Kerr misses Game 3 because of an illness

Assistant Brown sits in for head coach with unspecified malady

PORTLAND — The Warriors were without head coach Steve Kerr for Game 3 of their first-round series in Portland on Saturday night.

Kerr missed the team’s morning shootaround with an illness and still wasn’t feeling well enough later in the afternoon, so the team announced his absence. Assistant Mike Brown coached in Kerr’s place. Brown was formerly head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.

“He hadn’t been feeling well for a couple days, so I knew it would be a possibility,” Brown said. “But we just decided today that it would happen tonight.”

Kerr missed the first 43 games last season because of lin-

gering complications from a pair of back surgeries in the summer of 2015. His health has improved since, but he still occasionally suffers from headaches, nausea and an aching neck. He missed a shootaround earlier this season in Chicago but coached the game.

There’s no word from the team whether his current status is related to those health complications. Kerr planned to watch the game from his hotel room.

“He’s under the weather, but I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Brown said.

On normal game days throughout the season, Brown spends part of his afternoon going over the game plan with Kerr, often at the team hotel. Brown scripts the substitution patterns. Though Kerr wasn’t feeling well, Brown said he still spent part of his Saturday afternoon in Kerr’s hotel room going over Game 3 strategy.

“Talked with him right after shootaround,” Brown said. “Talked to him on the phone (right before my pregame press conference).”

Brown has coached 83 playoff games — 71 leading LeBron James’ Cavaliers and 12 leading Kobe Bryant’s Lakers. He’s 47-36.

“(Kerr)’s done such a terrific job of laying the foundation here,” Brown said. “It’s a thing that kind of works on its own. The only thing that’s different is I don’t think he’d wear a pink shirt. Other than that, I think it’ll be the same ... I’m not coming in here trying to reinvent the wheel. The wheel already works.”

With the best record n in the league, the Warriors were already planted on the smoother side of the Western Conference bracket. Their task: Dispose of the eight-seed, then take down the winner of the 4-5 matchup.

But their path to the West Finals may have just become even lighter. While the Warriors have command of their first-round series — up 2-0 as the series shifted to Portland on Saturday night — the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers are losing key bodies as they battle through what’s shaping up to be an extended 4-5 series.

Seventeen seconds into Game 1, the Jazz lost star center (and Defensive Player of the Year candidate) Rudy Gobert to a hyperextended knee. They have hope that he can return at some point over the next couple of weeks, but that’s iffy.

Late in Game 3, the Clippers lost star forward Blake Griffin. He broke his toe on a drive and will miss the rest of the playoffs, continuing the franchise’s rotten, ill-timed injury luck.

After a huge Chris Paul performance without Griffin, the Clippers are up 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday in Utah. It has the makings of a long series. But whoever emerges, they’ll be walking wounded into the next round, where the Warriors — assuming they finish off the Blazers — will await.

The Warriors were n without their coach and star small forward for Game 3, plus a pair of other rotation pieces. Kevin Durant was sidelined for a second straight game because of a calf strain. Matt Barnes (foot sprain) and Shaun Livingston (hand contusion) also remain out. Durant practiced fully on Friday and sounded hopeful of a return, but the team apparently believed it better to stay as cautious as possible.