NBA: Warriors coach Kerr won't campaign for Curry MVP

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr thinks guard Stephen Curry deserves Most Valuable Player consideration, but he won't campaign for the honor. "I think he deserves it, but I don't think it's our job to promote it," Kerr said Thursday in Oakland, California, where the Warriors will host Dallas on Friday. "We're trying to win games. We've got a lot of work to do," added Kerr, comparing his team's focus on a strong push to the post-season to Houston general manager Daryl Morey's public comments hyping Rockets forward James Harden's claim to the award. "We're focused on other stuff," Kerr said. Last week, Morey said during a conference on sports analytics at the Massachusets Institute of Technology in Boston that Harden was MVP material. "Take James Harden off our team, and we're nowhere basically," Morey said. Morey had more praise for Harden after the Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in overtime on Sunday in a game in which Harden scored 33 points and Cavs superstar LeBron James scored 37. In a radio interview on Monday, Morey noted Harden needed fewer possessions to score his points. "That's why James is the MVP -- our James, obviously," Morey said. Harden, leading the league in scoring with an average of 26.9 points per game, sat out Tuesday's loss to Atlanta serving a one-game suspension for kicking James in the groin in that game on Sunday. He returned on Wednesday and scored 18 points in the Rockets' narrow loss to the Memphis Grizzlies that dropped Houston to 41-20. The Warriors own a record of 47-12, with Curry averaging 23.8 points per game.