Warriors welcome Steve Kerr back to sidelines

Draymond Green tossed up an awful shot on purpose.

He knew it was a bad play. He didn’t expect to make it. He didn’t want to make it. Green explained:

“That was the plan. I told Steph and Luke before the game, ‘I’m finna jack one. So he could yell at me.’ But he didn’t yell, so I told him he’s slipping.”

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr returned to his full time coaching duties Friday night, to much ado from fans and players. Even Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll sent a nice message his way on Twitter. Kerr said:

“There were about five cameramen there for about five minutes, right in my face. How long do you need that shot? Five seconds would have been enough. It was nice. Our fans were great and with the game on national TV, there was plenty of coverage. But in the end, it’s just good to be back coaching and be back with the group.”

Could the routine, half the season with Luke Walton as interim head coach, have led the Warriors starting shooting guard to approach the wrong guy out of habit? Klay Thompson said:

“Nah, but he (Luke) was drawing up the plays at the dead ball. Luke’s not all the way out of the picture, he still does a good job.”

Green added:

“He’s been missing for 43 games. Luke stepped up phenomenally and did a great job. It was a special night to have coach Kerr back on the bench with everything he’s been through over the past seven months.”

Kerr injured himself during the Warriors’ championship run when an animated movement on the NBA Finals sidelines led to a ruptured disc and multiple surgeries. Kerr said that the final step was getting over some symptoms relative to the surgeries, though he added that most of the pain was in areas other than his back.

Walton took over and led the Warriors to the most wins to open a season in NBA history, and came just a few games shy of tying the record for most consecutive wins in a single season.

Walton also posted the second best record through 43 games, shy of only the 1995-’96 Bulls, who are widely considered the best team of all time.

The Warriors are chasing their record of 72 wins, and are currently on pace to top their record by four wins.

In Kerr’s return, the Warriors won wire to wire — never trailing once.

Jason Leskiw is SFBay’s Golden State Warriors beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @LeskiwSFBay on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of the Warriors.