Just before the game, some of his players were filled with emotion after celebrating the assistant coach they sorely missed. Nevertheless, Steve Kerr stuck to his mantra, telling them to “try to lose yourself in the game.”
In the Golden State Warriors’ first game back following assistant coach Dejan Milojević’s passing last week, the team defeated the Atlanta Hawks 134–111 on Wednesday night. Stephen Curry scored 25 points with eight assists, while Klay Thompson scored 24.
In spite of the difficulty, Kerr felt that his team did a great job of attempting to adjust and become comfortable with the game. That evoked strong feelings. The ball was being tipped, and many of the guys were crying.
Playing in front of their cherished “brate,” as Milojević affectionately called all of the Warriors, the Splash Brothers shone. With seven Warriors scoring in double figures, Kuminga made all 11 of his shots en route to 25 points. His number of consecutive hits without a miss tied the franchise record held by Hall of Famer Chris Mullin.
As Kuminga put it, “It’s been a tough week.” We naturally took stock of the situation and walked outside to enjoy ourselves and fulfill Deki’s wishes, having fun despite everything that was going on.
He was honored with the Serbian national song performed as the two teams stood together on one sideline close to their respective team benches during an emotional pregame ceremony. The Warriors players then arranged an extra jersey over one of the coaches chairs, which had a customized black T-shirt with the word “BRATE” draped over the seat, with Milojević’s name on the back from the warm-ups.
According to Thompson, “our team still has a really big hole in it.”
Tuesday night at a team dinner in Salt Lake City, Milojević had a heart attack and passed away the following day. Milojević’s jersey was worn by two injured Warriors players, Chris Paul and Gary Payton II, during the entire game.
The large screen aired a tribute video, and pictures of a grinning “Deki,” as they affectionately called him, covered Chase Center. Kerr asked the sold-out crowd—the Warriors’ 500th consecutive sell-out crowd—to eschew a moment of silence in favor of a standing ovation, honoring the joy Milojević radiated every day.
As the Warriors coach talked about how much of an impact Milojević had on everyone he met, two Hawks players were right next to Kerr. Belgrade native and former Partizan player for Milojević, Bogdan Bogdanovic is an Atlanta guard. Milojević joined the Hawks’ coaching staff after being hired by Igor Kokoskov, the former Serbian national team coach.
“The Serbian community in this league is really strong,” Kerr remarked.
The Hawks suffered their third straight loss despite Bogdanovic’s 17 points and four 3-pointers. Dejounte Murray led the way with 23 points.
Coach Quin Snyder of the Hawks stated, “This game had significance beyond the game.”
Dario Saric, who played a major part in Saric’s decision to join the Warriors, is the one who took on the role of support for Milojević’s family throughout the last week. Saric imagines he will think of Deki nearly every day going forward.
In a brief amount of time, he had such a profound effect on me, according to Saric. Like my older brother, he was.
16 of the Warriors’ 16 3-pointers were made as they finished 48.5% of the way through the combined 10-for-18 shooting from Curry and Thompson. It was the 400th regular-season victory shared by Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green.
Says Thompson, “That’s very special.” “Any time I am on the court with those two I’m very grateful.”
In the regular season, excluding the All-Star break and the pandemic stoppage in March 2020, the Warriors spent eight days without playing. According to Elias, the 2020–21 Spurs went nine days without playing from February 14–24, 2021, was the first team to go eight or more days without playing.
The Warriors franchise had never gone that long without a game throughout a season.