The collective game plans and best practices of the Warriors’ opponents for the execution of the Golden State dynasty can be summarized in one simple truth: if they are stationary, the Warriors are not Warriors. All successful strategies against them, whether it endures a single game or, rarely, the entire series, is a full-scale attack on their freedom of movement, a full-scale attack on Stephen Curry. was. If you slow down the curry, the Warriors will slow down. Wait for the curry to fly around the screen. That way, you can slow down the overall attack.
“It all starts with Steph,” Draymond Green said on Sunday night. “”[Even] When KD was here, our attack still started with Steph. “
The essence of strategic friction in these NBA Finals comes from Boston’s attempt to change that reality. At their most stuffy moments, the Celtics controlled individual matches and switched enough to disrupt the Warriors’ natural flow. “How we move our bodies and move the ball, switching [against us] It’s designed to keep everything on the border, “says Curry. “Put your body between the person and the basket. Try to force you into a tough shot. However, running the set can be confusing. difficult.. ”
Almost all members of the Golden State support cast are to help them create an attack, including ostensibly co-star Klay Thompson, who is having a terrible time trying to move away from Boston’s breathtaking surrounding coverage. Depends on moving the curry. But the Celtics defense switch creates another kind of opportunity. In Game 2, the Warriors used curry in the way Steve Kerr had long resisted. In other words, it was an immediate attack on the Boston Bigs from the dribble.
Performing a pick and roll after a pick and roll is a more direct approach than the Warriors generally prefer. It’s more crude than curry spinning around the floor until the defense collapses. After all, Curry grew up wanting to be Reggie Miller. Carr draws the basketball philosophy from years of play at Triangle Offense and modernizes the concept to fit some of the world’s greatest shooters. Taking the ball out of Curry’s hand in 2014 and entrusting it to a non-traditional playmaker like Green unveiled a series of amazing layers of attack.
“Triangle Bigs are asked to pass, whether from the low post or the pinch post,” Kerr said. Ringer In 2020. “There were so many good actions that came out of it.” The whole movement culture of the Golden State came from its design. That’s why Boston set out to make curry by other means.
Assigning Marcus Smart to defend the green in Game 1’s stretch was a fairly obvious challenge for Curry, and in fact for the entire Golden State way of life. All of the Warriors’ regular dribble handoffs between the green and curry are easy when Smart (the defensive player of the year and one of the best defenders against curry in the entire league) switches to pick up Steph at command. I was able to contain it in. Still, Boston has also announced that it will live with almost everything else by keeping it out of the way to prevent Curry from turning off-ball cuts into open shots.
Warriors has removed the Game 2 approach to take full advantage of these priorities. It wasn’t really a problem that Smart returned to check curry more or less full time. Curry used the Boston Switch to hunt Al Horford instead with a pick and roll, trying to hide Horford in a place where he could move away from action and away from Steph. The Celtics then tried to return to the drop-style defense to save Horford and the other bigs, but in response, the Warriors set the Curry screen higher and higher on the floor, snapping the league’s best defense. I stretched it to. The curry was pulled up for 3 seconds. He jumped into the lane with three defenders. In the third quarter of Game 2’s whirlwind, Curry created so much downhill momentum that the entire team was free to move again.
“If you can take part in these one-on-one matches and play, and if you can take advantage of them and read the defenses well, you can make many good shots,” Curry said. “Thankfully, these types of belongings helped the attack calm down a bit because they either took a good shot or the ball started to move and didn’t turn the ball over.”
Curry scored 63 points in 46 shots in the first two games of the series. There are plenty of floaters and runners, and pull-up jumpers. His individual work against this historically great defense was not a problem. However, Boston was previously able to chase Curry without losing his collective mind, so Golden State would turn its shotmaking into a more holistic attack until he gave up the ghost and handed the ball to Curry. I couldn’t.
According to Second Spectrum, the Warriors had fewer pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions this season than any other team in the league, but when they raised the ballscreen dial in Game 2, the rhythm of the attack was I could still fully recognize it. .. The tempo, passage, and movement patterns were all there. This is the Warriors basketball. Probably a streamlined form, but all its principles remain the same.
Playoff matches do not necessarily impose your will. Often, the winning team is the one that gives up what it needs to function. The system recommended by Golden State is elegant basketball engineering. Still, it is always the curry that brings the machine to life, and under these difficult circumstances you can do the same with a slightly modified structure. Throughout his career, Curry has sprinted to every corner of the attack, spending his possessions to catch and create from every possible scenario. By comparison, pick and roll is easy.
“I try to control, compose, watch the game, feel the flow and rhythm, and know where I can reach my spot,” Curry said.
The Golden State resident MVP can be pressured to steer the entire possession with a simpler, pick-and-roll violent attack, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t yet taken on the full weight of the attack. All the possessions that Curry spent curling around the screen away from the ball could create a meaningful separation from the defender, or at least another opponent on the floor. It was based on the idea that it can make you think that it is not. If Curry failed the task, Green got stuck with the ball in his hand at the top of the floor and all his passes were loaded with nowhere to go. It all starts with Steph and is always there. Creating as many dribbles as needed for this match is just the next tweak to the superstar who has shown that he can handle it.
Curry trains for this by effectively pushing the body in preparation for what it needs, rather than pick-and-roll crushing the entire off-season. It wasn’t an exaggeration when Mavericks coach Jason Kidd called Curry “the best-conditioned athlete of the game” in the finals of the Western Conference. Curry lasts longer than you. “I’m proud to be the hardest and most consistent worker,” he said.
When other NBA players tried to train with curry in the off-season, they were disappointed with his routine: a dynamic 34-year-old curry now flies around the court and rarely takes continuous shots. Game speed drill from the same place. His entire regimen is structured to give him the answer — another move he can make, another option he can get.
Still, there’s always concern about pushing too many good players at the long-term end, especially if the Celtics make the curry work and compete for defense on every occasion. “There are a lot of concerns about a lot of things,” Carr said after Game 2. “Boston is the hell of the team. They have great defense. They are athletic, powerful and able to reach the rim.” So much without pushing beyond the comfort limits. There is no way to get past a formidable opponent. More minutes. More touch. More pick and roll, even if they distract the Warriors from the team they want.
“Whatever it is,” Kerr said. The only way for the Warriors to move forward is to stay on the move.
