Steve Kerr on the decision to start JaVale pic.twitter.com/uiFRaHb2py
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 5, 2018
One of the big topics of conversation before Game 3 of the Warriors-Pelicans series was how Steve Kerr would tweak Golden State’s starting lineup with Stephen Curry returning to the fold.
The two prevailing theories involved starting the Warriors’ four All-Stars with either Kevon Looney or Andre Iguodala. It was then a surprise when Kerr elected to start JaVale McGee at center on Friday, especially considering he played just six minutes in the first two games combined, and seemed like a mismatch against Pelicans star Anthony Davis.
The experiment didn’t seem to work, with McGee going -10 in just nine minutes of action. After the game, Kerr explained his decision to start McGee at the beginning of both halves.
“Well we wanted to use our depth,” Kerr said. “We know we’ve got two games in basically a day and a half, so we wanted to buy some minutes early, a little bit like we did with Nick (Young) in the first two games. So some of it was just the math behind it, but we kind’ve like the idea of having the lob threat out there while Steph was on the floor. Thought maybe we could run in transition and get a few hoops early. So we knew it wasn’t going to be a long term, long minute night. We thought maybe we could get a quick burst.”
