How Golden State recovered its mastodon style

But by their own admission, they have sometimes been demoted. They got up and looked. Cut at half the speed. Screens slipped without the usual ferocity.

It has not always been easy for Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to operate the turbo switch. Durant did not have to do with Durant. When he rested, the three were rarely together on the floor. The regular season is long and boring for a team headed to its fifth consecutive NBA Finals. The green was out of shape until the diet planned in March.

Like anyone who survives in the tractions, Durant suffers from night in cold weather. These nights – when Durant was lacking more and the other three stars did not call or could not invoke their earlier verve at Durant – were the illusion of the illusion of a less than dominant future after the Durant period.

These last six victories and the synergistic domination of the Golden State's founding fathers have been a reminder: We are always here. They can not win the number 1 seed in the West without Durant; they have earned the right to rub shoulders and rest. But they will be in the championship image when it matters.

Let's take a closer look at how the Warriors have reinstated their roots, with the help (some sources recorded, other anonymous) of coaches and players who have faced them recently.

The slot fears

Curry and Thompson make up the largest shooting backyard in history and perhaps (definitely?) The most beautiful backyard of all time. Kerr's most important change during Mark Jackson's replacement was to take advantage of the power of the Splash Brothers' fire when they did not have the ball. The division – two players meeting and separating – existed well before the Warriors, but Curry and Thompson wielded it to a degree never seen before.

In the play above, CJ McCollum and Evan Turner switch and everything seems to be fine. But while Curry meets McCollum chest to chest and he stands almost straight, he feels a chance to have his back cut off.

Green makes a precise pass. Maurice Harkless moves away from Kevon Looney to stem the Curry training. Curry bounces to Looney, who raises the ball while Harkless throws himself into the shadows.

What are you supposed to do here? Maybe McCollum and Turner should stay at home instead of changing jobs; McCollum nearly immerses himself in choosing Curry, yielding to a switch before he needs it. As the Rockets showed last season, part of a program of sound switching against Golden State is being felt when do not switch.

In theory, Damian Lillard could well separate from Alfonzo McKinnie and smother Looney. Lillard is the fifth Golden State defender gets into the action in about two seconds. Almost no defender can move so quickly from "out of the game" to "urgent rotation".

It's a good sport to make fun of the "Kumbaya Kerr" egalitarian offensive, but the results proved that Kerr was right. Unleashing Curry and Thompson as cutters have borne fruit beyond the mere involvement of players and their joy of playing defense.

He maximizes Green, one of the greatest gaming players of all time. This allows players to play a leading role that would serve no purpose. Very heavy superteams seek minimal support. These players have holes in their games. Many are bad shooters. The magnetism of Curry and Thompson as knives opens crevices through which the Looneys and Iguodalas and Livingstons and McKinnies and Zaza Pachulias and JaVale McGees and Jordan Bells can slice.

The uh-oh 3

Most opposing defenses have reasonably adopted a strategy of ignoring anyone other than Curry, Thompson or Durant to help Golden State's historic fencer trio. But with Curry and Thompson still on the move, you never know where these shooters might appear.

Uncertainty darkens the brains of those who help defenders, even with Durant.

It's a classic Golden State action, although they prefer to do it with Durant and Green in the role of Looney here as a coach.

"It's their best game and the hardest to keep," said Doc Rivers, whose Clippers pushed the strategy "ignore role players" to the extreme in the first round.

Enes Kanter is nominally on Looney, but he is one meter away from Looney, allowing him to face any more dangerous threat.

But Kanter really does not help anyone. It cools near Green, even though there is no need to swarm Green on the block. Kanter does not bother to hit Looney's entry card. While Krusty the Clown barked once against another overhanging opponent, "Just take it! Take the ball!"

From there, it's over. Flares curry around Looney's choice, knowing that Kanter has no chance of covering all this ground.

"You have to recognize the guy you are do not "Keeping voluntarily is now setting up a screen and going up, and it's really hard," says Rivers, "you can not be paralyzed."

It takes a rare combination of alertness, anticipation and speed to switch from one moment to the next to "ignore" to "pressure" – as Harkless managed Green here:

Harkless is a wing. Great men – like Zach Collins below – are more prone to paralysis related to painting:

To convince their opponents, they need to help so dramatically all non-shooters – that a threat may appear anywhere, that you must be all places at once – Warriors incite them to help the ghosts.

