How Steve Kerr and the Warriors adjusted to crush the Lakers

As the second round approached, the media kept talking about the clash between LeBron James et Stephen Curry. And it makes sense. But, on the ground, as Antoine and Shaï mentioned in the podcast of the weekthe key duel of this series between the Lakers and the Warriors was rather that opposing, at a distance, Curry to Anthony Davis. After the latter’s monstrous Game 1, the adjustments made by a Steve Kerr expected at the turn provided further proof. And it is by playing on the influence and impact of these two key players that Golden State has crushed LA

Find spacing and get Anthony Davis out of the racket

In the first round, the Warriors were penalized by their lack of spacing. Evolving mainly with two big non-shooters, Kevin Looney et Draymond Greenthey had authorized Anthony Davis to deal only with the racket and to reign supreme there.

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On the periphery, the Angelenos defenders could afford to be in top-lock (position themselves totally on the pass line or totally on the path of the screen shot) and cut the scorers off the ball. This type of defense opens up the possibility of all sorts of backdoors and lethal cuts. Except when a defender of Davis’s caliber can make roaming and deter any access to the paint, by not having to worry about their player being a non-threat.

In Game 2, the Warriors therefore had to take Unibrow away from the key. And Steve Kerr responded to that challenge with two tweaks:

• by putting the ball more in the hands of Stephen Curry, where he had played a lot off ball two days earlier. Besides being cut off the ball by an impressive Jarred Vanderbilt, the point guard had played just 22 pick-and-rolls in Game 1, his 10th-lowest total of the season. Thursday, he initiated 24, BUT playing 8 minutes less.
• and inserting JaMychal Green into the 5. Well, there, it was perhaps not strictly speaking an adjustment, since Kevon Looney did not feel well and obviously could not hold. But the fact is that good old JaMychal is shooting 37.8% from three-pointers this season (and almost 37% career) and his induction in the 5 has stretched his team’s attack. He thus planted three baskets behind the arc.

Draymond Green freed thanks to Stephen Curry and JaMychal Green

The combination of these two adjustments therefore made it possible to generate much more spacing and to unclog the paint of the Lakers, offering rolls, cuts and offsets which made a huge difference. Draymond Green benefited the most, as implied Steve Kerr after the game :

“If we can have a little more spacing, then there are more driver intervals for Draymond and for everyone. That was the idea with JaMychal. He will be behind the three-point line and we will have a little more space. Draymond was more aggressive and he had more space to attack. »

From the first basket of the game, we saw the impact of Kerr’s choices. After a drag screen for Stephen Curry, JaMychal Green popped behind the three-point line, monopolizing Anthony Davis forced out of the key to avoid a prize-winning shot. Result, Draymond Green was able to cut quietly in the racket, LeBron not intervening not to release Andrew Wiggins on the other hand.

This action sums up the problems that these adjustments have posed to the Lakers. Davis was forced to drop lower than Game 1 on pick-and-rolls to control Curry. This freed the axis for the rolls and left a complicated choice for the defender on the opposite side: help in the axis but leave his player free or stay on his guy and leave an easy basket. Choice all the more complicated when the relationship is between two players of the caliber of Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.

The first, thanks to his vista, his vision and his control of the ball, was able to manage the aggressive defenses without worry, and in particular the few double-takes, out of pick or not, that the Lakers tried to make their attacks more difficult. attempts to generate play through the pass. In vain, because he systematically found a solution.

In particular by finding on short roll a Green who had fun with the defense of the Lakers, therefore obliged to choose his poison: the interior was able to finish alone – since the four others on the ground were able to shoot – as well as let go caviars when help came anyway. The result was a big, dense match, on the verge of a triple-double (11 pts, 11 rebounds and 9 assists).

Logically, JaMychal (15 pts) took advantage of it. His namesake dropped him two very pass balls, one in the corner, the other in the dunker spot, when respectively LeBron and AD came from the weak side to help on the roll.

Stephen Curry as an almost traditional point guard

Curry’s 12 assists, certainly impressive, do not say everything about his grip on the game of the Warriors in this Game 2. He is at the origin of many more assists. As mentioned, if Draymond Green had a blast, it was because Steph perfectly exploited the spacing that he and JaMychal allowed the Warriors to find.

