Lakers vs. Warriors was billed as LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. But in reality, the two had nothing to do with each other in the first three games of the series, which now has Los Angeles leading 2-1 after beating Golden State 127-97 on Saturday.
It has been and will continue to be a series of adjustments, meaning the most important match, at least so far, has been the minor match. In Game 1, Warriors coach Steve Kerr started his traditional five-man lineup with Kevon Looney and Draymond Green, two non-shooters, as double bigs and deployed Stephen Curry mostly off the ball.
Lakers coach Darwin Ham, unafraid that Curry would perform a pick-and-roll to draw Anthony Davis to the perimeter, leaned back and watched Davis take full control of the paint and take out the sluggish Looney at the other end, while The Lakers’ defense squeezed the Golden State’s spatially complex offense.
In Game 2, Kerr put the ball in Curry’s hands to get possession, throwing more pick-and-rolls to bring in Davis, get Curry to double teams and unleash the 4-on-3 advantage Golden State had earned so much hay from. compared to years.
The strategy became even more effective when Kerr launched JaMychal Green instead of Looney. This resulted in four shooters on the floor instead of three, and the added threat was too much for Los Angeles as he kept spinning after Curry got the ball moving. It worked wonders. It took Curry just 12 shots to score 20 points, and in doing so, he scored 12 assists as everyone was staring wide open across the court.
Since Looney wasn’t in the starting lineup, Kerr also put Draymond Green on Davis in Game 2, and it’s no coincidence that Davis only had 11 points and seven rebounds. He was basically a non-factor. Davis later said that he made all the same shots as in the first game, but that was not true. Green protected him to hell.
These were three huge adjustments from Kerr: Curry’s ball play, JaMychal’s starting and Draymond’s placement on Davis. It worked wonders. Golden State rolled over. The series is closed.
In Game 3, knowing that Kerr would stick with what worked in Game 2, Ham changed his defensive matchup with Davis by assigning his superstar big man to cover Jamichal Green instead of Jarred Vanderbilt’s Draymond Green.
What did it give? Well, now that Draymond is on screen in place of Curry, the Lakers are simply changing the action to Vanderbilt, who has been Curry’s primary quarterback for most of the series. So now, instead of the Warriors being able to film Vanderbilt off Curry, they’re taking Vanderbilt. To Curry, if they decide to use Draymond as an examiner, which is what they want to do. See below:
If it’s Davis covering Green, then it’s also Davis who has to go on the perimeter and protect Curry, which he can’t do, and that has a double whammy as it also eliminates Davis as a defender under the basket.
So why don’t the Warriors just send in whoever Davis is covering – in the case of Game 3, JaMichal Green to start – to set up a screen for Curry, forcing Davis into the fight? Well, maybe that will be one of Kerr’s adjustments in Game 4. But in Game 3, Kerr didn’t trust JaMikhal to be the offensive quarterback after Curry passed the ball and wants Draymond in that role. The Lakers want Vanderbilt on Curry and Davis in the paint. Ham effectively began possession with Austin Reeves on Curry, betting that Vanderbilt would complete it after the switch.
Ham bet correctly, and it threw everything off for the warriors. As you saw in the clip above, Davis was once again wreaking havoc as a rim guard and overall guard without worrying about being involved in pick ‘n’ rolls. Davis was everywhere. Curry’s pick-and-roll threat was relatively neutralized. The third round goes to Ham as the Lakers roll.
So now we’re looking at game 4. In particular, what will Kerr come up with to get Davis out of the picture and resume the offense under Curry? First, he could isolate Curry from Reeves and just let him go one on one. Reeves is a good defender, but this will most likely force Vanderbilt back to Curry. But then you still have a problem with who’s covering for Curry, as isolating Wando throughout the game isn’t such a pleasant option. They still need to get AD back on Draymond.
In my opinion, whether Kerr wants to isolate Curry or start a pick and roll, he should start a real fourth shooter who will adequately space the floor, not a big guy like Jamichal who can kind of shoot. Real shooter. A small one that Davis can’t guard. I’m thinking about Jordan Poole.
It’s true, Pool was terrible in the last two games of this series, and he was terrible against the Kings in the first round as well. His defense is attractive. His shot rebounding and insane drunken dribbling is infuriating. But he’s a threat. The Lakers must cover him for at least 25 feet. The floor is spreading. It worked against kings.
And again, most importantly, the Lakers can’t hide Davis on the Pool the way they can hide JaMihal. Poole’s security would have put Davis out of his sight completely. Besides, he’s just not going to go after a pest like Poole. He’s also not going to guard Wiggins or Clay. And definitely not Steph.
This will force Ham to bring back Davis against Draymond, who can then return to his usual two-man games with Curry. Now Davis is back in the same predicament as in the second game: move out of sight and keep Curry off the ball screen, or speak up and let Curry fire nukes into your season. If the Lakers decide to go for a full double with Curry, then Draymond will take them out of the short throw like he’s done for the past decade.
Kerr could also consider bringing in Donte Di Vincenzo or even Moses Moody instead of Poole. Any one of them, for the most part, would accomplish the same thing as starting Poole in terms of working as a brace on the fourth floor and forcing Davis to guard Draymond again.
But running Poole might have the added benefit of being able to get the most out of it personally. He plays better as a starter, and the bottom line is that the Warriors will most likely need Pool’s best player in at least a few games to win this series.
Will Ham prevent this potential Kerr adjustment with one of his own? I’m not sure what he could do. Some sort of pre-switch or clean-up strategy to maybe get Davis off Draymond before he has to mess around with Curry’s moves.
But these mechanisms require a kind of rotation; One way or another, getting the Lakers into the rotation is the goal of Golden State. Also, there are many mistakes that can be made with so many pre-action moving parts, to the point where they are possible even on a spaced floor with an instinctive cover-up like Draymond.
Davis wants to fire Green from the start, which allows Green to face dribbles with any of the Golden State snipers. The catch, of course, is that warriors become incredibly small. Andrew Wiggins would have been their tallest starter at 6ft 7in. Davis could potentially kill them on offensive glass. Green could have serious foul problems, as he did in Game 3. Again, this didn’t happen in Game 2.
It would be risky to go against Davis if he decides to go into bully mode, but in my opinion, Kerr should embrace it. Just as the Lakers need to deprive Curry of shots and shot making as much as possible, the Warriors need to neutralize Davis as much as possible.
Allowing Davis to cover JaMychal Green, which is an effective license to cover everyone else, invites him to dominate just as refusing to cover invites Curry to dominate. Kerr needs to make a move here. And I think that the launch of the Pool in game 4 is the most logical.
