This, Brewer is long and fast and along with Ariza would have made Curry miserable especially putting him in trap situations in the corners. I have no doubt Brewer would have gotten a couple more steals with an easy fast break finish to win more games.
Zach Lowe makes a good point about Draymond Green in the Grantland piece linked above: When Cleveland sends two guys at Curry, Green's role becomes critical because he is usually the screener for Curry and the guy who gets the ball from a double-teamed Curry and is designated as the decision-maker. It's up to him to make Cleveland pay in a 4-on-3 situation. Golden State has generally done very well with Green in this role. He is usually a good enough shoot-pass-drive triple-threat to make opponents pay. Last night, he had no confidence in his shot even when wide open-- which probably has something to do with the fact that he's shooting 25% from the 3 point line in the playoffs. So he'd drive toward a pretty crowded paint, couldn't get a good shot off because of the crowding and throw ineffective passes to guys who are not really open. Green's role is kind of like Josh Smith's on the Rocket-- he's often the screener relied upon to make decisions when the ball-handler gets doubled. When Green/Smith makes good decisions and hit shots, the offense looks great. Otherwise, the offense can stall.
Did you see how Brewer played in that series? Terry at least was an offensive threat. I agree that the Rockets should've been more aggressive in doubling Curry and getting the ball out of his hands. I think a big problem for the Rockets is that they were fresh off of the series with the Clippers where the gameplan was to let Griffin and Paul get theirs and shut down the supporting cast. They approached the Warriors with the same mentality and got burned. The way you beat Golden State(or at least give yourself a chance to beat them) is to force someone other than Curry to score. Thompson is more than capable of stepping up, but over the course of a 7-game series, he's also far more likely to have off-nights or disappear for stretches during a game than Curry. And Barnes and Green are very good players, but you welcome them trying to make plays rather than Curry. If you look at the Warriors' playoff run, they've lost 4 times. In all 4 losses(2 to Memphis, 1 to Houston, 1 to Cleveland), Curry's had an off-shooting night. That's not a coincidence.
This. This might be the key to beating them. Even when Green is shooting better he's not great. I kept waiting for the Rockets to do more hard doubles on the pick and rolls.
other than gambling (and hence getting a couple of steals here and there), brewer isnt exactly a defensive expert. his bread and butter is attacking in an open court.
Draymond only shot I think 30% in the regular season from 3. It's obvious that the defensive strategy should be to force him into the primary playmaker role.
I agree, but Kerr at least has other options on offense. They've got Klay, Curry pindowns, they've got Bogut in the post, they've got mismatches all over the place with Cavs switching everything when Mozgov was sitting. With the Rockets you know 90% of the offense was either a Harden ISO or a Harden + Josh Smith pnr. If Draymond can't be the decision maker when Curry passes him off being doubled from the pick, then they'll just find another way to get their offense going. Green is best utilized as a guy who crashes the offensive boards anyways.
According to a source, the Cavaliers made a big pitch at the trade deadline for Knicks point guard Pablo Prigioni . The Knicks instead dealt Prigioni to Houston with a trade exception for a package that included Alexey Shved and two second-rounders. Prigioni helped Houston in the wake of Patrick Beverly’s injury and could have come in handy for the Cavaliers after the loss of Kyrie Irving http://nypost.com/2015/06/08/j-r-smith-cops-to-dumb-fouls-that-nearly-cost-cavs-big-time/
On another note, Jonathan Tjarks just posted this article concerning CLE playing bully-ball vs. GS playing small-ball. I think it speaks to my point that I've made several times about variance. When you know another team is better than you in a particular style, even though it may be your team's style primarily, then you have to use variance and force them into a different type of game. This is why when you look at the Warriors you have to realize they are the best run-and-gun team in the league. Nobody can play up-and-down with them. Not even us. Even though we are a run-and-gun team. The difference between us and CLE is CLE has the perimeter horses to slow the game down to a crawl and pound the ball inside while having the shooters available outside to catch-and-shoot. Good piece by Tjarks. http://basketball.realgm.com/article/238116/LeBron-&-Mozgov-Break-The-Small-Ball-Formula Spoiler
The Cavs biggest advantage over the Rox against the Warriors is they can shoot those ****in' free throws.
You do realize that's why we have seven games in a series - right? Like you're not proving your point by pointing to one game where they didn't play well and use that as your argument that their offense isn't elite. What about the other 80 games? Are you in middle school?
Oh so an "elite defense" and an "elite offense" is only a winning strategy in the NBA? C'mon man, if you followed sports for longer, you'd recognize the Warriors as the fluke they are.
The NBA is way more predictable. Great teams win out over seven game series. The NFL is much more random, has more parity, etc. That's what this entire discussion is about - teams that have been AS good as the Warriors were this year with the point differential they got won the championship at a very high rate. So it's absolutely silly for you to act like the Warriors are a fluke team that had no chance to win the championship if it wasn't for injuries. Like how can you even type that and not get banned
The Chargers also had an abysmal special teams, which is why they lost games despite their elite offense and defense. What exactly is Golden State's equivalence of poor special teams?
He shot 33.7% from 3, actually. Not great, but good enough to be a real threat given NBA math. He also likely shoots better than the 33.7% on wide open ones, so you have to close out on him at least a little. 25%, however, is just unworkable. The Cavs were just sitting in the lane daring Green to shoot the 3.
Coaching. Wait, no. Poor home court advantage? Damn, no. I hate hate hate the Warriors - but it's because of how good they are, it's annoying.
