After 3 years, the Warriors are back on the playoffs. The Warriors did not waste a minute and a second, the first game with the Nuggets in the first round, the Warriors used a strong performance to awaken people's memories, so that all competitors who are watching the Warriors' performance reminded of the fear of being dominated by the Warriors.
On April 17, Beijing time, the Warriors defeated the Nuggets 123-107 at home to win the playoffs. Stephen Curry has just returned from injury and is playing as a substitute in the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and his form is still in the process of being adjusted. This is obviously not the strongest Warrior, but the Warriors still play a mercury-soaked offense and a watertight defense.
Three years on, the Warriors Trident is older, they have more injuries, and the last three seasons they've been together for just 11 minutes and their bodies are full of question marks. But it turns out that when the season entered the playoffs, the power of the three of them together should not be underestimated. Coupled with the growth of Jordan Poole, a group of role players with super high basketball IQs performed their duties, and the Warriors officially announced their return to the championship camp.
The Warriors have many highlights today, Poole's strong play, Thompson and Wiggins' efficiency on the offensive end, Green's comprehensiveness, Curry's influence, taken out alone, which is worth interpreting, even Belitsa's rare aggression on the offensive end, Iguodala's solidity as a point guard on the offensive end, etc., these are also highlights. If you look at it from a panoramic point of view, in fact, the core of the Warriors' victory is that the offensive and defensive ends make Jokic a trapped beast.
The turning point of the game came 4 minutes and 23 seconds before the end of the second quarter, when the Warriors trailed by one point 40-41. Until then, the Warriors had relied on poole and Thompson's hot feel to prop up the offense. At this time, Steve Cole waved the flag, Poole replaced Kevin Looney, and the Warriors put up a five-small lineup of Pooler, Thompson, Curry, Wiggins, and Green.
This lineup directly changed the game situation, and as expected, the Warriors' three-guard tactic was something the Nuggets could not cope with. In the regular season, when Poole, Curry and Thompson were on the floor at the same time, the Warriors won 96 points in 129 minutes and scored 121.7 points per 100 rounds. In four games against the Nuggets, the three guards played 12 minutes at the same time, and the Warriors scored 26 points at 42-16.
Why is this five-small lineup good for the Nuggets? Because this lineup can be infinitely targeted at Jokic's personal defensive problems, as well as the weaknesses of the Nuggets' unreliable defenders on the weak side.
Green plays center, and Jokic has to play against Green. When Poole held the ball and Green to block and break, Poole could challenge Jokic with the ball, which was also the usual style of play for Donovan Mitchell when the Jazz played the Nuggets. Curry had just recovered from injury and had not yet found the feeling of holding the ball, it was Poole who took on the task, and his performance satisfied Kerr.
Looking at this attack, the tactical starting style is that Green first sets up a false cover for Poole, and then runs to the right flank to set up another real cover for Thompson, thompson uses Jokic to position Green but can't prevent the problem of easily hitting the top three points in the arc.
Including green's two ground pass assists to Curry when facing Jokic's defense, it was Jokic who played this, Curry's layup was aimed at Aaron Gordon's weak ability to prevent the ball, and Curry's three-point play was also Jokic's defense.
At the end of the second quarter, at 4:23, the Warriors turned things around with an 18-6 wave of attack. In addition to the crucial less than five minutes in the second quarter, at several other nodes, the Warriors also found a way to defend against Jokic. For example, 3 minutes and 56 seconds before the end of the first quarter, Curry and Green blocked, Jokic aggressively pounced on the pinch, Green received the ball and dunked, and no one under the Nuggets basket could protect the basket. Since Geralmi Grant's departure, the Nuggets have not had a qualified weak side defender, and Gordon, Jeff Green, and Jamekau Green are all unable to play this role.
And Pooler's blocking and dismantling of the ball to pull out three points, this is just a repeated replay of Jokic's nightmare of blocking and dismantling.
In fact, before the game, the Nuggets did not expect Jokic to be able to prevent the Warriors' blocking, and what the Nuggets considered was how to find a supplement on the offensive end and fight with the Warriors. But unfortunately, the Nuggets' top offense in the regular season league simply could not be used in front of the Warriors' second-place defense.
In the face of Jokic's inside and outside killers, it is said that the Warriors should let Looney play 30+ minutes and let him defend Jokic. But today the Warriors only let Looney play 13 minutes, and Kerr stuck to the small lineup most of the time. Cole has the courage to do this because Green and Bjelica have done too well in jokic's top defense and outside participation in the pinch attack, and the effect is far beyond expectations. Green, in particular, seems to have fully recovered, and the Warriors' internal holes have been plugged because of his state recovery.
Watching the round before halftime, Jokic used tactics to find opportunities to fall low, and he repeatedly dribbled the ball to try to crush it, but Green did not give Jokic a chance to hit the three-second zone under the basket. Green's one-sided defense against Jokic worked, and the Pressure on the Warriors' five-small lineup defensive end was much lessened.
When Bjlitsa or anyone else defends Jokic, Jokic can hit closer to the basket, but at this point, the Warriors will let players with less stable three-point shooting participate in the pinch against Jokic. For example, in this round, Gary Payton Jr. let go of Hyland and assisted the defense in the moment of Jokic's shot to send out the cover. Hitting the back, Jokic's mindset began to get out of balance.
In the whole game, Jokic shot 25 times, but only once hit the three-second zone under the basket, or made up the basket. The Warriors' defense kept Jokic out of the three-second zone, testing his hookers, jumpers and mid-range shots from the throw zone. You know, before Jokic had 6.6 three-second shots per game, averaging nearly 10 points in the three-second zone, and today Jokic did not score a single point in the three-second zone.
The Nuggets' penalty area scores seem to be quite a lot, 54 points in the penalty area is their season average, but not much of it comes from the three-second zone with the highest efficiency in taking points, they have more than 34% of their basket shots this season, but today it is only a new 5% season low, which means that the Nuggets' offense in the box has not hurt the Warriors.
This is not the strongest Warrior, Curry just returned today for only 22 minutes, he did not play much time, but 16 points, 4 assists is enough to let him play +17 points on the field plus-minus. As Curry improves, the next Warriors can perform better.
In the next game, the Nuggets will inevitably make adjustments, Mike Malone will definitely find a way to let Jokic hit the basket more on the offensive end, and the Nuggets' outside three-point line also has room for correction. How will Kerr, who is impeccable in both pre-match preparation and on-the-spot adjustments, respond today?