CLEVELAND — It was another thunderous moment of truth, and another moment when Steve Kerr intervened, took a risk and chest-thumped the Warriors back to life.
It was the biggest moment yet. It was a defining NBA Finals event for Kerr’s young coaching career, a turning of the tide, a decisive strategic magic trick.
It probably saved the Warriors’ season — for the second time in these playoffs.
And it was the purest, savviest, boldest essence of who Kerr is, why he’s here and how much further he can take the Warriors.
The move: After losing back-to-back games to LeBron James’ Cavaliers, Kerr took center Andrew Bogut out of the lineup, put forward Andre Iguodala in and went all-in with the Warriors’ small lineup, with Draymond Green at center.
That took some guts, but it sped everything up, pushed the Warriors to a whirlwind first-quarter lead and just got the Warriors feeling like themselves again after two troubled games.
Put it all together, and it gave the Warriors an uplifting 103-82 victory in Game 4 at Quicken Loans Arena to tie up this series 2-2 with Game 5 set for Sunday back in Oakland.
“The move changes the chess board,” Kerr said. “So I think it was important to get better spacing.
“We had five guys out there who can run pretty fast; so we got up and down the floor pretty quickly, and that helped us get off to a better start.”
Iguodala played brilliantly matched against James, David Lee came off the bench and gave the Warriors productive minutes and Curry helped seal the deal in the fourth quarter.
All set up by Kerr’s move, in the nick of time.
This was a coach reading his team, reading the time and the place and delivering — just like Kerr pulled off two rounds ago, when he made a major defensive change in the Memphis series in this exact same dire circumstance.
So this is what the Warriors are learning about their rookie coach: When the pressure is the highest, Kerr and his staff can figure out a way to change the tone of a rough series.
And this time, this was with a championship on the line, with the Warriors facing the prospect of possibly going down 3-1, an almost sure-death situation.
This was under the spotlight, with his team floundering and an NBA title receding into the distance.
That took some guts.
What was the reaction of the players when Kerr told them he was making the move?
“It made sense when he told us just because we’ve been getting off to such slow starts,” Curry said.
So what do they think of their coach now?
“Not afraid to take a chance,” Curry said of Kerr, “and obviously it’s not a blind guess. He’s obviously invested in our team and a smart coach that is willing to make adjustments to help us win a game.”
Against Memphis in the West semifinals, when the Warriors were also down 2-1 in the series and also facing a do-or-die moment, Kerr made a huge switch in defensive assignments that kicked the Warriors back to life to start Game 4.
In this Game 4, it was the small-ball offense that fed the defense for the Warriors.
Also, in another quintessential example of Kerr’s many levels, he faced this moment of truth by issuing a big, old public fib.
Before the game, when he was asked — by me, among others — whether he would be making a lineup change, Kerr bluntly said there would be no change.
His postgame explanation: “I lied. I did. “¦ My options were to tell the truth “¦ so if I tell the truth, it’s the equivalent of me knocking on (Cleveland coach) David Blatt’s door and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ “¦
“So I lied. Sorry, but I don’t think they hand you the trophy based on morality. They give it to you if you win.”
Right after his news conference, Kerr spotted me and instantly apologized personally, saying he had to do it.
I told him that I understood that coaches have to do what they can and also that he’s 1-0 in games when he publicly lies straight to my face.
He laughed, and he could afford to.
Kerr also has a new habit of pulling coaching magic tricks precisely when they are at their most desperate, which is not a terrible reputation for a coach to develop on the largest stage exactly when his team needs it.
Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5442. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/timkawakami.
