Lowell Cohn: Warriors follow Steve Kerr’s mantra — play well and wins will follow

OAKLAND

Steve Kerr made it real clear before the game - before the Warriors beat the Trail Blazers 136-111. There’s a big difference between winning and playing well. Listen to the coach.

“We’ve won a lot of games when we haven’t played well this year. A lot of those have come in the last couple of weeks. We didn’t play well in Utah (an overtime win). We finished well, but we didn’t play very well. It’s important to separate those two things. Let’s focus on playing well and, when we do that, usually the win comes. In my mind, the last handful of games it just feels like we’re just trying to win instead of trying to play well.”

He was making an important distinction, the kind of critical thinking we expect from Kerr. And his subtext was all about the 400-pound gorilla in the room - not that there’s a gorilla or a room. The gorilla is 73 wins - yes, that subject again. If the Warriors win 73, they break the NBA record for wins in a single season. They have five games left, which gives them room for one loss. If they get 73 wins, it’s entirely possible the entire team, including coaches and trainers, will go to heaven at the appropriate time.

Question: Are there gorillas in heaven?

More to the point, Kerr was saying, if the Warriors play well, they are likely to reach the magic number as a by-product. Not as a primary goal. Which proves once again the coach has a first-class noodle.

Because 73 is strictly a by-product product number, not as important in its way, as two, the Warriors’ magic number to clinch home court throughout the postseason. The Warriors want to be rested and healthy at season’s end to - get this - defend their league title, to win a second title in a row. And 73 is strictly irrelevant to that goal.

It is so irrelevant, Kerr rested Andrew Bogut against Portland, not that Bogut was in danger of going to, well, heaven any time soon. He is what you call “banged up,” which means he had assorted owies and could have played if his or his team’s life depended on it.

Here is Kerr’s banged-up quote so you won’t think I make this stuff up. On not playing Bogut: “This is what I’ve been talking about the last few weeks with our guys. If they’re a little banged up, we’ll sit them. So, Andrew’s a little banged up. We’ll sit him tonight.”

In other words, the health-and-safety regulations are more important than 73, which is becoming a very important and a very tiresome number. It will be so nice when the Warriors play their remaining five games and put 73 in the rearview mirror. Or in the number graveyard. Or wherever old numbers go to die. Heaven?

Make no mistake, everyone is counting games. The Warriors end their season at home on Wednesday, April 13, against the Memphis Grizzlies. The playoffs start Saturday, April 16, opponent TBD. And if Kerr is the smart guy I take him for, the Warriors will not limp toward April 16 hurt or dog tired. Not worth it.

Oh, yes, the Warriors did play that game Sunday evening. Portland is a middle-of-the-road opponent. The Warriors might even play the Blazers in the first round, would murder the Blazers if it comes to that.

The Blazers have one great player, Damian Lillard, surrounded by a bunch of guys. They hung tough for a while, outscored the Warriors 37-31 in a fierce first quarter. Draymond Green looked at what was happening and told himself, “Just stay the course and it’ll turn for us.”

It did. Eventually the Warriors’ pedigree showed. They had lost their previous game to the Celtics, slightly better than Portland. Which shows the season is long and teams get tired and even a great team like the Warriors can lose.

Kerr talked about the virtue of losing to Boston. “Sometimes if you win and play poorly,” he said, “the message doesn’t get through as clearly. You tend to kind of overlook some of the details even if you’re playing poorly when you win. But a loss definitely opens up everybody’s eyes. Hopefully, that’s what we’ll take from the loss, a chance to look at what we’ve been doing well and what we’ve been doing poorly, and clean some stuff up.”

The Warriors were exceedingly clean against Portland - practiced excellent basketball hygiene. Stephen Curry, who was in a shooting slump but isn’t anymore, scored 39 points and made several Portland defenders look defenseless. And Festus Ezeli returned to action after missing 31 games and blocked a shot right away and showed he’s approaching playoff form.

And Kerr definitely is in playoff form. When an official called Shaun Livingston for traveling, Kerr ran screaming along the sideline his arms extended horizontally making the coach resemble a human hang glider.

After the game, I asked Kerr this question. “Before the game we had this meta-basketball discussion about the difference between a win and a good game. This was a win and I assume you think it was a good game. Could you elaborate on why?”

“Yes, it was a good game and a win,” he said. “It’s good when we can do both. We took care of the ball. Thirteen turnovers is a good number. Thirty assists is a great number. We were really moving the ball. Bench came in and played well. I thought the bench in the beginning of the second quarter really changed the game defensively for us. We started making stops because Portland was scorching hot that first quarter. So, when everybody plays well and you’re locked in, that’s a good game.”

Which means the Warriors won their 69th game and 73 is just up the alley and around the corner. After that, next stop heaven.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.