Steve Kerr was effusive in his praise of Jordan Poole after the 23-year-old led the Golden State Warriors to victory at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.

Poole scored 32 points as the Warriors won 120-114 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, with the defending NBA champions without star players Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins.

Coach Steve Kerr rested them and others after their agonising overtime defeat at the Boston Celtics on Thursday, and was pleased to see Poole step up in their absence.

"He's continuing to grow and he's continuing to get better," Kerr said post-game. "In the last two games, he was fantastic... To play that way tonight without Steph and Klay and Wiggs and Dray, to give us that scoring and that force, he made so many plays out there. He set the tone.

"He's getting better and better. There is still so far to go, which is exciting."

Golden State did not particularly miss Curry as they managed to hit 23 three-pointers, the most they have ever recorded in a game without the eight-time All Star.

Poole acknowledged he and his team-mates had to learn from their mistakes against Boston, where they threw away a lead in the fourth quarter.

The Cavaliers also began eating into a lead that had been as high as 20 points at one stage, but this time the Warriors were able to close it out.

"It was a learning experience yesterday," Poole said. "It was something that we were very aware of. It kind of was a very similar situation, being up with six minutes left and then it became a close game. We knew we needed to lock down, get some stops and make a good run. We needed to close it out and we did. Now we have to build on it.

"Everybody on our team is confident, and shout-out to Coach Kerr for allowing us to play with that confidence. We know what we are capable of. We were spacing the floor and getting good looks. We got laser-focused."