Steve Kerr: “Durant is not Playing Game 1, Cousins Maybe”

The NBA finals are very close. Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors will start the series this Thursday, and it appears that the champions will have a lot of problems with injured players.

Steve Kerr had an interview today and told the reporters that Kevin Durant isn’t going to play in Game 1 of the finals, while on the other side, Boogie Cousins is doubtful at the moment.

“It’s a lot to ask (him to play),” Kerr said about Cousins. “We’re trying to help him along the process, and will see where it all goes.”

When one of the reporters asked Kerr how would he describe Boogie’s condition, he stated “questionable.”

Steve Kerr said DeMarcus Cousins is “making good progress.” But Kerr outlines complexities of Cousins’ return pic.twitter.com/9A5SpobWb6

— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) May 27, 2019

Cousins has a problem with his torn quad, which he picked up in Game 2 of the first round vs. the Clippers. The initial prognosis were encouraging when talking about his appearance in the finals.

Meanwhile, Kevin Durant’s status is clear. The two-time NBA Finals MVP is out for this match, and he will have to wait a couple of more days before going back to the floor.

“KD is not playing Game 1, we already, I think we already announced that,” Kerr mentioned. “We’ll see where it goes from here.”

GSW’s coach is hoping that the time gap between games in this series will work in their favor. Unlike previous playoff matches, the interval between events in the finals is longer.

“The fact that there is a lot of days in between the games in the finals helps us, so we’ll see.”

The Warriors are doing fine without these two guys for now. Steph Curry was perfect against the Blazers, Klay Thompson solid, and the variety of other players stepped in and did their part of the job flawlessly. Draymond Green showed his versatility, and all of a sudden, the 73-9 Warriors were back.

Though, against the Raptors, they will need every player at his best, and along with that, other factors to have in their favor.

This might be the explanation for the recent meeting between Kerr and Gregg Popovich, which was noticed, and even recorded. The stories about the potential reason for the gathering immediately appeared. Of course, the first and the biggest one was that these two worked on a plan on how to stop Kawhi Leonard, who was practically Popovich’s invention.

The famous coach built Kawhi as we know him today, and there is no doubt that the Spurs’ mentor knows what his weak spots are. The bad blood which appeared during players’ trade request and a bit unfair move the Claw made when he didn’t want to play for San Antonio because of the alleged injury, might be the motivation for the veteran coach to expose Kawhi to Kerr.

https://twitter.com/Bballforeverfb/status/1132864457091063810

Kawhi is by far the best player in the entire postseason, and it is of the utmost importance for the champs to stop him. Otherwise, they aren’t going to have success in this matchup.

Also, there is one more matter. Warriors’ coach won two titles with San Antonio, the first which this franchise took. The friendship between these two guys lasts for a long time, and it is quite possible that from time to time Pop helps Kerr in certain aspects of the game preparations.

The Warriors are coming into this series as huge favorites. Still, the fact that they will not have a home court advantage for the first time in the previous four finals is giving a lot of hope to the Raptors, who were pretty ruthless at Scotiabank Arena this year.

Game 1 is this Thursday at 9 pm ET local time.