Why Kerr deems Warriors' loss to Timberwolves ‘unforgivable'

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With the second half of the 2022-23 NBA season well underway, the Warriors needed their latest road trip to go well.

Though Golden State started out strong Monday with a win over an on-the-rise Oklahoma City Thunder team, it catastrophically blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead against the Minnesota Timberwolves two days later and lost in overtime.

With a loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday in the second game of a back-to-back, the Warriors ended their three-game trip 1-2 -- and coach Steve Kerr believes the loss to the Wolves will weigh heavily on them as the season continues.

"You can look at the schedule and know that Denver game was going to be tough, but it's our fault for making it tougher than it should have been, because we've got to win that Minnesota game," Kerr told 95.7 The Game's "Damon & Ratto" on Friday. "If we do that, we're headed to Denver with a 2-0 mark on the trip. Then we're in great shape and you have a free swing, and you never know what happens.

"So, the Minnesota game is the one that really is going to haunt us for a while, and we know we've got to move past it, but that was really kind of an unforgivable loss."

Throughout their up-and-down road trip, the Warriors entered as the Western Conference's No. 6 seed, reached as high as the No. 5 seed and then fell down to No. 9. As of Saturday, Golden State is eighth in the West, but Kerr knows all it takes is one good stretch for the Warriors to turn a corner and make up ground in the standings.

"I still feel good about our prospects and our team and our ability to go on a run," Kerr said. "It's just frustrating when we continue to give up really golden opportunities to kickstart that run that we're talking about.

"Somehow, we've got to just keep pushing forward and keep just getting better and trying to figure out how we can close out games, especially because it feels like we've given away five or six games this year and not closed out another five or six on top of that, that we could have won ... I think we should be better than what we are."

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The Warriors are attempting to accomplish one of the most difficult things in professional sports as they look to win back-to-back NBA championships. And that task is proving to be as challenging as Golden State expected.

But as Kerr said, all it takes is one good run. And the Warriors certainly will keep pushing toward the NBA playoffs -- and past their "unforgivable" loss.

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