A large part of the 9 pds of the power forward was thus made possible thanks to the brilliant point guard. A leader with an atypical profile, certainly, but who reminded all those who wonder if he really is one that he has the distributor profile in his panoply. And that he mainly does what his team needs, whether it’s putting 50 pawns on the outside or bringing the ball to life.

And there, he played more like a classic leader, like a facilitator, as Kerr reminded :

“Steph was happy to be more of a traditional point guard tonight. »

And, with the use of Green, that’s what freed the Warriors from the defensive grip of Anthony Davis. And Klay Thompson to catch fire. Because, for once, if it is not Steve Kerr who decides that his rear goes from 36% to 61.1% on shots, his adjustments, as well as the vista of Curry, have necessarily been key elements in the enormous performance and the newfound incandescence of ” Game 6 Game 2 Klay ».

Anthony Davis limited by Draymond Green…

Of course, the Golden State Warriors also had to adapt on the other side of the court. In the first game, they had taken a terrible 54 to 28 in the paint. After the monstrous 30 & 23 made by Anthony Davis, they had no choice. They needed to get AD and the Lakers off the racket.

To do this, Steve Kerr notably chose to stick Draymond Green much more often in the Basques. A paying choice since Davis finished the game at 11 pts at 5/11. Still, the Lakers big man defended his performance afterwards. For him, he took the same shots as in Game 1, they just didn’t come in:

“Racket elbow shots, pocket pass floaters, exact same positions…I didn’t take a shot that I didn’t take in Game 1, I just missed them,” he explained afterwards. the encounter.

Yeah. Certainly, a quick look at the stats and shot charts could confirm that he shot the same spots:

Anthony Davis said his shot diet didn’t change from Game 2 vs. Game 1, he just missed them.

Shot charts seems to confirm that as more or less a fact. Warriors made some of those shots more difficult, but they were roughly in the same spots

Sometimes it’s a make or miss league. pic.twitter.com/FLnJaq4oL0

— Jacob Rude (@JacobRude) May 5, 2023

Except that, if he took the shots in identical spots, he took less. And with stronger defensive pressure. The fault of a Draymond Green whose mix of activity (which was suspect in Game 1), mobility and physical hardness really bothered him. In its position on its preferred spots and in its creation of the shoot, on the one hand:

And on pick-and-roll on the other hand: by dropping, the interior of the Warriors managed to dissuade the backs of the Lakers from penetrating while being able to quickly recover AD to challenge his shots and lower his percentage.

Besides assigning him Green, the Warriors also collectively raised their voices to contain him. In particular on pick-and-roll by “freezing” his pick (ICE, basically by orienting the ball carrier away from the pick, as several times on the video above), preventing any shift giving him an advantage over the roll. And by shielding the racquet a little more, in particular thanks to aids coming from the weak side much more to the point than in Game 1.

…and by Anthony Davis?

All this prevented him from entering his match quickly and installed him in this nonchalance which sometimes penalizes him as much as his injuries. We know his propensity to alternate incredible performances and random games where his desire and intensity are more than doubtful. Often matches where it is disputed from the start elsewhere.

Against the Grizzlies, he had two outings at 4/13 and 4/14, and a Game 6 to 16 points and only 9 shots taken. His investment, his overall attitude often seemed on alternating current. And casually, it happens very often with him. If we add to his matches against Memphis that of yesterday, that’s a lot out of a total of 8 playoff games played this year … Especially since, if it can pass against the Grizz, it will necessarily be sanctioned against the Warriors.

Either way, the Lakers consequently fed him less near the circle and Anthony Davis was used more and/or reveled – a bit of both actually – as a mid-range shooter and a pick-and-pop player:

Except that Los Angeles needs him to play closer to the hoop – especially since he does not consistently display the address in the midrange, even at three-four meters, that he may have had in the match 1. Against the Grizzlies 47 of the 100 shots he took were in the restricted area – and 63 shots less than 8 feet. In two games against the Warriors, of his 30 shots attempted, he went to 4 in the restricted area (13.3%) and 13 from less than 8 feet (43.3%).

So that’s a lot less high percentage shots. But also a lot of fewer bounces. Away from the circle in attack, Anthony Davis took only 1 offensive rebound, against 4 in Game 1. Attracted to the periphery in defense, he went from 19 defensive rebounds to only 6.

Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors therefore knew how to bounce back perfectly by making winning choices. It is now up to Darvin Ham and the Lakers to provide answers to the questions that this Game 2 has raised. The third round is likely to be exciting.

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