Let’s get physical: Real fight begins in conference semis
Ladies and gentlemen, the Marquess of Queensberry has left the building.
The rest of the playoffs for the Warriors will be much less civil than the five first-round games against the Spurs. Not to overdramatize, but the Warriors are leaving a cocktail party and sauntering into a waterfront saloon on payday.
Will they be ready? Haters say the Warriors are soft. That’s not fair. They lean toward finesse. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant will never appear on a list of the league’s nastiest or dirtiest players.
Draymond Green will, but not as a brawler. Most of Green’s hurt-you rep is a hangover from those attacks two seasons ago
on Steven Adams’ groin.
Zaza Pachulia, OK, sure, he does have the rep for stepping on or over the line between rugged and harmful. But he might not be playing a lot.
One of the Warriors’ big challenges will be to match the physicality they will encounter. The borderline stuff.
The Marquess of Queensbury, by the way, was the man who put his stamp of approval on the sport of boxing’s basic rules of gentlemanly behavior, in 1867.
The Marquess’ Rule No. 2 is, “No wrestling or hugging allowed.”
“I wish,” say Curry and Thompson, who know what’s in store for them against the Pelicans, especially point guard Rajon Rondo.
San Antonio point guard Patty Mills was plenty huggy in the last series, and the refs seemed to think that was OK. But Rondo is a bit more aggressive than Mills.
The Pelicans aren’t known as a dirty team, or overly physical, especially with center DeMarcus Cousins out of action with an Achilles injury. They do, however, have what every team the Warriors will encounter will have: a whiff of underdog desperation, a burning desire to knock off the darlings of basketball, and the knowledge that in the playoffs, referees allow a bit more wrestling and hugging.
Mitigating factor: Kerr and New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry are close friends and
former coaching sidekicks. By the way, who in the NBA is not close friends with Kerr?
Coaches know the reality of the league, that playing oh-sostrictly by the rules earns you a job coaching a sixth-grade CYO team in the suburbs. Maybe.
Gentry, who was Kerr’s cocreator of the flow offense that has taken the league by storm the past four years, knows the best way to disrupt it is to not let scorers like Curry and Thompson roam free, like butterflies in a meadow on a sunny spring day.
The Pelicans will do what they can, what they are allowed to do, to put a lid on the Warriors. The Warriors also could take advantage of the playoff leniency, and to an extent, they will, but they are the nicest team left in the playoffs.
Maybe a better description would be that the Warriors are basketball purists. They are a bit of a reflection of their head coach, in that they’re fine with playing tough and hard, but
they aren’t into flopping and over-fouling.
Isn’t that one of the reasons you love the Warriors, that they win with basketball skill rather than pro wrestling tactics and theatrics? Absolutely. But they’re going to have to step up to the physical challenges that arise.
Curry, when he returns, will get special attention from defenses that know he will be more comfortable with straightline movements. They will try to keep him from running straight lines.
When opposing defenders bang and hold, the Warriors have to counter with harder, meaner picks.
Also some salesmanship. Curry and Thompson will have to do some arm-flailing and staggering, to help direct the attention of the officials to what’s happening.
The Warriors will have to get gritty play from their centers. JaVale McGee is capable of the hard foul. David West is nobody’s cupcake. Pachulia, if he plays, will have no qualms about matching elbows with the Pelicans.
Green’s physicality will be big. He upped his rebound intensity in the last two games against the Spurs and did some classic, aggressive boxing-out. This will be important against the Pelicans. Anthony Davis, if not checked off the boards, can truly embarrass and destroy a foe. He can do that anyway, but you don’t want him doing it on putback dunks. Just ask the Trail Blazers.
Beyond the Pelicans, should the Warriors advance, the road gets rougher.
If it’s any solace to the Warriors or their fans, the Marquess of Queensberry’s Rule No. 11 will be strictly enforced: “That no shoes or boots with spikes or springs be allowed.”