Warriors' Steve Kerr shares game plan for dealing with Kawhi Leonard

After finishing the regular season with a 37-45 record, the Golden State Warriors face the grueling task of navigating two play-in games to try to qualify for the playoffs. Steve Kerr's team will begin their play-in tournament push against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, April 15, in what will be a rematch of their final game of the season, where they lost 115-110 on Sunday, April 12.

Facing off against Ty Lue's team is far from an easy task, especially with how Kawhi Leonard has been playing in recent months. The Clippers are 19-13 since the Feb. 5 trade deadline, where the front office rebuilt some of the roster. Two of those 19 wins have come against Golden State, as the Clippers won their season series against Kerr's team 3-1.

During a recent news conference, Kerr discussed the challenges of facing the Clippers in the opening game of the play-in tournament, providing an in-depth breakdown of how his team will look to guard and potentially contain Leonard.

“Well, he's always been a great player,” Steve Kerr said, via Tomer Azarly. “So I'm not sure how much he's changed now compared to when we saw him in the NBA Finals in 2019. He's just gotten better and better, but he's still doing the same things. He's just doing them at a high level. The gameplan doesn't change, but you have to recognize just how good he is, how much they depend on him, and we'll watch everything in terms of what they're running for him, his favorite spots to be in.”

Kerr then continued by detailing Kawhi's role within the Clippers offense and the challenges he can pose due to his ability to play into the ruleset.

“We'll have some rules for our guys that we've had in regular season games too in terms of not letting him do certain things,” Kerr said. “He's going to really try to get fouled. He's going to do the NBA thing which lots of guys are doing. [Brandin Podziemski] does it for us, he'll try to use the rules against the other team and get to the foul line so we have to be prepared for all of that, just like they do with [Brandin Podziemski].”

Wednesday will be a do-or-die game for Golden State. Curry and Draymond Green are highly experienced in those pressure-cooker moments and are likely to be unfazed by the situation. As such, the rest of the locker room will likely be looking to them for some leadership, both during the build-up and throughout the game itself.

Nevertheless, the Clippers are a tough opponent, especially when it comes to a win-or-go-home situation. Hopefully, the Warriors' experience in these moments will provide them with an edge; their season could come to an end on Wednesday.

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This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors' Steve Kerr shares game plan for dealing with Kawhi Leonard