{"id":527243,"date":"2026-01-10T15:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527243\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T15:10:30","slug":"the-warriors-have-a-new-magic-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/527243\/","title":{"rendered":"The Warriors have a new magic word"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the Section 415 podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are treating turnovers like they\u2019re Voldemort from Harry Potter, avoiding even uttering the word. <\/p>\n

The bit of cheeky reverse psychology from head coach Steve Kerr and his staff seems to be working. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t mention the word,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI just say, \u2018Hit singles. Be solid. Solid wins the game.\u2019 I\u2019m not bringing it up anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n

Turnovers have been by far the Warriors\u2019 biggest issue this season. They rank 24th in the league in turnover rate and are 5-14 when turning the ball over more than their opponent.<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

3 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Jan. 2<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

After hammering the point to his team over and over again, Kerr made the conscious decision to just let it be. At this point, everyone knows the team needs to value the ball more. Harping on it is overkill. The coaching staff doesn\u2019t even show turnovers in film sessions anymore. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good life lesson,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cJust ignore all your problems. Never acknowledge them. Don\u2019t look in the mirror. Ignorance is bliss.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kerr last tried this strategy with the Stat That Must Not Be Named in the 2022 playoffs against Memphis, he said. It worked then, and it seems to be working now. <\/p>\n

In the past three games, the Warriors (21-18) have committed seven, 10, and 11 turnovers. The last figure came in Friday\u2019s 137-103 romp of the tanking Sacramento Kings \u2014 Golden State\u2019s eighth win in its past 11 contests. <\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s helped us a lot because we\u2019re not really thinking as much and just playing,\u201d center Trayce Jackson-Davis told The Standard.<\/p>\n

The intentional avoidance of the word began in mid-December, Jackson-Davis estimated, before Draymond Green had his tiff with Kerr on the bench. <\/a>Golden State is averaging 11.9 (redacteds) in its past seven games, well below its season average of 15.7 <\/p>\n

Against the Kings, the Warriors had 39 assists and 11 Stat That Must Not Be Named. <\/p>\n

Steph Curry logged his second double-double of the season with 27 points and 10 assists, and gave the ball to the Kings just twice. <\/p>\n

\u201cCutting down our turnovers is a big key, because it gets us more shots on the rim, offensive rebounds as well,\u201d Curry said. \u201cIt all is just making sense right now. We\u2019ve got to keep doing that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Curry\u2019s 10 assists marked a season-high as he set the tone for a Golden State team that finished with 39 assists on 52 made field goals against Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know coach said he\u2019s not talking about it anymore, but we are very mindful (to) that as a key to us winning games,\u201d Curry said. \u201cBecause we do utilize each other more than most teams do \u2014 screening, passing, moving bodies, moving the ball. Then if you turn it over, there\u2019s no defense for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not only killing your offense, it\u2019s not just a score, it\u2019s a momentum and it\u2019s just a vibe that when we\u2019re turning other teams over and getting easy buckets, everybody\u2019s feeling good. So if you\u2019re giving the other team extra possessions, or breakout layups in the meat of the game, it\u2019s hard to overcome that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,6,66,863,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-527243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-steve-kerr","16":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115871444434690965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}