Kurtenbach: Five things Warriors can do to get back on track.
The Warriors laid an egg in Game 2 of their Western Conference finals showdown with the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, and we now have a series.
A lot went wrong for Golden State in Game 2 — the final score, 127-105 tells that story — but most, if not all of it, is correctable.
These five suggestions aren’t a comprehensive list, but if the Warriors can make these changes, there’s plenty of reason to think that Game 3 will look a lot more like Game 1 than Game 2, so feel free to steal them, Steve.
1. BRING THE FORCE » There are a dozen reasons the Warriors lost Game 2 and the Rockets won it, but you don’t have to overthink this one: the difference in the game was effort.
Facing a de-facto elimination and in front of their home crowd, the Rockets brought it in Game 2 from the opening tip. They played with energy, composure and heart. The Warriors, on the other hand, played like it was November — they were disorganized and lazy.
“I just think this game was a matter of the Rockets bringing the force that’s necessary,” Warriors coach
Steve Kerr said, repeating the buzzword of the postseason. “We set the tone early with our own play and allowed them to get some confidence and some easy buckets in transition. We let guys get going a little bit.”
The Warriors had five turnovers in the first five minutes and seven turnovers total in the first quarter of Game 2 — they had nine turnovers in 48 minutes in Game 1. That’s what Kerr means by tone. 2. LESS ISOLATION » Much like the Warriors are cool with James Harden taking a ton of shots through isolation, the Rockets are cool with Kevin Durant doing the same. Both teams have confidence that their guy will outscore the other guy, and it’s mainly been a wash in this series.
The Warriors’ advantage comes from the other facets of their offense — but we didn’t see much of that in Game 2. It’s a make-or-miss league and the Warriors missed 21 open shots in Game 2, per NBA. com stats, but the Warriors lacked pace, rhythm and dynamism on offense as far too many possessions started and stopped with a post-up.
Credit to the Rockets for playing much, much, much better defense in Game 2. They blanketed Klay Thompson, who had 15 3-point fieldgoal attempts in Game 1, but put up only 11 shots total, with four coming from behind the arc in Game 2.
The Rockets are trying to run the Warriors off the 3-point line and it worked in Game 2, but Durant cannot be the only player to make an impact in the mid-range, and he can’t make that impact solely through isolation sets. 3. SIMPLIFY THE DEFENSE – AND THE MATCHUPS » I don’t know why the Warriors seemed to change their defensive strategy from Game 1 to Game 2, but as soon as it became clear that the Rockets were actually going to move without the ball and try to get a set in before isolating with Harden or Paul, the Warriors changed up as well. It did not work. “We were trying to be too cute with our switches and that kind of stuff, instead of just manning up and playing one- on- one defense,” Curry said after the game.
This series is going to be positionless, for the most part. Lots of five- out play and high pick-and-roll. The Warriors, of course, are more than capable of handling that. I don’t know why they felt the need to overcompensate on the defensive end to get certain matchups so often in Game 2, especially after the success of Game 1 — and I don’t know if that it was particularly in the game plan. But it happened, and the Rockets benefitted.
Kerr has started the Hamptons 5, the Death Lineup, MegaDeath — whatever you want to call it — over the past four games. That was understandable: Kerr wanted to set a tone early in Games 4 and 5 of the second round, and Green was the team’s best option to defend Anthony Davis. In Game 1, he wanted to set a tone again, and you don’t switch up a good thing for Game 2.
But there was consideration of starting Kevon Looney for Game 2, and the Warriors should make it happen in Game 3. The super-duper lineup hasn’t been all that effective in this series, and I think it’s because Green isn’t able to freelance on defense asmuch. The Warriors thrive when Green is “guarding” guys like Rajon Rondo — which is to say that he’s playing free safety in a quasi-zone defense.
That’s going to be hard enough to facilitate in this series — the Rockets have spotup shooters across the board — but Clint Capela is a particularly difficult matchup for Green because of his vertical threat.
Green has mostly defended PJ Tucker in this series, and a key difference in Game 1 and Game 2 was Tucker hitting shots. The Warriors have to live with that — they need Green engaged and aggressive and something has to give to make that happen. Tucker isn’t going to make 5 of 6 3-pointers again, and frankly, the Warriors need to be cool with him taking 10 or more — just as opposing teams are cool with Green shooting.
Starting Looney to guard Clint Capela off the jump would allow Green to matchup with Tucker to start. When Tucker slides up to center, then Green can too. 4. STOP PLAYING DAVID WEST » West has been arguably the Warriors’ best center all year, but this is not the series for him. The Rockets are too small, even for him. Before the series, I predicted that Jordan Bell would play more minutes than West. I didn’t feel great about that after Game 1, but after Game 2, it needs to be considered a lock — just for the Warriors’ sake.
The Rockets are keen to play small — super small. Tucker (who is maybe 6-foot5) at center small. Even if West can score on the interior against those guys (and he can), this is not a series in which he can be on the court simply for the defensive reasons. Four- out? West can play — but the Rockets aren’t playing Nene, their only traditional big man. Against fiveout, he’s a defensive liability who will give up more than he could ever score.
Golden State is giving away chunks of the game when West plays — it can’t happen again now that this is a competitive series. I don’t know if Looney gets a bit more run or if the Warriors just ride Green during those stretches — they could go to Bell, who is a fit for a five-out game, as well — but they can’t play West anymore. 5. GET D RAYMOND TO SHOOT » The Rockets want Green to shoot. Green has to oblige them. In Game 2, he was all sorts of out-of-sorts offensively and you could see it from the start of the game. More concerning than his turnovers and two 3-point misses was the lack of aggression.
Twice in the second quarter, Green had opportunities to shoot close to the hoop — twice he decided to overpass instead of put the ball up, and twice he was picked off by a Houston defense that had bet, almost irrationally, he would do such a thing.
Was that the reason the Warriors lost? Nope. But it was indicative of how the Rockets want to play Green and how he played into their hands Wednesday. Green needs to be more aggressive — for himself — in Game 3 and beyond. The Warriors do well when he plays offense with confidence.