"They cause a lot of confusion," Meyers Leonard said a few days after the Warriors swept through Portland. "It's incredibly difficult to be an advocate for help, then to be on the screen." It hurts comfortably. Warriors is totally different when they play this old style of Warriors.It's not normal.You never know what's coming. "

Rivers watched this match and laughed exasperated at this 3-pointer curry, he said. Notice how Looney's two screens direct Curry to the corner of the coffin. Most spring shooters Pindowns a way limits. The Clippers have prevented Curry and Thompson from using these picks – "top lock" in hoops jargon:

The warriors countered by redirecting their attack to the corner. "They are so smart," says Rivers. He noted in particular how Curry pushed his brother to the back in Looney's choice. Mean.

Golden State is incredibly good within narrow limits. Their attack blooms in environments – the corners – where, for the most part, it fades.

Thompson understands the power of his shot – that a double team could come. Livingston knows what passes he'll make before getting the ball. Would the Blazers have changed? Probably. Try to read it in real time. Would anyone have had to switch to Bell? I suppose. The passes come too fast. Golden State has relied on IQ pass-and-cut in role players because their way of playing – the wider identity that is an extension of Curry – requires it.

The challenge inherent to Golden State (with or without Durant) is that there is no silver bullet to defend them, nor even to defend one of their players on a single possession. Sometimes you should change. Sometimes you should wander. Sometimes you should trap. Sometimes you should do all these things in quick succession.

Many of these strategies are in direct conflict. Let's say you're a shot blocker defending Green on one wing while Curry dribbles over the other. You should be preparing to help at Curry Road, right? But wait! Green puts up an off-screen screen for Thompson. Your job is to change such actions. How can you get on the outside on Thompson and help inside on Curry?

You can not. If you change, you can not help, and if you help, you can not change, and try to know what to do according to a dozen variables – who has the ball, how long is left on the Shooting clock, what other warriors are on the ground, if Joe Lacob taunts you – can plunge the most intelligent defenders into a haze.

"It's like you're in a boat with three holes in the bottom," said Jeff Bzdelik, the former Houston defensive coordinator, last season, "and you're not going to be in trouble." have only two pegs to plug in. Just keep moving them. "

Rivers started telling his players to hack when they felt trailing behind. "It's the first time I do that as a coach," he says.

Add another middle layer

It's the same configuration, only the Warriors add a fourth player – the other Brother Splash – to the strong side. They go from cutting to the green screen so that everything is in one gesture.

Thompson cut before sifting Curry and slicing behind McCollum. This forces Leonard to sag away from Green and from there you are in prayer mode.

"You think:" Okay, I'm helping Klay at this cut, but there's Steph out there, and, oh no, I'll be late, "says Leonard, who was at the center of this discussion. to play. "You are always worried."

A potential counter: Harkless could remove Green, represent Thompson and hope that McCollum or Leonard read that – and fly off to Looney / Curry. This kind of improvisation is in great demand, given all the moving parts of Golden State. Writing it in advance may cause paralysis by on preparation.

A variant of the same combination divided into a screen:

Leonard's help is needed here too – first on Curry, then on Thompson to close the backdoor. Despite this, Leonard is out of position for the transfer of the Curry-Green crescendo.

That's why Rivers says he's adjusted the Clippers' rules of thumb after the first game in this series: ignore the non-shooters unless they have the balloonin this case, please, ride on them for the love of the gods of basketball.

By taking this route, the goalkeepers Thompson and Curry are forced to navigate the Splash Brothers Ballet without leaving holes. The two defenders of Portland in question fail here.

There is a basic principle behind all this whistling movement: the warriors want to force the same defender to rush into the paint to find a Splash brother, then turn around to find another. It can be as simple as linking a pick-and-roll Curry to a transfer for Thompson:

That's a lot of back and forth for poor Kanter.

Where it all started

And in the end, there is this, again and again, until you surrender to the hyper-fast domination of perhaps the greatest combination of pick and roll since John Stockton and Karl Malone:

Curry has made fewer pick-and-rolls this season than ever since his rise to stardom, according to Second Spectrum data. Six of his 20 highest-volume pick-and-roll games of the season have occurred since Durant's calf injury.

Green, as usual, is the privileged partner of Curry Dance – a equal partner. Green kills defenses with Looney lob. Livingston slips to provide a second outlet. Lillard fails again and you can not blame him again; The Warriors involve four players – Curry, Green, Looney, Livingston – in action on the ball in about two seconds.