Steve Kerr Reveals Solution to Fix Warriors' Clutch Game Woes

The Golden State Warriors are 8-11 in clutch games, which NBA.com defines as any game that's five points or closer in the last five minutes of regulation.

If it feels like they've been even worse than 8-11, it's because in eight of the games they lost, they've held a lead in the last five minutes.

@ IND: Led by seven with 4:40 to go
vs. HOU: Led by one with 4:20 to go
vs. OKC: Led by one with 4:45 to go
@ PHI: Led by four with 1:12 to go
vs. MIN: Led by three with 1:50 to go
@ POR: Led by five with 2:30 to go
@ PHX: Led by one with 4:00 to go
@ TOR: Led by seven with 1:35 to go

Meanwhile, in the eight clutch games they've won, they were trailing in the last five minutes in just three of them.

This is all to say that closing has been a major problem, and Steve Kerr told reporters Saturday how the Warriors can fix it.

"[We need to] start getting the ball to Jimmy more down the stretch of games. We've lost all these clutch games, and there's nobody better in the league at protecting the ball, getting to the foul line, controlling the game. We haven't done a good enough job of that, frankly. And that's on me."

Why Kerr Is Right

The Warriors are way too Stephen Curry-dependent down the stretch of close games. The table below shows the Warriors' shot distribution for the six players with 20-plus clutch-game minutes:

	Minutes	FGA	Points	Assists	Turnovers
Steph	50.4	47	66	3	8
Jimmy	53.1	18	24	9	1
Dray	43.5	6	13	9	2
Podz	35.5	12	15	7	3
Richard	21.9	3	6	1	1
Moody	20.8	5	8	3	1

Curry is one of the best scorers in NBA history, but even he will have some issues scoring efficiently if everyone knows the ball is going to him every play.

Curry has shot 42.7 percent on his clutch-game field-goal attempts. Though that's not a great clip, the Warriors can work with it. The bigger issue is his assist-to-turnover ratio.

So yes, Golden State should go to Butler much more down the stretch. If they do, the Warriors will probably turn the ball over less and Curry won't feel the need to be the hero every play, which would likely help his efficiency.

The Other Clutch-Game Problem

The Warriors are actually eighth in clutch-game offensive rating, per NBA.com. It's somewhat misleading because in the games that truly came down to one possession in the last minute, they've struggled to score.

But still, they've been satisfactory on offense. The bigger issue is the defense.

The Warriors have the fourth-worst clutch game defensive rating (126.0).

Closing with Green at the 5 has made them very small, and the result has been a 27th-ranked rebounding rate in the clutch.

But they have played smaller lineups in the past and been decent on defense in the clutch. Even last year, from Butler's debut to the end of the season, they went 9-4 in the clutch with a respectable 108.7 clutch defensive rating.

Outside of a trade, the best solution they have to fix this is playing De'Anthony Melton more.

Melton helped the Warriors come up with key stops against the Nets and Hornets that they have not been getting otherwise.

They may not have the personnel to be an elite defensive team in close games, but they should be better moving forward with Melton playing.