Three big lessons from the Warriors’ wins over Houston, Oklahoma City
The Warriors played arguably their best game of the season Saturday — a two-way domination of the Oklahoma City Thunder that ended in a 22-point road victory, 110-88.
On the heels of Saturday’s win and Wednesday’s impressive victory over Houston in Texas, the Warriors seem to have their mojo back. And to think — they did it all without Kevin Durant in the lineup.
As the playoffs fast approach, there were a few lessons gleaned from the last two games and what they could mean moving forward:
Klay Thompson must be on the All-Defensive team
Kyrie Irving might be a world-class troll these days, but he was right about one thing.
So right, it seems, that I might need to revisit my views on the Earth’s shape. (Who knows what else he might be right about?)
“I’d like to see him on a few more defensive teams,” Irving said of his primary defender, Klay Thompson, in the Warriors’ January win over Boston.
When Irving was told that Thompson had, in fact, never made an NBA All-Defensive team in his Hall of Fame career, the response was blunt and spot-on:
“That’s some bull—.”
Those in the know, like Irving, have been carrying this flag for weeks, if not months, but this needs to be the 82-game campaign that rights that wrong. And if my peers in the media with votes for that accolade need any persuading, they only need to watch what Thompson did in his last two games.
Wednesday against James Harden, he held the Rockets star to nine points on 23 possessions, without fouling him once. Not exactly MVP numbers.
On Saturday, Thompson was the primary defender on Russell Westbrook. This has historically been a great matchup for Thompson, and earlier this season, he allowed Westbrook to only score two points on 36 possessions. Saturday, Thompson one-upped that, not allowing Westbrook to score on him.
Russell Westbrook's 16th technical of the season. One-game suspension incoming unless it's rescinded… can't imagine this one will. pic.twitter.com/OnDwywL0f2
— Up The Thunder (@UpTheThunder) March 17, 2019
In all, Westbrook went 2-for-16 Saturday — his only two makes a sneaky under-the-basket layup and an aggressive backdown, turnaround 8-footer on Stephen Curry with four minutes left in a 20-point game.
Westbrook’s abysmal performance guaranteed the Thunder’s loss, and while the Oklahoma City guard certainly contributed to the cause with his id-dominated game and comic levels of irascibility, Thompson deserves immense credit, as he did the yeoman’s work on him.
Russ' answer to 3 straight questions about his 16th tech (which results in a 1-game suspension):
"Next question." pic.twitter.com/2Z259FAOlW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2019
That, of course, is a trend — when the NBA’s best guards play Thompson, they find themselves struggling. The Warrior’s elite footwork, size, and high motor are a pain to go against, especially for smaller point guards.
Portland’s Damian Lillard averages 0.18 points per possession against Thompson this year. Utah’s Donovan Mitchell is slightly better at 0.20. Chris Paul has seven points in 60 possessions against Thompson (a 0.11 ratio) to go along with Harden’s low number for Houston. Washington’s Bradley Beal is at 0.21 points per possession, Irving is at 0.20, and Kemba Walker has two points in 20 possessions.
Those are unquestionably elite defensive numbers for Thompson.
The Warriors already know this — there’s a reason he’s drawing those matchups, after all — but perhaps it’s time the entire league starts recognizing Thompson as one of the game’s elite defenders.
Slow Jams
Durant prefers to play the game a bit slower than his Warriors teammates — then again, you would too if you were 7 feet tall and could shoot over double-teams all day.
So with Durant out of the lineup this week, you might have thought that the Warriors would try to throw it back to 2015 and speed up their offense a bit.
It seems, however, that they did the opposite.
Don’t get me wrong, the Warriors are still getting out in transition — running off of missed shots and turnovers (of which there were plenty Saturday) — but there seems to be a newfound comfortability and patience in the half-court offense that, frankly, has been lacking at times this season.
It’s a two-game sample size — inconsequential, perhaps, in the scheme of things — but against two possible playoff opponents and arguably the Warriors’ two most significant threats in the Western Conference bracket, the success shouldn’t be automatically dismissed.
It also, of course, takes two to tango — neither the Rockets or Thunder played elite defense this week — but I can’t help but think that the Warriors unlocked something when it comes to execution in their sets.
And it all revolves around DeMarcus Cousins.
The big man’s incredible passing ability has shown up in spurts since he first took the floor for the Warriors, but it’s become a feature of the Warriors’ offense over the last two games: Golden State is looking to run a solid percentage of their actions — particularly with the second unit — through Cousins, in either the high or low post.
