Warriors coach Kerr lauds strength in depth

Omnisports

June 3, 2016 3:06 AM

Steve Kerr hailed the Golden State Warriors' collective effort after the team's reserves fuelled victory in game one of the NBA Finals.

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Steve Kerr hailed the Golden State Warriors' collective effort after the defending champions' reserves fuelled victory in game one of the NBA Finals, not that the coach is surprised.

With 'Splash Brothers' Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson struggling from the field, the Warriors and their bench came up big to inspire Thursday's 104-89 win in Golden State.

Led by Shaun Livingston, the Warriors bench outscored the Cavs' bench 45-10, further highlighting Golden State's strength in depth.

"We've talked about our depth for the last two years. We rely on a lot of people," Kerr told reporters afterwards.

"We play a lot of people, and we feel like we have a lot of talent on the bench that can come in and score when we need it.

"So it's a great sign, obviously, that we can win in the finals without those two guys having big games, but it's not really that surprising to us. This has been our team the last couple of years."

NBA MVP Curry had four-of-15 for 11 points, while Thompson was four-of-12 nine points as Livingston top-scored with a career-high 20 points on home court.

"I think he [Livingston] just played a great game, but I thought he looked for openings," Kerr said.

"He was very aggressive. And, you know, this was a strange game for us. We're not used to having both Steph and Klay off like that with their shooting. "But the one thing we've talked about all year is if we defend and take care of the ball, then we're always going to have somebody score enough points for us, whether it's the starters or the bench."

After playing in front of a sea of yellow wearing "Strength in Numbers" t-shirts at Oracle Arena, Livingston added: "That's our motto. That's what we believe in. We pick each other up. We believe in each other and we just fight.

"[Being aggressive] It's what we did all year. Andre [Iguodala] was great, [Leandro] Barbosa was great. We just feed off each other and play well."

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