Did Warriors solve Rockets’ defense? Kerr urges appropriate caution originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Deep into the third game of their first-round NBA playoff series against the Houston Rockets, the Warriors couldn’t find their trademark offense. The passing, cutting and dazzling ball movement that defines them at their best was being stifled by Houston’s rangy, rugged defense.
One of the ways the Warriors measure their offense is assist totals per game. If they record 30 or more, it’s working. If they’re between 25 and 29, it’s less than ideal but workable.
They had 20 in Game 1, 22 in Game 2 and eight through the first half of Game 3 on Saturday. Five assists per quarter is, for this offense, a sign of abject failure. The Warriors were averaging 47 points per half.
The second half of Game 3 brought the first glimpse of success, as the Warriors recorded 16 assists, scoring 58 points, to close out a 104-93 victory. They found a solution.
Maybe.
“I never liked the word solve, just because I think every game is different, and you have to adapt to whatever’s happening,” coach Steve Kerr said Sunday. “I think we found some things in the fourth quarter, but that doesn’t mean they will translate to tomorrow.”
Consider this a caution sign for Game 4. It might reek of “coach speak,” but it’s a reasonable approach in the middle of a postseason series. Coaches and players find adjustments along the way, sometimes between games, sometimes at halftime. Sometimes, even, between possessions.
Yet that second half was instructive insofar as Stephen Curry found impeccable balance between scoring and using his gravity to make plays for others. His two-man game with Gary Payton II torched the Rockets, particularly in the pull-away fourth quarter.
With 10 assists and only two turnovers, Golden State rang up 35 points in the fourth on 57.1-percent shooting from the field. With the Rockets up 84-83, the Curry-Payton connection got busy. Curry to a cutting GP2 for a layup. Curry to a cutting GP2 for another layup. Curry to GP2 for a corner 3-ball that gave Golden State its first four-point lead, 90-86, with 4:29 left.
The Rockets never got any closer.
“There were some good combinations out there,” Kerr said. “And again, tomorrow could be totally different. You could throw the exact same combination out there and not have success.
“Really, it’s about figuring out each game and what’s happening and trying to find combinations that click. And some night shots go in, other nights they don’t. You often ride the hot hand, so it’s really hard to sort of come to a conclusion and say, ‘We’ve solved this or that,’ and then just do that again, because it doesn’t necessarily happen so easily.”
The combinations surely will change if Jimmy Butler III is available for Game 4. He brings contrast in style, generally trying to pick apart a defense with more deliberate passing to maximize any cutting.
But the Steph-GP2 combo is tried and true. Has been for years.
“He knows how to find his spots and how to use Steph to get things for himself,” Draymond Green, speaking after Game 3, said of Payton. “That’s big. Any time … you learn how to play off Steph, it makes the game a lot easier for you. Any time you can pick up on those things and play great off Steph, he just has so much gravity. His gravity on the court is incredible.
“So, if you learn how to play off that, it kind of puts you as an advantage, and G has been great at that for years now.”
A win in Game 4 would give the No. 7 seed Warriors a 3-1 series lead and put them in prime position to oust the second-seeded Rockets from the Western Conference playoffs. But Kerr’s caution is rooted in his years of experience as a player and coach.
An adjustment is coming from Houston. It shouldn’t take long to discover if it will be enough to send Golden State’s offense back to the edge of futility, scrambling for buckets as it did in the first 10 quarters of this series.
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Did Warriors solve Rockets’ defense? Kerr urges appropriate caution
Deep into the third game of their first-round NBA playoff series against the Houston Rockets, the Warriors couldn’t find their trademark offense. The passing, cutting and dazzling ball movement that defines them at their best was being stifled by Houston’s rangy, rugged defense.
One of the ways the Warriors measure their offense is assist totals per game. If they record 30 or more, it’s working. If they’re between 25 and 29, it’s less than ideal but workable.
They had 20 in Game 1, 22 in Game 2 and eight through the first half of Game 3 on Saturday. Five assists per quarter is, for this offense, a sign of abject failure. The Warriors were averaging 47 points per half.
SIGN UP HERE The second half of Game 3 brought the first glimpse of success, as the Warriors recorded 16 assists, scoring 58 points, to close out a 104-93 victory. They found a solution.
Maybe.
“I never liked the word solve, just because I think every game is different, and you have to adapt to whatever’s happening,” coach Steve Kerr said Sunday. “I think we found some things in the fourth quarter, but that doesn’t mean they will translate to tomorrow.”
Consider this a caution sign for Game 4. It might reek of “coach speak,” but it’s a reasonable approach in the middle of a postseason series. Coaches and players find adjustments along the way, sometimes between games, sometimes at halftime. Sometimes, even, between possessions.
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Yet that second half was instructive insofar as Stephen Curry found impeccable balance between scoring and using his gravity to make plays for others. His two-man game with Gary Payton II torched the Rockets, particularly in the pull-away fourth quarter.
With 10 assists and only two turnovers, Golden State rang up 35 points in the fourth on 57.1-percent shooting from the field. With the Rockets up 84-83, the Curry-Payton connection got busy. Curry to a cutting GP2 for a layup. Curry to a cutting GP2 for another layup. Curry to GP2 for a corner 3-ball that gave Golden State its first four-point lead, 90-86, with 4:29 left.
The Rockets never got any closer.
“There were some good combinations out there,” Kerr said. “And again, tomorrow could be totally different. You could throw the exact same combination out there and not have success.
“Really, it’s about figuring out each game and what’s happening and trying to find combinations that click. And some night shots go in, other nights they don’t. You often ride the hot hand, so it’s really hard to sort of come to a conclusion and say, ‘We’ve solved this or that,’ and then just do that again, because it doesn’t necessarily happen so easily.”
The combinations surely will change if Jimmy Butler III is available for Game 4. He brings contrast in style, generally trying to pick apart a defense with more deliberate passing to maximize any cutting.
But the Steph-GP2 combo is tried and true. Has been for years.
“He knows how to find his spots and how to use Steph to get things for himself,” Draymond Green, speaking after Game 3, said of Payton. “That’s big. Any time … you learn how to play off Steph, it makes the game a lot easier for you. Any time you can pick up on those things and play great off Steph, he just has so much gravity. His gravity on the court is incredible.
“So, if you learn how to play off that, it kind of puts you as an advantage, and G has been great at that for years now.”
A win in Game 4 would give the No. 7 seed Warriors a 3-1 series lead and put them in prime position to oust the second-seeded Rockets from the Western Conference playoffs. But Kerr’s caution is rooted in his years of experience as a player and coach.
An adjustment is coming from Houston. It shouldn’t take long to discover if it will be enough to send Golden State’s offense back to the edge of futility, scrambling for buckets as it did in the first 10 quarters of this series.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
