Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr won’t coach Game 4, could miss more

PORTLAND, Ore. — With coach Steve Kerr ailing, the Golden State Warriors are in capable hands with assistant Mike Brown.

Kerr, the reigning NBA Coach of the Year, stayed behind at the team hotel Saturday night while the Warriors overcame a slow start to beat the Trail Blazers 119-113 and take a 3-0 series lead.

Kerr announced Sunday that he would not be on the sidelines when Golden State tries to close out the series Monday night at the Moda Center. It’s one of three games on tap for the day: Toronto hosts Milwaukee with that series even at 2-all, and Washington has a 2-1 advantage in its series with Game 4 at Atlanta.

Golden State’s players praised Brown for stepping into a lead role with short notice. A first-year assistant for the Warriors, Brown has plenty of experience as former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Well, we know he’s comfortable in that position and he’s got a ton of playoff experience. He’s been a head coach in this league a long time, a very successful one,” Klay Thompson said. “Obviously, we miss Steve, but Mike did a tremendous job and he’s been there before, you could tell. We appreciated his composure. He was tremendous.”

In the first of two stints with Cleveland, Brown led the Cavs to their first NBA Finals appearance in 2007. He was named the league’s Coach of the Year in 2009 when Cleveland finished with 66 wins.

Draymond Green praised Brown as the MVP of Game 3, recounting a moment in the fourth quarter where he kept Green in the game despite playing the entire third — because the Warriors were making their comeback.

“When (he makes) those decisions that he made like that on the fly, it shows why he’s been a head coach multiple times in this league. It shows why he’s been to the finals. Why he’s been around this league for 30 years,” Green said. “He was thrown into the fire. He didn’t find out he was coaching until today, and to make decisions like that in a hostile environment about to lose game three, and to do that, that was pretty big time for him. So that was huge.”

Kerr, 51 still experiences lingering symptoms from complications following two back surgeries after the franchise’s run to the 2015 championship. He missed the first 43 games last season dealing with symptoms such as headaches, nausea and an aching neck.