warriors overcame one of their worst offensive halves of the season to beat the Orlando Magic on Monday night.

What changed?

“Coach broke a clipboard,” Moses Moody said after contributing 17 points in the 104-99 win.

“Took us 48 games to get the broken clipboard,” added Steph Curry. “Thankfully, he didn’t cut himself this time. Few times he’s done that.”

After the Warriors allowed the Magic to grab an offensive rebound off a missed free throw, Steve Kerr called timeout and his frustration boiled over. They missed their first seven attempts from 3, went without a field goal for multiple stretches of 4-plus minutes and entered halftime with their sixth-lowest scoreboard total of the season.

They couldn’t afford to give away free possessions, too.

“We’re not a team that can withstand that,” Curry said of Kerr’s message.

Asked about their halftime adjustments, Kerr said facetiously, “Just brilliant coaching, mainly.”

But something clicked for Golden State in the second half. Wiggins slammed home their first possession out of the locker room, and the Warriors didn’t trail again until the Magic rallied to reclaim a brief 92-90 advantage with 4:27 remaining. With 1:07 left, Moody sank the dagger.

Moody’s corner 3, extending the lead to 99-94, was one of the Warriors’ seven made 3-pointers in 16 attempts (43.8%) after they shot just 5 of 23 (21.7%) in the first half.

“We didn’t come out with the right force that we needed to beat a team like Orlando,” said center Kevon Looney, who led the Warriors with 16 rebounds and six assists. “We didn’t match their physicality early. Steve got on us and we responded as a group. It’s a long season — there are going to be some games where it takes Coach cussing us out to get us going. ... His hand probably hurts right now.”

“We woke up,” Kerr said. “We were asleep in the first half. We had some possessions that made no sense. The guys locked in at halftime, scored the first six or eight points (of the second half) and ... set a really good tone. That got us the lead. Of course, they were able to battle back in the fourth, but we were able to hang on.”

Slow starts have been a season-long struggle for these Warriors, who rank third-to-last in first-quarter scoring (26.6). The Warriors’ 43 first-half points marked the ninth time in 49 games they had been held to 45 points or fewer in the first half, but the first time they pulled out a win.

“I think we were playing hard in the first half, we just weren’t executing well,” Curry said. “Silly mistakes, like giving up offense rebounds off of free throws. We didn’t execute a couple (inbounds plays) out of timeouts. We were just a little choppy. And then we connected both sides of the floor in that third quarter.”

Closing out a 4-2 home stand, this win finished off a three-week stretch of nine games where the Warriors didn’t leave Northern California. They went 5-4, and now hit the road for seven straight away from home, beginning tonight in Utah in their final game before the NBA trade deadline.

“It’s good to leave town on a win, to be above .500 (25-24), to basically put together a solid couple of weeks,” Kerr said. “So all of that is good. Now we have to carry it out on the road.”