It should be noted that it takes a healthy Cousins to pull this off to maximum effect, but we are seeing something resembling that version as of late. Cousins was a dominant force against the Rockets Wednesday and looked downright spry on Sunday. The rest between games did him well, and he can expect plenty of that kind of rest come the postseason.
Cousins’ rare ability to toss his weight around in the low post, face up and knock down a shot in the baseline or high post, and either shoot or dribble to the basket from the perimeter, makes him a perplexing man to challenge — he can operate out of all three zones, and the Warriors have one of the only guys in the league who can defend all three zones (Draymond Green).
Add in his passing ability — which is downright clever at times — and you have an offensive dynamo. Cousins had a combined 13 assists in the last two games.
Now add the Warriors’ constant movement around him and you have basketball magic — even if it takes some time to develop.
So will the Warriors keep rolling with the offense from the last two games and fit Durant into the mix or will they go back to old ways when KD returns?
I’d bet the former, and my guess is that Durant thrives in the system — so long as he can adapt to it a bit, too.
If the Warriors want to keep using Cousins as a hub when he’s on the court, Durant is going to have to make a sacrifice and give up a few of his isolation possessions.
Before he exited the lineup, those isolation possessions were a necessity for portions of the game where the Warriors had limited scorers on the court, but they would also bleed into the possessions played with the Warriors’ best lineups. But with Cousins taking on a central distribution role, those isolations will be especially flow-stopping.
That said, Cousins as the hub should result in a ton of open shots for Durant and likely an uptick in assists, too. We’ve seen Durant’s excellent passing ability on occasion this year — at times you could argue he’s been a proto-Boogie — and there are going to be a ton of pocket passes to cutters and swing-around passes to open shooters for him to find with the defensive attention being spread around and the Warriors’ invigorated motion off the ball.
For years, I’ve said that the Warriors have two kinds of smoke — the Curry joy and the Durant ruthlessness — and that having two options might create some fluidity issues, but come playoff time makes Golden State the most dangerous team in the league.
Well, with Cousins doing what he’s doing, I think the Warriors have a third kind of smoke. It’s not totally joyful and it’s not completely ruthless — it’s something familiar yet different, and I think it might be able to bridge the gap between the two styles with exceptional ease.
The Warriors have a ridiculous San Antonio-and-Minnesota back-to-back next week — excellent opportunities for the Warriors’ coaches to rest some players, particularly after the Dubs’ statement wins Wednesday and Saturday.
At some point, though, we’ll see if my hypothesis is accurate.
Oh, and Andrew Bogut, who will join the team once it arrives back in the Bay Area next week — he’s a pretty good passer too. Might that have been part of this gameplanning decision?
This season might be old, but the Warriors seemed to have learned a new trick.
The puzzle is near completion
With Durant out of the lineup, Steve Kerr made some significant changes to the Warriors’ rotations, with Quinn Cook and Jordan Bell becoming regulars and clear pairings being favored outside of the starting five’s stretches.
Cook has been a welcome addition — he’s out there for his ability to shoot and he’s making good on that threat. He’s played 28 minutes in the last two games — only two of those were non-rotation, garbage-time minutes — and gone 6-of-8 from the floor for 15 points. Against Oklahoma City on Saturday, he even had six rebounds.
Cook’s questionable defense hasn’t proven to be an issue, either, as he’s playing alongside the perpetually underrated Shaun Livingston and Thompson. With those two guys on the floor, Cook can hide on the opponent’s worst shooter, who typically just stands in the corner.
Cook has been so solid, I wouldn’t be stunned if he held onto a version of his current role for the remainder of the season.
Bell has played well, too, though he’s likely to find fewer minutes with Durant returning to the lineup.
It’ll be interesting to see how Kerr changes the rotations when that happens — he mentioned on Wednesday that he’s trying to split up Cousins and Green’s minutes, which has resulted in Curry and Green pairing up while Cousins and Thompson have become a duo. That should remain the same, but which duo will land Durant? And what about Andre Iguodala, who was so excellent the past two games?
Chemistry is a fickle thing and it’s certainly not something you want to mess around with when you have good things going. (How quickly things change for this team.)
We’ve learned a bit about how the Warriors might rotate come the postseason, but how Kerr handles this team getting back to full health (if they get there at all) will give us the full story. And that, friends, is coming soon.