How do the Warriors adjust for Game 3?
After beating Houston in a single game by more than Houston beat them over two games in the regular season, the Warriors stomped the Rockets in the first game of their highly-anticipated Western Conference Finals showdown, only to lose by a larger margin in Game 2. Perhaps, maybe, possibly we would get the West Finals we all deemed ourselves worthy of accepting?
Except, here’s the thing: What happened to James Harden in Game 1 was essentially what happened to Kevin Durant in Game 2. Both carefully nurtured their ways around defenses, mostly in isolation, to explosive point totals, resulting in losses.
What the Warriors need to do was evident in Game 1, and became even more evident in Game 2. All they really need to do, as head coach Steve Kerr, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and the rest know, is pass the ball. The Rockets played them at their own game.
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The Warriors need only be engaged in order to win. This is their only real Achilles heel; having four All-Stars and, perhaps, five Hall of Famers, as well as a Hall-worthy coach, at their disposal can, and has, lulled them into complacency at times. The odd Draymond Green tantrum aside, Golden State has a knack for battening down the hatches when it matters most.
Speaking of which, Kerr broke out the Death Lineup — or the Hamptons 5, if you’re into treating your basketball lineups like they’re auditioning for Berry Gordy in 1961 — in Game 4 of their series against the Pelicans, something he’d never done before that particular blowout. After rolling it out again in Game 5, Golden State closed out that series easily. That lineup boasts a nearly +20 advantage when it takes the floor at any given time.
Everybody convinced themselves that the Rockets could match the Warriors’ propensity for firepower and versatility, particularly with Clint Capela acting as the breakout star and seeming kryptonite to the Warriors’ various low post eccentricities. Capela, while not necessarily bad in Game 1, was a -3 and put up only 12 points in 23 minutes of action, several of them alley-oop finishes at Harden’s discretion when the game was already starting to get out of hand.
In Game 2, Capela was just there — five points and 10 rebounds doesn’t scream “Game-changing,” but his cognizant presence made for the runs that Chris Paul and James Harden were able to execute. He was +12, and Eric Gordon, who was a frustrating non-entity in Game 1, had 27 points off the bench. Sure enough, Gordon finished +29.
Excepting Durant, a sleepy Warriors team made all of this possible. Gordon had 15 points on 6-13 shooting in Game 1, which are jaywalking pedestrian numbers for a Sixth Man of the Year winner and possible repeat-candidate. Good thing seven-time NBA All-Star Joe Johnson is there to, err, log four total minutes in this series thus far.
With the Warriors, the question is dual: What is Curry’s health, and what are the rest of them trying to do about it? The problem arises now that “the rest” includes Durant, probably the second-best basketball player in the world on most days, who can just string together bucket after bucket without trying all that hard.
All the Warriors need to do, all they ever need to do in this era, is pass the ball. Durant will get his; Curry will, too, but only if he feels he needs it. Thompson sure isn’t here to put up eight points on 3-11 shooting, nor is Draymond going to fight himself into a suspension against a team he knows the Golden State can handle.
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Kerr knows this; Steph knows this. It takes every ounce of energy and wherewithal to win in the NBA, but the Warriors have proven they have both in embarrassing measures. The question of ratios in this recipe, then, solely lies with them.