Steve Kerr was all smiles at the podium after the Warriors won their eighth consecutive road game Friday, but the night didn't begin like that.
Golden State's sluggish start against the Toronto Raptors prompted Kerr to call two early timeouts within 20 seconds of one another in the opening quarter. After the second timeout was called at the 7:40 mark, the coach was visibly frustrated as he stepped onto the court and yelled at several players, including young forward Jonathan Kuminga.
After the 120-105 win at Scotiabank Arena, Kerr explained his emotional state that led to the back-to-back timeouts.
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"I don't like doing that," Kerr told reporters in Toronto postgame. "I hate yelling at our guys. They're such great guys. They're doing such a nice job. We've really found a good groove. But the circumstances dictated the first six minutes. I think our guys were asleep still, which was understandable.
"But in the first timeout, I told them, 'I'll give you a pass on the first one but we got to wake up. We can only win this game if we put that stuff behind us and focus.' And then we immediately messed up the ATO (After Timeout) and gave up a 3 in transition, so I called the next one."
Kerr used the first timeout to demonstrate how to shoot the ball, given that anyone on the Warriors not named Moses Moody was held scoreless in nearly the first five minutes of action. Less than 30 seconds later, Kerr called the second timeout after RJ Barrett sank a 23-foot triple.
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At the time, Moody had all of Golden State's seven points -- but that soon changed.
Kerr's animated frustrations seemingly wound up being a good thing for the Warriors, as it woke them up after a snoozy day of nightmare travel from New York City. The team outscored Toronto in the third and fourth quarters and escaped with a comfortable victory.
Kerr might not like yelling at players as he did in Friday's win, but it seemed to have worked.
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