To-do list to prepare for new-look Pelicans
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gave his players Wednesday off to relax after winning their first-round series against San Antonio in five games. However, there was no break for a coaching staff trying to prepare for New Orleans on a tight timeline.
“The coaches will get in the war room and get to work,” Kerr said after Tuesday night’s Game 5 win over the Spurs.
The Pelicans, who clinched their first-round sweep of Portland on Saturday, have had three more days to devise a game plan for the defending NBA champions. With Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals looming Saturday night at Oracle Arena, Golden State still has much to learn about a team that underwent a drastic midseason makeover.
The Warriors won their first three games against New Orleans this season by a combined 33 points, but those were before DeMarcus Cousins tore his Achilles in late January. A deadline trade for Nikola Mirotic — a skilled, floor-spacing big man — changed the team’s dynamic and helped keep its season from derailing.
In its only game against New Orleans since the Mirotic addition, Golden State fell 126-120 at home on April 7. The Pelicans had three players — Mirotic (28 points), Anthony Davis (34 points) and Jrue Holiday (25) — score at least 25 points as they shot 56.3 percent from the field. Now, as the Warriors ready for what figures to be a much tougher matchup than San Antonio was, they will lean heavily on video from that loss.
Here is a look at Golden State’s to-do list entering the next round:
Monitor Stephen Curry’s progress: Curry, who has missed more than a month with a Grade 2 left MCL sprain, is set to be evaluated again Friday. It is possible that he returns for Game 1 on Saturday, but odds are that he comes back a bit later in the series.
“Conceivable?” general manager Bob Myers said when asked in a radio interview Wednesday whether Curry could play in Game 1. “I don’t want to put a percentage on it because I don’t know, but I’m not saying inconceivable.”
Curry has made steady strides in his rehab, recently progressing to noncontact work in practice. The Warriors, however, will be cautious with a two-time MVP who has played only 25 total minutes after March 8. Barring a setback, Game 3 seems his likeliest return date.
Though the full series schedule has yet to be announced, Golden State expects Game 2 to be Monday in Oakland, with Game 3 coming Friday in New Orleans. That lengthy hiatus between games would give Curry time to get into playing shape and participate in a few full-contact practices.
Map out a plan to contain Anthony Davis: Any conversation about the Pelicans needs to begin with Davis, who has played at an MVP level while solidifying his status as the NBA’s premier big man.
In leading New Orleans to a first-round sweep of the Trail Blazers, Davis posted videogame averages of 33 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.8 blocks and 1.8 steals. What makes him such a daunting matchup is the diversity of his offensive game. In his sixth NBA season, he can post up on the block, hit a midrange jumper and even drain the occasional three-pointer.
Because Davis is nearly impossible to stop when given space to roam, the Warriors will try to harass the players giving him the ball. As far as the unenviable task of guarding Davis one-on-one? It figures to be a committee approach, with Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, JaVale McGee and Kevon Looney taking turns.
Continue to rebound at a high level: One of the biggest reasons Golden State eliminated San Antonio in five games was that, after a middling regular season on the glass, it outrebounded the Spurs 237-188.
Long prone to losing focus after missed shots, the Warriors suddenly excelled at boxing out their men on rebounds. In fact, after Game 1, Kerr said his team had boxed out every play. Such attention to detail could be critical against a Pelicans team hardly known for crashing the boards. New Orleans, which has no elite rebounders available other than Davis, ranked 21st in the league this season with a rebounding rate of 49.4 percent.
Golden State will be in good shape if Green can attack the glass with the same fervor he had in the first round. In that series against San Antonio, he averaged 11.2 rebounds per game, including 18 and 19, respectively, in Games 4 and 5. Match the Pelicans’ pace: Unlike the Spurs, who wanted to muddy up the tempo and grind out wins, New Orleans will try to outrun the Warriors. Per basketball-reference.com, the Pelicans led the NBA this season in pace, or possessions per game — four spots ahead of Golden State and 27 north of San Antonio.
The focus for Golden State will be on playing a creative, uptempo brand of basketball without getting sloppy. Because far too often this season, the Warriors’ rapid pace resulted in ill-advised passes and costly turnovers.
Study Mirotic’s tendencies: Mirotic, perhaps the best midseason acquisition in the league, has provided a complementary scoring threat New Orleans desperately needed after Cousins was lost for the season. In the first round against Portland, he averaged 18.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.
A spot-up-shooting big who can attack the rim when necessary, Mirotic is the type of player the Warriors have long had trouble stopping. Golden State needs only to review video from that April 7 loss, when Mirotic had 28 points and hit six threepointers, to remember just how many problems he poses.