First off: Awesome effort by our team to come back from 1-3. I am very proud of the boys. We've now reached the WCF and it's exciting stuff. Unfortunately it doesn't get any easier, but you know what: to be the best you have to beat the best. 1. Let Curry get his, shut off the supporting cast The Grizzlies got back into the series when they clamped down on Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala etc. Because they were shooting so poorly Curry had to shoulder more of the load, and although he still got his 25-30 points, the Warriors looked a hell of a lot weaker. They have little to no inside game, clamp down on the spot up shooters. We have to follow the Grizzlies game plan and stick to it. It's absolutely no coincidence Thompson got off the chain and Golden State got rolling again when Tony Allen went down. It doesn't matter if Curry gets 30 a night if we contain the role players, we can win this series. Lock them down. 2. Play the passing lanes Curry tends to showboat with the rock too much and often telegraphs passes. This is where Ariza will come into his own. 3. Attack the rim relentlessly If we allow ourselves to get into a shootout with this team, we will lose. Their firepower is simply too much. We can't settle for jumpers, we have to play downhill and attack the rim. If Smoove isn't taking that three I want to see him attack Draymond Green and/or Bogut, same goes for Harden. Attack their bigs and get them in foul trouble. Look who has to come on: David Lee and Festus Ezili. Yes Please. Harden in the first two rounds has had to come up against Chandler and Jordan, they are excellent defenders and their athleticism in the paint has deterred Harden from driving. Bogut is no slouch on the defensive end, but he hasn't got the athletic prowess either of those guys have, Harden needs to play downhill and drive to the rim. 4. Hack Bogut I can't believe other teams haven't figured this out. Bogut is a horrendous free throw shooter. He shot 53% on the regular season and he's shooting 25% in the playoffs from the charity stripe. Whilst the hack-a strategy isn't always successful, it's definitely worth a shot. Golden State seldom experiences this move used against them, hacking Bogut at the opportune moment could be a master stroke. 5. Keep the turnovers down Obviously this one is a no brainer, but Golden State feast off turnovers and points in transition. Take away their fast break points and force them to play in the half court on offense. The result may surprise a few. All in all, this is far from the shoe-in half of the basketball world is making this out to be. I don't give a damn about the regular season, this team is playing some quality basketball, and they are a force to be reckoned with. We can take them. Rockets in 6.
You dont need gimicks to beat this team...Hacking anyone totally disrupts our rhythm more than the opponents. Lets just play smash mouth basketball and destroy them in the paint/FT line, and hold them under 40% from distance...
Hacking Bogut is interesting. Curry is scary dribbling down the court after a rebound. If we can set the D %s gotta be much better in our favor. Interesting, will need to keep an eye on that.
I totally agree mate, I said it should only be used at the opportune moment. I also said hacking often doesn't work. But it's a ploy that needs to be considered.
when curry and thompson get hot from 3's, hack anyone on the court. so we only lose 2pts instead of 3. ok, i kid. i kid. ~
Let Curry get his midrange shots I say, much like we did with Chris Paul. Those floaters and mid range he can have that. But you are right in shutting down the others. We have to put the load on Curry just like we put the load on Paul. We know Curry is up to the challenge of winning big games...but those other guys? I don't think they are. Also yes...DESTROY the paint. If we have a strength it is there and if they have a weakness it is there.
I think one big thing is to have curry play defense. They should have harden make the defenders switch on a pick play and go against curry in the post or from top of the key offensively. This may be able to get some fouls on curry and change the complexion of the game hopefully. Transition def is big. Just couple of things of many. #believe
Letting Curry get his isnt even an option. We have nobody to guard him (why Pat Bev?!?) And it would make multiple holes in our defense to put brewer or Ariza on him. Let Prigs or Terry minimize the damage that Curry has one on one with them. Take away his passing lanes. Completely anchor the paint (seriously, Draymond is probably one of the best cutters in basketball), and neutralize Klay with ariza/brewer. Harden and Dwight should continue to do well against this team but we will need the combined effort from our starters and bench. I have no doubt our bench can at the very least keep up with the Warriors bench. Welcome to the real grind house, boys
really missing Dmo this series. Hopefully Howard can go to work on bogut and get him into early foul trouble to open up the lanes for Harden.
You hack Bogut only to stop GS runs. This could actually be quite an effective tool to avert those crazy runs they get on. If it looks like they are about to go off you hack Bogut to kill their momentum. This is basically how McHale used the hack-a strategy in Game 5. Of course it's always better to use it when you're ahead.
Do what we did starting in game 5 against the Clippers who have a similar team other than Green is more of a perimeter threat than Griffin. 1) Pressure Curry 85' with Terry and Prigioni. 2) Rebound the f'ing basketball 3) Attack the paint against Green who is an undersized 4. 4) Scramble on defense and run their shooters on the 3 point line.
No hacka-Bogut. Just play straight up. Nobody on that team can stop Dwight. We can beat them. We WILL beat them.
Foul them. Hard. Like Dwight on Blake Griffin hard. Do that a few times and test their nuts. Dont go in there trying to outplay them at their game, go in ther and muck it up. Push them around, become bullies.
Also, I'm feeling pretty good about Smith right now. He's been the reaper of souls. Not sure what it is, but has this guy just outplayed Dirk AND Blake when it mattered? We gonna believe now that Green is going to outplay him? Nah, I have faith in Smith. Teams always say "Leave him open for 3." then at this random moment...he drains them. He turns into Dirk...so teams start chasing him off the line...then he turns into Magic Johnson. It really makes 0 sense...but it has happened in 2 series thus far. The only thing one can say about it is...he has that clutch gene.
Run them off the 3 point line, hell, don't rotate off their shooters in the first place. Give up nothing easy. Defend, defend, defend. Defend with anger and aggressiveness. Play more guys if you have to, to be able to play 48 minutes of non-stop 100% effort defense. Defense can win us this series. DON'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF MAKING IT A 3 POINT CONTEST. WE WILL LOSE THAT CONTEST UNLESS WE CAN LOWER THEIR 3 PT PERCENTAGE. On screens, they play dirty. Bogut and Green grab and push, etc. Respond with even more physicality. Make this series a bloodbath. Everyone gets hit, everyone gets pushed, everyone gets grabbed in every screen. If we can get them crying to the refs, we've got them right where we want them. If the series ends up being a competition of their open mid range jumpers vs our inside game and 3s, we can win. If it's their open 3s vs our open 3s, we lose that competition. We must FORCE them to do poorly. Harden has to create, and attack. If he plays aggressively, I like our chances on offense.
Memphis had the blueprint but not the personnel...meanwhile the Rockets do. GSW could pack the paint and not worry about Memphis' shooters, but they'll get buried if they do that vs Houston. Milk Hair has gotta be committed to feeding Dwight the ball and running high low with T Jones and Smoove.
Switch on the Corner Offense. Stay put and allow Curry to run to our next defender. Leaving your spot for the chase opens everything up. *Take the heart and soul out of that team: Draymond Green. JSmooth is going to embarrass homeboy. Dwight.Dwight.Dwight. We have to get him the ball early. He's going to seal Bogut off. The post pass must be good. Can Mario Elie sub for us? Steve Kerr: Ruffle him up. I'm calling this a fluke year. He inherited Mark Jackson's work and has taken too much credit. Harden's freethrows are going to make him a different man. The XFactor: Josh Smith. He's the most versatile big in this series. Give him his shots in the post and go to work on a smaller team.
