The Golden State Warriors just dropped the ball against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of their Playoff series. Steve Kerr and his men were unable to stop a rampaging Julius Randle from tying up the series with his 24-point double-double showing. But in his desperation, Kerr ended up doing something that the NBA has not seen in nearly 30 years. And after the game, he revealed why he made this decision tonight.

Tonight’s game was quite a bashing for Kerr’s team. They lost to the Timberwolves by a whopping 24 points tonight. But that wasn’t the worrying bit. No, it’s Kerr’s man management that perturbed the Dub Nation and media personnel alike. You see, Kerr fielded a grand total of 14 players tonight. And this hasn’t happened in the postseason since 1998. Just to put that into context, this was the same year Jordan won his last ring with the Bulls!

Among the ones that played tonight were Kevin Knox II and Braxton Key. When’s the last time you remember them playing in the same game?  It wasn’t too long ago that Kerr said, “We’ve just found a group, since Jimmy got here, that we’re pretty comfortable with,” when asked about Jonathan Kuminga entering the Dubs squad. But now it’s abundantly clear now that the injury to Stephen Curry has thrown off Kerr’s plans to stick to his core rotation.

And at the post-game press conference tonight, Kerr explained his choice to field so many players against the Timberwolves. Perhaps hearing his reasoning will help us better understand his baffling game plan for Game 2.

Steve Kerr explains why he played 14 players against the Timberwolves in Game 2

Steve Kerr didn’t shy away from addressing the fact that he played nearly the entirety of the Dubs’ roster tonight. In fact, the long-time Warriors coach embraced it and explained why he did it in the first place. And as you might think, it had everything to do with Stephen Curry currently being on the sidelines.

“Well, I think part of the game plan coming in was to play a lot of people, and we did. I think we played 13, 14 people in the first half. And part of the reasoning is, you know, obviously the fatigue of the run we’ve been on with all the travel and the games, but part of it also is we have to figure out what we’re going to be able to do in this series without Steph. And so we gave a lot of people a lot of chances, and then some guys really stepped up. Trace and JK were both really good in this game. You could see that their athleticism was important,” said Kerr. Now, let’s break that down, shall we?

Starting with the fatigue aspect of it all. Yes, it’s understandable that Kerr is rotating his players after a grueling series against the Houston Rockets. But if Game 5 of that series showed anything, it’s that going overboard with your rotation doesn’t necessarily help the team. Resting his key players for the next game backfired in that series. The Dubs lost both Game 5 and 6 and were forced to play a Game 7. Hence, the fatigue. As for figuring out what to do without Steph…

It’s understandable that Kerr wants to try out the varied options in the Dubs’ roster. But while players like Jonathan Kuminga thrived tonight, others like Brandin Podziemski suffered terribly. The Warriors had no visible chemistry on the court tonight as the T-Wolves ran them ragged. And the fact that most of these players simply didn’t know how to complement each other’s games on the fly was a big part of that.

All in all, Steve Kerr should absolutely tinker with his squad in trying to make up for Steph Curry’s absence. However, what he cannot afford is to let his experiments get in the way of the Dubs winning games, especially in the postseason, where one loss can flip a series on its head. Ultimately, the decision falls on the 4x NBA title-winning coach to get the best out of his players. But maybe he can start with say 7 instead of the 14 he went with tonight!