In a stunning post-game admission that has NBA fans buzzing, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t mince words following his team’s brutal 120-99 blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. Summing up the Warriors’ fading playoff hopes with brutal honesty, Kerr delivered a four-word bombshell on their chances of climbing to the No. 6 seed in the West: “Out of the question.”
The defeat dropped Golden State to a dismal 6-13 since superstar Stephen Curry sidelined with patellar tendinitis, leaving them at 33-36 overall and clinging to the 10th spot in the Western Conference—right at the edge of the play-in tournament. With Portland’s win over Indiana pushing the Warriors further down, the gap to sixth place now stands at a whopping nine games with just 13 left in the season.
Kerr, known for his motivational prowess but opting for cold realism this time, conceded that not only is sixth unreachable, but seventh—where the Phoenix Suns sit at 39-30, six games ahead—is also a pipe dream. Instead, he’s eyeing eighth place, where the Clippers hold a slim 1.5-game lead over Golden State and Portland.
“We’re going to be in the play-in one way or the other,” Kerr said in the post-game presser, emphasizing the need for his shorthanded squad to sharpen up. “So we have to prepare, we have to be prepared for when we get guys back, for when Steph’s back, and Moses and Al. If we are prepared when they get back, we can do some damage, we can go on a run.”
The Warriors’ performance against Boston was a microcosm of their struggles: shooting just 40% from the field and a woeful 23% from beyond the arc, while getting dominated on the rebounds 49-39. Kerr praised his players’ effort but called out lapses in execution.
“Our guys are playing hard, we are proud of them. Shots did not go in tonight,” he admitted. “But what I am most interested in is our process and I thought it was lacking in some areas tonight, we’ve got to tighten some things up.”
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With Curry, veteran Al Horford, and wing Moses Moody on the mend, Kerr stressed the importance of building better habits now to pave the way for a potential postseason surge. “We can’t have game-plan mistakes. We have got to build better habits. Boxing out, taking care of the ball in transition—that sort of thing,” he explained.
Kerr has been hammering this message home, urging his team to focus on fundamentals amid the frustration. “We’ve had our eyes on six for a while now but that’s out of the question now. We’re not getting there,” he reiterated. “If we can string together some wins, try to get to eight, that would be ideal, get two cracks at it. But, we’re not getting to seven, we know that.”
He added: “I’ve been talking about this theme, not in so much precise words like I just used. But I have been telling the guys, we have to build our habits and be ready for when we get guys healthy again. Because then we can have the firepower that can be complemented by good habits, good fundamentals.”
While Kerr’s candor might not rival legendary speeches like “Win One for the Gipper” or Jim Valvano’s “Never Give Up,” it underscores the harsh reality facing the Warriors. As they gear up for the play-in grind, this four-word gut punch—”Out of the question”—could be the wake-up call that sparks a late-season turnaround.