Three adjustments Warriors must make before NBA Finals Game 2
The tactical battle that was Game 1 of the NBA Finals proved only one thing: There is no coaching advantage in this series.
Yes, unlike most NBA teams, Boston will not be outsmarted by the Warriors. We know this because both squads came out with impressive opening salvos in this NBA Finals battle.
The Warriors showed their hand early and took an early lead. Boston countered and won the game.
Now it's on the Dubs to make some adjustments ahead of a must-win Game 2.
Here are a few that look necessary if the Warriors are to salvage a game on their home floor:
1. GO ALL IN ON ATTACKING >> Credit to Steve Kerr. I thought it would take longer for Golden State to do what would be necessary against Boston's switch-everything defense.
Instead, after the Warriors' first possession of the game — a feckless floppy action that had Curry setting a pindown screen on the block — Golden State came out with a 1-3 pick-and-roll that left Boston's Robert Williams in drop coverage.
Curry six made 3-pointers in the first quarter, an NBA record. Four of the six came off of a high screen. The other two came off a transition opportunity and an offensive rebound.
Boston made their adjustments. Robert Williams stopped dropping in pick-and-roll coverage and the Celtics trapped Curry off screens with Al Horford at center.
It worked, especially the latter in the fourth quarter.
It's on the Warriors to counter Boston's moves now — something they didn't do late in the fourth.
Far too often as the game slipped away from the Warriors, Kerr had the team running complicated motion-offense sets.
The Warriors need to be even more direct in Game 2. Rote, if at all possible. Boring is best.
I know this is not Warriors' basketball.
Warriors' basketball will lose them this series, just as it did in 2016, when the Cavs went to a switch-everything defense in the final four games, and in 2019, when the Raptors' smarts and versatility turned the Warriors' halfcourt offense into an embarrassment.
Curry's teammates (and Jordan Poole's for that matter) can run around and back-pick all they want from the wings, but the primary action Golden State should be running every time down the floor is a high pick and roll with the ball in their point guard's hands.
The good news for the Warriors is that Kerr both knows this is the best course of action (as evidenced by the Dubs running more pick and roll in the first quarter than they did, roughly, to the entire postseason to date) and that Curry is particularly adroit at that system, despite it not being the Warriors' system.
If Robert Williams III is on the floor, the Warriors need to put him in action after action. Hunt him down. He might block a few perimeter shots, but that's better than shots at the hoop. In a more cynical way, it will test his balky knee.
If Al Horford is playing center, trapping Curry on the perimeter, the Warriors need to have shooters on the ready, with Green ready for the short-roll 4-on-3.
2. DROP THE ZONE >> Jordan Poole was so bad in Game 1 that it is hardly out of bounds to wonder if he can play in this series at all. Boston had a field day attacking him on defense and his offense did more harm than good (two field goals, four turnovers) on Thursday.
The Warriors' problem is that they cannot drop him. He is one of two people on the Dubs who can effectively run the high pick-and-roll. Try Andre Iguodala at point guard all you want, but you won't score.
The Warriors have to ride the roller coaster that is the 22-year-old Poole.
That doesn't mean they have to do objectively silly things, though.
The Warriors have used zone defense more this season than at any point during their five Finals runs in five years. It's a byproduct of Toronto using a box-and-1 against Curry to great effect in the 2019 NBA Finals, the lack of NBA players on the Warriors' roster in the following two seasons, and a changing tide of acceptability around the NBA.
But mainly, the Warriors are using zone because Poole can't play defense.
They're trying to protect No. 3 so that he can make some 3-pointers on the other end.
In Game 1, that meant closing with a zone. The Warriors changed into a 3-2 look when Poole entered the game with 3:47 to play.
It did not work out well. The Celtics might not be an elite 3-point shooting team (they have made as many as the Warriors per game this postseason on one more attempt), but they are both a confident and smart team.
The zone is merely giving them open 3-point shots, as Poole is on one wing, trying to guard two players at one time.
How do you think that goes?
It went so poorly that Poole was moved to the top of the zone. That didn't go well, either.
By the fourth time the Warriors ran the 3-2 zone late in the fourth quarter, Boston had overloaded one side of the court — something it took Dallas a week to figure out in the Western Conference Finals.
The zone won't work against Boston.
The Warriors would be better off having Poole be a bad defender with one responsibility, as opposed to many. Boston will always find him. Again, they're too smart. They're also incisive enough to take what is given to them against a zone. 3. IGUODALA AND GREEN CANNOT BE ON THE FLOOR
TOGETHER >> The Warriors tempted fate for almost all of Game 1 by playing two non-shooters on the floor together for all but four minutes of competitive play.
With Golden State going to a more direct style of offense, the Dubs need to prioritize shooting and spacing.
It's one thing to have Kevon Looney on the perimeter, setting screens but not doing much else. But to have Green out there, too, allows the Celtics to not defend two players outside the 3-point line.
That effectively negates the advantage of the direct offense against a switching defense, as evidenced by Horford's success with trapping.
If Williams is on the floor for Boston, Looney can play. If not, he has to be out of the game.
But Iguodala?
I don't know if there's a role for Andre in this series.
But if he's on the floor, it has to be as the only nonshooter. That means playing Otto Porter, Nemanja Bjelica or Iguodala as a center with the second unit, led by Poole.