The Buddha's light shines, Cole opens the trick, and reverses it to the hand.
This is the intuitive feeling that today's warriors bring to people.
On April 3, Beijing time, the Warriors achieved a 21-point earth-shattering reversal at home, and finally ended a four-game losing streak with a narrow victory over the Jazz 111-107. With this victory, the Warriors locked up a playoff spot and were no longer in danger of falling into the playoffs. The Warriors' only suspense is whether they will eventually be ranked 3rd or 4th in the West, and which team will be their opponents in the first round.
For the Warriors, today's reversal isn't just about giving them a win and helping them make the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Klay Thompson's heroic performance proves that the Warriors' previous controversial gambles on him have finally paid off temporarily. Coach Steve Kerr finally gave up the superstition of passing, made tactical adjustments according to the situation of the game, and took more blocking and demolition, with remarkable results.
With the Warriors still four games left, they can sit on the fishing platform and wait for Stephen Curry to return from injury.
Against the Jazz, the Warriors in the first and second halves were judged by two teams. In the first half, Thompson shot wildly, the Warriors' overall offensive rhythm was messy, and Kerr's passing system was meaningless in the face of the Jazz's targeted defensive arrangement. Rudy Gobert secured the basket, and the Warriors did not try to move Him out of the basket against Gobert, but continued to create opportunities on the outside to shoot strongly against the defense, or to enter the box to challenge Gobert's elite ability to protect the basket. This style of play is tantamount to seeking their own death, because the Warriors can't hit the Sore Spot of the Jazz, and they have made some mistakes.
Defensively, Thompson was targeted by Donovan Mitchell, and the Warriors were too jealous of Gobert's height, contracting heavily defensively, missing numerous empty three-pointers for the Jazz. At their peak, the Warriors trailed by 21 points.
Throughout the first half, it was coach Kerr who was responsible for the Warriors' 21-point trail. At both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, his arrangement is not targeted. In fact, how to target Gobert at the offensive end, how to defend the Jazz who advocates magic balls, clippers and other teams have already given the Warriors a sample, using blocking to target Gobert, punishing Gobert with a change of defense is a basic routine, but Kerr did not instruct his disciples to execute.
But at halftime, Kerr finally got the hang of it, and the start of all the adjustments was to target Gobert indefinitely.
Gobert is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner, but in the past four years, Gobert has not won the recognition of all his peers. In the past three years of playoffs, Gobert has been targeted by opponents time and time again, and against teams that are good at blocking or can send five shooting points, Gobert is very defensively struggling. James Harden's blocking offense and clippers' five-shooter tactics have all frustrated Gobert. Because of this, Marcus Smart believes that Gobert does not deserve the award for best defensive player, he can't defend five positions, and the defense is not comprehensive enough.
The Warriors played that Gobert's defense was not comprehensive enough, and in terms of targeting Gobert, the Warriors' different lineups took different approaches.
The simplest and roughest way is to abandon the pass and let the outside ball carrier block the demolition, or let the shooter play a hand-to-hand shot against The Warriors' inner line (mainly Kevin Looney and Draymond Green) against Gobert's undefended weakness. This style of play is indeed not as gorgeous as the cut, but the effect is good.
For example, 3 minutes and 57 seconds before the end of the third quarter, when the Warriors chased the point, Poole and Looney played a block, Gobert directly contracted to the basket, and Poole laughed at the three points.
The round came from the end of the first half, when Gobert was against the Warriors' relatively weak shooting point Gary Payton Jr., Payton three-pointer hand pass, Gobert contracted the basket, and Poole easily received the ball and hit a three-point shot.
The above two are tactics that revolve around Poole, and the Warriors have other tricks. For example, in the final moments of the third quarter, Gobert was opposite Peyton Jr. in the bottom corner of the right side, Iguodala and Thompson played a block, Iguodala took the ball into the basket to attract Gobert to assist, Peyton Jr. was missed, he received the pass and immediately found Bjelica, who was empty on the right side of the arc, and Bjelica hit a three-point shot.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Iguodala held the ball in the top of the arc, and it was Gobert who was in his place. Gobert was removed from the basket, the Warriors played an outside pass to cooperate, and Green received the ball and copied the basket to the back goal.
In the final half of the fourth quarter, Thompson's consecutive three-point chase and Poole's counter-overtaking three-pointer were all aimed at Gobert. In the following three rounds, whether it is hand-to-hand or block-and-remove, Gobert has invariably chosen to shrink.
Throughout the second half, the Warriors did their best to take full advantage of the limitations of Gobert's defensive end, creating a large number of quality shooting opportunities. At the same time, the Warriors also strengthened their defense of the outside line on the defensive end, because everyone knew that Gobert was not good at low singles, had no ability to punish misalignment, and when Gobert had a misplaced opportunity, the Jazz's passing ability on the outside line was not enough, and the willingness was insufficient, and Gobert rarely got the ball. Playing jazz, in terms of strict prevention of the inside line and blocking the outside line, the latter is the preferred choice.
Kerr's second-half adjustments inspired a more efficient Thompson and a more prolific Poole. In the whole game, Thompson scored 36 points, And Poole blasted down 31 points and 6 assists, and the two hit a total of 14 three-pointers.
At Thompson's point, the Warriors' long-standing trust in him paid off today, and Thompson shrugged off the slump of the previous game and played one of the season's masterpieces. Although the Warriors frantically fed Thompson the ball, which made Thompson feel some doubts through actual combat, especially when Thompson felt unstable and inefficient, it seemed that the Warriors' gamble was being rewarded.
The plan for Thompson to find a feel through actual combat came largely from former Warriors consultant Jerry West. When West was in the Warriors, Thompson also experienced a downturn in the feel, but West encouraged Thompson to take a bold shot and not give up shooting because of poor hand feeling, because Thompson is a shooter, all he has to do is keep shooting.
Thompson is in unstable shape right now, but if the Warriors use this last period to help Thompson find better shooting, the Warriors will be even more terrifying after entering the playoffs.
At this point in Poole, Kerr should give him more trust, especially during Curry's time of suspension due to injury, it is much more meaningful to let Poole play more and give him the ball to let him play freely, than to let Green arc top cards play pass cut. After all, the Warriors still have to fight hard to win the last 4 games and try to lock up the 3rd place in the West.