STEVE KERR, coach of the Golden State Warriors (Wikipedia).

I feel your pain, Steve Kerr.

Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors, on Sunday pulled four of his starters – at halftime – against the Boston Celtics, who had a 44-point lead at that point. The Bostonians went on to win 140-88 in a signal blowout of one of the better teams in the NBA.

But the best team now is clearly that old Lakers’ nemesis, the Celtics, who – as of Sunday – had won 11 straight games and are leading the NBA Atlantic Division by 12.5 games. They are the first – and so far, only – team to qualify for the playoffs with another 20 or so games left to play.

“This is, I think, the best version of this team that I’ve seen,” said Kerr. By conceding a game with another half yet to play, Kerr was accused of “waving the white flag” of surrender.

He was right … sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Why risk risk injury to your stars when the other team is beating you like a drum?

In high school my basketball team was getting slaughtered by a taller, more skilled – and probably better-looking – team. One of our players decided to make a statement that was one part irony and one part adolescent cheek and – literally – threw in the towel.

As soon as it landed on the hardwood, the official hit us with a technical foul. It was clearly not our day.

It puts me in mind of the 1940 Washington NFL team that lost 73-0 to the Chicago Bears. One of their players was asked how the game would have been different if their opening drive hadn’t stalled.

“Oh, it’d be different, all right,” he said. “The score would have been 73-7.”

“Never give up” sounds good but “Live to fight another day” is sometimes smarter.