Warriors rested, ready for deep playoff run

MILWAUKEE - The Warriors have clinched the Western Conference’s top seed for the playoffs and now have another important goal with nine games left in a record-setting season.

Staying healthy during games that don’t matter much in the standings becomes a priority.

But don’t look for coach Steve Kerr to rest players en masse as he did in somewhat controversial fashion at Denver earlier this month. He said he doesn’t anticipate benching Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson for entire games anymore with only one back-to-back set remaining.

“It’s not really that tempting, because it’s a game of rhythm and timing and execution,” Kerr said of simply pulling his starters in the final stretch. “So you counteract that with the threat of injury. I don’t think you can plan with injuries in mind. Injuries are either going to happen or they’re not.

“We could rest guys three or four games, and they might get hurt the next game because they’re not in rhythm. So it’s hard to find the right balance, but that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Kerr believes it’s necessary for his team to continue improving and playing well heading into the postseason.

For a good portion of the season, Kerr already had his players’ workloads in mind while the team separated itself in not only the standings, but also during games when lopsided scores made it unnecessary for starters to play four quarters.

Curry in an MVP-caliber year has played 32.8 minutes per game, the lowest amount of all seasons in which he has been healthy. The durable Thompson (32.1 mpg) is playing less than he has in the past two seasons. Andrew Bogut’s 23.7 minutes are a low even in a 10-year career that has been marred at times by injuries.

Bogut played only 19 minutes in Saturday’s win at Milwaukee that pushed the Warriors’ win total to 60 for the first time in franchise history. It was an amount he and Kerr had roughly planned.

“It’s great,” said Bogut, whose rib injury late last season caused him to miss the playoffs. “Obviously it takes a toll on your body. Once you get over the 30-minute mark is when you start digging deep. But when you can play around 20, you’re much more comfortable. You’re much more active out there, and I think it’s a luxury to have that.”

Bogut, who underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy on his injured right knee this season, has been rested twice this season. Andre Iguodala, who underwent a stem cell injection in his right knee in the offseason, has sat five games under Kerr’s watch. Draymond Green and Shaun Livingston were rested for a game each this week after Kerr said they were “banged up.”

Curry, Thompson, Bogut and Iguodala were the players whom Kerr chose to sit on March 13 in a 114-103 loss at Denver. The decision came in the middle of a stretch of five games in seven days, and it drew a variety of reactions.

Fans at the arena looking to get a glimpse of Curry in action were disappointed to varying degrees, and some of their emails drew Kerr’s attention. Curry said he didn’t necessarily need the night off but understood it. Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob told CSN Bay Area that he thought it was for the good of the team but added, “I don’t like it. I don’t think the fans like it. If you’re old school, you don’t like it.”

Kerr said he consults players and uses the eye test while also possessing more advanced methods to gauge when they need a break.

“I don’t buy the argument that in the old days things were better, in the old days we were tougher,” Kerr said. “We know a lot more now, you know? I mean, in the old days they didn’t have penicillin, and that really wasn’t that great. Once we found penicillin, it was like, ‘That’s actually a good thing.’

“This is what happens in science and medicine. You make advancements, you get more information, and you react accordingly. We have so much info now that we didn’t have 20 years ago, all kinds of data from the SportVU (player-tracking) cameras to the heart monitors, GPS. We can tell when a guy is fatigued, and we also know that when a player is fatigued, he’s more susceptible to injury. We didn’t have that information 20, 30 years ago. So if we’re going to use all this stuff, then we might as well actually make the most of it.”

Thompson, whose relatives in Denver were among the fans unable to see him play, said the time off did him some good.

“Yeah, it probably made a difference for those few games after that especially mentally just to have the night off,” he said.