Steve Kerr isn’t any stranger to the brilliant lights. With 9 NBA Championships, 5 as a participant and 4 as a coach, Kerr has been a winner all through his basketball profession. And with the Golden State Warriors’ 95-85 win over the Houston Rockets in Sport 1 of the sequence, Kerr grew to become the seventh head coach in NBA historical past to achieve a milestone 100 playoff wins.
After the sport, the crew celebrated this milestone by tweeting, “A HISTORIC milestone for Coach Kerr.”
It was a sport the place the Dubs relied closely on Kerr’s teaching prowess. In what many wish to name the “feel-out” sport of a playoff sequence, each the Warriors and Rockets unleashed their elite defenses towards one another. With the sport slowing down and each offenses clogging up, Kerr went head-to-head with Houston head coach Ime Udoka in a tactical chess match.
However the place the teaching battle was gained was on the boards. The Rockets dominated the Warriors within the rebounding class 52-36. In addition they gained the offensive rebounding battle 22-6, which was an enormous supply of their offense all night time lengthy, due to the double-big combo of Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams.
Kerr countered with a not often used Kevon Looney-Quentin Put up lineup that purchased the starters some reduction, however he finally determined to belief his ultra-small beginning lineup, which paid dividends down the stretch.
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Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski, the 2 guys Kerr selected to belief with the core veterans, got here up large down the stretch within the closing lineup. Moody hit an enormous nook three to maintain the Rockets at bay whereas Podz drew a key foul on Amen Thompson that Houston ended up difficult and finally dropping.
With the victory, Kerr tied Larry Brown for sixth all-time playoff teaching wins. And Kerr’s greater than accustomed to the names that stay forward of him. Head teaching contemporaries Erik Spoelstra and Doc Rivers are simply forward of Kerr at fifth and fourth all-time.
Forward of them is longtime San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, Kerr’s former head coach, who sits at third with 170 wins, whereas the legendary Pat Riley is simply forward of him at 171. And much and above everybody on this checklist is Phil Jackson, the person behind the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls and the Kobe Bryant Lakers, with 229 playoff wins.
The Warriors will want extra of Kerr’s playoff steerage in what seems to be like a heated sequence towards Udoka and the Rockets.