How the Warriors took advantage of the Kawhi-less Spurs in Game 1
By Jeff Siegel
The Warriors defeated the Spurs 113-111 in Game 1 of their Western Conference Finals series on Sunday afternoon, overcoming a 25-point third quarter deficit to upend the Spurs and retain home-court advantage. The turning point in the game was when Kawhi Leonard went down with an ankle injury (we’re not going to litigate whether or not Zaza Pachulia intentionally put his foot under Leonard’s), which immediately sparked an 18-0 run for Golden State to erase much of the Spurs’ lead. San Antonio was forced to play without their signature star down the stretch, which had a heavy impact on what they were able to do on both ends of the floor. The Warriors pounced on the opportunity, changing their defensive scheme on the fly to take advantage of the Spurs’ weaknesses.
Without Leonard on the floor and Tony Parker lost for the season with a torn quad, San Antonio doesn’t have a primary ball-handler Gregg Popovich can trust to run the offense. Patty Mills fills in nicely for Parker when Leonard is available because he’s a more reliable shooter and doesn’t have the same defensive deficiencies that have plagued Parker as he’s gotten older, but Mills doesn’t have the ability to run the offense at the high level needed to beat the Warriors. The Spurs tried out a handful of primary ball-handlers in Game 1 in Leonard’s stead, but none of the Mills, Jonathon Simmons and Manu Ginobili trio was able to consistently get the Spurs quality looks.
Rather than holding the ball on the perimeter, the Spurs also tried to dump the ball into LaMarcus Aldridge in an attempt to get their offense going through him as a Leonard facsimile. After all, Leonard often operates out of the post, using his isolation and post-up skills to bend defenses and find shots for himself and his teammates. Aldridge is the Spurs’ most reliable post threat when Leonard is off the floor, but Leonard’s absence had the domino effect of dropping the Spurs deeper into their bench. Aldridge was unable to get anything going in the post after Leonard exited the game, thanks in large part to a key change from the Warriors — instead of letting Aldridge go one-on-one against Draymond Green or Kevin Durant, Golden State brought a double team to the ball, opting to ignore non-shooters Simmons, Dejounte Murray and Kyle Anderson.
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The adjustment worked: Aldridge was ineffective as a passer out of the post and the Warriors were able to force turnovers and get out in transition for easy buckets to continue their run in the third quarter.
In both of the above clips, the Spurs entered the ball to Aldridge in the post and cleared out for him to go to work on one side of the floor, but as his assignment cut through to the weak side, Klay Thompson jumped Aldridge and forced turnovers. Other times, Thompson or another Warrior feigned the double-team at Aldridge and made him pick up his dribble before recovering back to their guy and leaving the Spurs with no place to go.
San Antonio was able to manufacture enough offense to keep the Warriors at bay, but eventually the lack of their best player was too much. The Warriors went to a version of their Death Lineup at the 8:52 mark in the fourth quarter and went full Super Death when Stephen Curry checked into the game with 7:17 left in the game. Shaun Livingston played Andre Iguodala’s part in the Warriors’ most fearsome quintet, alongside Curry, Thompson, Durant and Green. Although Livingston’s offensive game is relatively limited, he was able to be very effective despite only touching the ball a handful of times in the final minutes.
The Spurs closed the game with Aldridge at center and four perimeter players around him. David Lee didn’t play in the fourth quarter and Pau Gasol exited for the last time with 10 minutes left in the game. Against the Warriors Super Death lineup, that would usually mean that Aldridge would match up with Green, but the Spurs went a different direction — Aldridge “guarded” Livingston, which allowed him to help plug the other holes in the Spurs’ defense and protect the rim, as Livingston’s shooting struggles wouldn’t force him very far away from the paint.
The Warriors responded by involving Livingston as the screener, rather than sticking him in the corner and playing the game 4-on-5, as teams sometimes do when they have an imperfect offensively player on the floor.
While the Warriors didn’t score on any of the three plays in the video above, the process of their offense in these situations was fantastic. The Spurs wanted to leave Livingston, so the Warriors made him an integral part of the offense, which brought Aldridge out of the paint and forced rotations from the other San Antonio defenders. Golden State will continue to do this if the Spurs try to gain an advantage by ignoring guys like Livingston and Iguodala.
A few other notes from a roller coaster Game 1 in Oakland:
-Aldridge wasn’t able to get to his favorite left shoulder in the post against Durant when the Warriors would switch the Leonard-Aldridge pick-and-roll early on in the game. Aldridge instead took a dribble or two and swung into the middle of the paint, where he attempted a few shot hooks and fading jumpers. Overall, the Spurs took 35 shots in the non-restricted are of the paint, and mid-range, 10 more than their counterparts. These are universally considered the least-efficient shots in basketball, and while the Spurs have made their living this season in the mid-range, they’ll need to generate better looks from the perimeter and at the rim to be able to hang with the Warriors.
-Both teams were happy to switch most on- and off-ball screens, which should favor the Warriors if that trend continues in future games. Switching heavily will offer the Spurs some good matchups in the post, but Golden State is perhaps the best team in the league at scramming their little guys out of the paint to avoid these mismatches. On the other end, the Spurs can’t scram their big guys off Curry and Durant on the perimeter.
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-Iguodala’s injury might not rear its ugly head in this series, but if he’s limited or unable to go in a potential matchup with the Cavaliers, that leaves the Warriors one defender short against LeBron James. Iguodala has had as much success as anyone can possibly have against James in the past two years and while Golden State has Durant to fill that hole this year, the Warriors are certainly hoping that Iguodala can get back to full speed if they are to get through the Spurs and find themselves in another series with the Cavaliers.