Steve Kerr explains why he benched Stephen Curry at a crucial time

The Golden State Warriors are sliding in the standings when it matters the most. There are just a handful of games left in the NBA season, and they might slip out of the Play-In Tournament.

That’s why it was hard to believe that Steve Kerr would send Stephen Curry to the bench for most of the fourth quarter in a close game with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Curry was red-hot during the first three quarters of the game before Kerr benched him for over ten minutes. The Warriors wound up losing the game, and the fans roasted the coach on social media.

Steve Kerr Says Warriors Can’t Ride Steph Curry Every Game

However, when asked about this somewhat controversial decision, Coach Kerr was unbothered. He claimed that he trusted the other guys to get the job done, adding that they could not expect Curry to bail them out night in and night out:

Stephen Curry

“We’ve got Chris Paul out there,” Kerr said after the loss. “We’ve got Klay (Thompson). We’ve got Draymond (Green). We’ve got great players out there. We can’t expect to just ride Steph game after game after game.”

The coach added that Curry may not be able to withstand the physical burden of playing heavy minutes every night at this point in his career. He’s averaged just shy of 33 minutes a night this season:

“These last few weeks have been really tough on him. We’ve put the burden of this franchise on his shoulders for… 15 years? We can’t expect him to play 35 minutes,” Kerr continued. “We’ve got five games in seven days on this road trip. If you want to say that him playing 30 minutes instead of 32 was the difference between the win and the loss, I totally disagree with that. We’re trying to win the game. We’re trying to keep them fresh, too.”

Steph Curry is 35 years old, but he’s still their best player by a significant margin. Even so, no one can win on its own, and this Warriors roster is flawed, so even if they make the playoffs, they might not go very far.