Iguodala brings life to Kerr’s ‘Death Lineup’

NEW ORLEANS >> The Warriors’ Death Lineup has always deserved plenty of attention, and it’s particularly worthy of praise after it sparked Golden State to a pivotal Game 4 win over the New Orleans Pelicans in the teams’ second-round playoff series Sunday.

Typically when it comes to conversation about the Death Lineup, most of the focus lies on Draymond Green. That’s for good reason: Green, who is likely a few inches shorter than his listed 6-foot-7, is a generational defensive talent, and when the forward slides up to play smallball center, his preternatural defensive instincts, award-winning versatility, and drive to win shine too bright to possibly ignore.

Add in the fact that the Warriors have to contend with the best center in the NBA — Anthony Davis — in this series and it’s hard to pivot the spotlight away from Green.

But the Death Lineup isn’t one-man show, and while the contributions of the Warriors’ three other All-Stars — Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson — all deserve more than few inches of praise as well, Game 4 proved that the unit’s lone non-All-Star, Andre Iguodala, is as critical to the success of the Warriors’ best lineup — the best lineup in basketball

— as any of the team’s superstar players.

If you only looked at the Game 4 box score as a frame of reference for Sunday’s contest, you likely would have surmised that Iguodala had a solid but not spectacular game.

And you would be absolutely correct — but “solid but not spectacular” is Iguodala’s calling card. If we’re ascribing that status to Game 4 — as well you should — then he actually had a great game, which after an up-and-down (see: disengaged) regular season has become this norm this postseason.

So much of Iguodala’s impact comes in the little things that don’t show up in the box score, an advanced statistics sheet, or on the first viewing of a game.

Iguodala is a master of things like preemptive defensive positioning, pace setting, and energy control

— he’s a coach on the floor whose presence is particularly necessary when the Warriors play Green at center.

“What Andre does for us is so dramatic in every aspect,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after Game 4. “He reminds me a lot of Scottie Pippen — (he) really does — in terms of defensive acumen and playing kind of a point forward role. Andre’s amazing.”

In Game 4, Iguodala drew what was arguably the Warriors’ most important defensive assignment: Nikola Mirotic.

The former Chicago Bull, who came to the Pelicans in February, is a matchup nightmare against both traditional and untraditional lineups. Put a big man on him and he’ll stand outside the 3-point line all game, negating that player’s defensive value and scoring a ton of points in the process. But put a smaller player on him, and he’ll work him over in the low post.

In the Pelicans’ Game 3 win, Mirotic’s value to the New Orleans’ operation was readily apparent. Against Warriors lineups that were abnormally position-locked on defense, the resourceful Mirotic took advantage of mismatches and scored 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including three 3-pointers.

And yet in Game 4, he made next to no impact. Why? Blame Iguodala. When the Warriors play small or with Kevon Looney at center, they can switch everything, if they so choose. But when it came to Mirotic — the keystone of the Pelicans’ attack — the Warriors had no problem letting Iguodala shadow him in Game 4.

The result was Mirotic being in no man’s land to start almost every possession.

Iguodala is so strong that Mirotic’s typical move of posting up a smaller player wasn’t going to fly, but Iguodala is such a sound and crafty perimeter defender that Mirotic

never found himself free to take a wide-open 3-pointer.

Iguodala was on Mirotic for two-thirds percent of the Pelicans’ offensive possessions, per NBA.com — for the Warriors, that’s stalking — and he shut him down. The Pelicans forward made one field goal in the game.

And sure enough, with Mirotic — the team’s best 3-point shooter —perplexed, the Pelicans scored 92 points on 14 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

Iguodala also made a strong impact for the Death Lineup on the offensive end Sunday. He doesn’t get the glory, but his ability to control pace and manage tempo amid the utter chaos that’s happening around him with the Warriors’ small-ball closing (and now starting) unit is crucial to its prodigious success.

Curry might be able to make 35-foot 3-pointers, Thompson and Durant might be able to rise, fire, and make from anywhere

and from any body position on the court, and Green thrives when the game is going 200 miles per hour (he processes the game so fast even this series with New Orleans must feel like slow-motion to him), but Iguodala’s collectedness and fundamental play binds it together. Without his influence — that steady hand — the Death Lineup would likely run itself off the rails.

“A lot of the spectacular plays you’ll see us make during the season will come when Andre is flying down the floor and he makes like a John Wooden jump stop waits until everything happens, then he swings the ball,” Kerr said. “Then somebody else throws this wild lob, but the only reason this works is because Andre sees the floor and sets it all up.”

“He has an understanding that not many people have about the game of basketball,” Green said of Iguodala Sunday. “Steph and I talk about it a lot, we understand that at times, we can get a little crazy

trying to make the spectacular play… He’s that steady force for us, and when he’s out there with that small lineup, you got three guys running around like crazy … and then he’s there calming us down.”

After a 26-point win, spearheaded by the Death Lineup, Kerr is, without a doubt, going to use it early and often in Tuesday’s possible closeout Game 5. And — let’s be honest — Green and all of his incredible kinetic energy on the defensive end, and the Warriors’ combustible offensive trio will likely get the bulk of the attention for its success.

But pay close attention to Iguodala in Game 5. To win, you need guys to make winning plays — to do the little things, sometimes solely in the service of one’s teammates — and few players in this league make more winning plays than Iguodala.