NO AGE LIMIT
Iguodala, 35, has been a key factor in Warriors’ success vs. Rockets
OAKLAND >> As the Warriors and Rockets’ second-round series heads to Houston, where the home team is likely to get a “fairchance” whistle, a reminder:
This series is not about refs, it’s about rest.
And with that being the case, the Warriors have a massive advantage.
The contrast between the Warriors’ desired style of play and the Rockets’ is stark. The route both teams took to this point of the season is as well.
You could see it in the first two games of the series: the Rockets are already showing fatigue in this intense series — the byproduct of a one-against-five offense and switching defense they’ve used for all 89 of their games this year.
But while the Rockets’ stars, James Harden and Chris Paul, have been tugging at their shorts, trying to catch their breath, the Warriors’ best players have looked downright spry. Golden State coach Steve Kerr is asking his starters to carry the team in this series, to carry a heavy load. But that’s a reasonable ask because of the Warriors’ non-taxing (and at times, for fans, infuriating) approach to the regular season.
Kerr played Kevin Durant nearly 44 minutes in Game 2. Klay Thompson — bad ankle and all — played 41.
But the largest outlier has been Andre Iguodala. At 35 years old and now 1,240 games into his professional career, Iguodala averaged 23 minutes per game in the regular season, only playing more than 30 minutes in regulation once. But so far this postseason, he’s averaging 27 minutes per game. In Games 1 and 2, he’s played a combined 64 minutes.
And he’s absolutely killing the Rockets.
Sorry, Houston, there’s no sign of him stopping, either.
Iguodala’s impact on the game has always been more significant than the box score would indicate — his defensive leadership and an intelligence that permeates through the entire team cannot be quantified. But in this series, he’s been putting up numbers, too.
Iguodala — who averaged 5 points per game in the regular season — has 30 in the first two games of this series and is yet to miss a 2-point shot. His three made 3-pointers have been backbreakers to the Rockets, too.
The Rockets are frequently double-teaming both Durant and Stephen Curry in this series, aiming to get the ball out of their hands. There’s defensive attention paid to Thompson — how could you leave him open? — too. And with Draymond Green always in the fray, setting screens, this leaves a defense over-shifted to one side of the court and someone on the Warriors wide open on nearly every possession.
Against the Warriors’ new nononsense starting lineup — the “death lineup” — it’s Iguodala.
In leaving Iguodala open, the Rockets have picked their poison.
In this series, it’s proven to be particularly lethal.
If Iguodala continues to play like this, the Warriors could well be unbeatable.
His defense is always a game-changer, but Golden State is 21-0 over the last three postseasons when Iguodala makes three field goals in a game.
“Oh, to be 35 again,” Kerr joked during the Warriors’ first-round series with the Clippers.
A notorious sandbagger of the regular season — Kerr openly admits that the forward effectively took the 2017-18 regular season off — Iguodala uses that quasi-rest over the first 82 games to fully actualize come the postseason, where his smarts and all-around competence are best utilized.
Still, the wear and tear of 15 NBA seasons is difficult to hold off — Iguodala missed six postseason games last year due to injury.
But this year, fighting injuries and a roster that wasn’t as deep as expected, the Warriors needed more from Iguodala from roughly Thanksgiving on.
He provided it, playing in 68 games and starting 13.
His 3-point shot, once lost, was found again — he shot 40 percent from the corner. He was dunking more, too.
This season was a testament to Iguodala’s no-inflammation diet, which keeps him in preposterous shape, and the annual platelet-richplasma treatments on his knees, which he said worked a bit better this past summer.
It would have been fair to question if Iguodala was using up all the good stuff in the regular season, but obviously, those fears have been put to rest. The proper balance was struck, yet again.
In addition to the elite defense and more scoring, he has 19 dunks in eight games this postseason. He’s springy. He’s spry. He’s kicking father time’s butt, and looks like he could play well into his 40s (not that he — an avid golfer and moonlighting entrepreneur — ever would).
“Honestly, this is a personal opinion, [I] just got really good genes,” Iguodala said Tuesday. “Protecting the genes, though, at the same time. Watching what you put in the body, sleep, I drink a lot of water — I don’t drink anything but water.
That’s played a big role.”
“Andre, he doesn’t look 35 to me,” Kerr said. “When you combine that athleticism with that brain, now you got a hell of a player.
“I say it all the time: I’m lucky to coach him. We’re lucky to have him. He ties up a lot of loose ends for us. He does so many things for us.”
Much is still being made of last year’s Western Conference Finals. The Rockets have been adamant that they would have won that series — and then the title (because once you start extrapolating and ridiculous things, why stop?) — had Paul not gotten injured in Game 6. After Game 1 of this year’s series, they leaked audits and NBA data that they believed proved the referees jobbed them out of a series win (and, again, according to Houston, a title).
Never mind the exhaustion that was a key component in blowing double-digit halftime leads in two closeout games and 27 straight missed 3-pointers in Game 7. No, the Rockets still want to litigate history.
And while it’s all so very ridiculous, petty, and pathetic, if that door is open, the Warriors can walk through it, too.
Golden State coaches believe they would have won last year’s series with the Rockets in five games had Iguodala not been sidelined by injury.
This year, with Iguodala playing like he’s 35 going on 27, the Warriors have a 2-0 lead over the Rockets and look to be in complete control of the series.
A sweep, which seemed outlandish a few days ago, seems possible as the teams head to Houston.
It’ll take two more all-out games from Iguodala and the rest of the starters, but the Warriors have been preparing all season for such an occasion. They’re ready. Two more wins takes the series. Do it quickly enough, and you shut up the Rockets forever.
Yes, the Warriors have provided ample reasons to worry about their motivation this postseason, but if that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.