After missing the playoffs for two consecutive years, the Warriors train looks like it's about to brake and stall. In the first half of the season, the Warriors briefly got back on track and accelerated into orbit, with injuries and the void of the interior putting the train in danger of derailment. But in the playoffs, the Warriors lifted the danger alert.
This time, the Warriors survived the crisis by relying on death.
Compared with the Death Five 1.0 and 2.0 versions, the 3.0 version is no less powerful in attack, and in the series with the Nuggets, they are advancing by crazy offensive firepower. But whether the 3.0 version is as offensive and defensive and dominant as the previous two generations will need to be tested. The height deficiencies and defensive hazards exposed by the 3.0 version are worth the Warriors' vigilance, especially considering that the opponent they face next is the Grizzlies.
Warrior Death Five Minor Origins
In the 2015 Finals, the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers by the Death Five, and many people will think that the Warriors Death Five was invented by Steve Kerr, but this is not the case. The real truth is that Cole picked the peach of his predecessor, Mark Jackson, the one who carried the Death Five, not the inventor.
Jackson does like to swing the twin towers when he coaches the Warriors, Bogut is healthy, and his interior partners will be Carl Landry, David Lee, Draymond Green, and Azeri. When Bogut is injured, Jackson likes to use lee plus green and Jermaine O'Neal. Judging from Jackson's deployment of interior players and his use of Harrison Barnes, he seems to be a very traditional coach, emphasizing high-altitude, low-post offense, but in fact, Jackson sometimes has the wildness of a mad scientist.
In the 2012-13 season, it was common for the Warriors to put three guards, when Stephen Curry, Jarrett Jack and Klay Thompson were often present. In the two rounds of the playoffs, three guards + Barnes + Bogut are the Warriors' longest-used lineup. Rotation time, Jackson used the death of three guards + Barnes + Green five small, this lineup in the 17 minutes of the game in the hundred rounds of 111.4 points, the attack has begun to emerge, but the defense is still underheated, 100 rounds of points conceded to 118.9 points.
In the first round of the 2013-14 playoffs, the Death Five of the Splash Brothers, Barnes, Iguodala and Green have appeared, and this lineup has played a terrifying efficiency of 125 points in 100 rounds in 32 minutes, including the third game, the Warriors once trailed by 18 points, but they relied on the death five small handicap to reverse.
Kerr has always said that he is standing on the shoulders of Jackson, a giant, which is self-effacing, but it is also a fact that Jackson laid the foundation for the Warriors not only in the defensive system, but also in the use of the five small lineups.
In 2014, Kerr took office as Warriors coach, and like former Jackson, he liked to use the inside combination of Bogut + Green, and replaced Bogut with Speights and Azeri in the rotation time. But at the crucial moment, Cole will pull out the death five of the Splash Brothers, Barnes, Iguodala and Green. In the 2014-15 regular season, the death five hundred rounds conceded only 88.5 points, and the performance on the defensive end was raised to a very high level, but the score per 100 rounds was only 104.5 points, and the offense was not as dominant as later.
The Finals played against the Cavaliers, and after the first three games, the Warriors trailed 1-2. In Game 4, the Warriors suddenly changed sides and replaced Bogut with Iguodala. The Warriors went straight to the point where they hit the pot with a five-point starter, and they equalized with a 103-82 win over the Cavaliers, followed by two consecutive wins. In the playoffs, the Warriors lost 109.2 points in five small rounds and conceded 93.3 points.
Cole's change received a lot of praise, but Cole personally admitted that he did not propose the change, but the video analyst Yurren, who was only 28 years old at the time. Yurren was inspired by the 2014 Finals, when the Spurs suddenly changed sides in Game 3, removing center Split and replacing him with Dior, with the Spurs winning three games in a row to win the championship against the Heat.
The Warriors Death Five Small 1.0 version ended the historical mission with a championship, a record of 73 wins, Barnes left, Durant joined, and the Warriors Death Five upgraded to version 2.0. After that, the thing is history, Durant made up for the Warriors' last shortcoming, his indiscriminate singles, excellent defensive ability to make Hampton five small sweeps the league to achieve two consecutive championships.
Death Five Small Version 3.0
In the 2019 Finals, the Warriors experienced an incomparably tragic series, and the injuries of Thompson and Durant made Hampton Five fail to achieve three consecutive championships. In the next two seasons, the Warriors missed the playoffs for two consecutive years due to Durant's departure and curry and Thompson's injuries.
The uneven Warriors simply can't form a new Death Five, and in the 2020-21 season, Kerr has taken out the five small ones of Curry, Green, Bazemore, Wiggins, Juan Toscano Anderson, but the effect is not good. Poole developed the league to perform well after returning from training, but Kerr didn't trust him to play five in the backcourt with Curry.
But this season, Poole has made great strides, averaging 18.5 points per game plus four assists, shooting 44.8 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from three-point range and 92.5 percent from the free throw line, all career-highs. Wiggins played the first all-star of his career and entered the starting lineup, and the healthy Green finally returned to full blood to become the pillar of the Warriors' defensive end again, coupled with Thompson's return to continuous improvement, Kerr once again has the confidence to play five small.
In the regular season, because of the injuries of Curry and Green, the Warriors could not pose the death of Curry, Poole, Thompson, Wiggins and Green. But in some games, the Warriors tried the three-guard tactics of Poole, Curry and Thompson, and in 129 minutes, the Warriors beat their opponents by 96 points and scored 121.7 points per 100 possessions. Curry returned in the playoffs, and the Warriors began to sacrifice the Death Five Small 3.0 version.
"We actually did it all year, but it wasn't until the playoffs that it came to fruition," Kerr said.
In the first game of the series with the Nuggets, when the Warriors trailed by 3 points, Kerr posed as a death five, and the Warriors won by 14 points in 5 minutes to turn the situation around. In the second game, in the last six minutes of the first half, the Warriors played a 22-8 attack wave to establish the advantage.
The Warriors' new version of the Death Five no longer has Iguodala's figure, but Poole replaced Iguodala to fill the Warriors' offensive space, and the Warriors put up 4 space points on the court, and these 4 people averaged 13.1 three-pointers per game in the regular season. Playing the Nuggets in the first round, the lineup played 39 minutes and scored 141.2 points per 100 rounds.
The new version of the Death Five works, and another big reason is the super high value of Green's defensive end, he is one of the few insides who can limit Jokic one-on-one. Of the 15 defenders who defended Jokic for at least 75 rounds this season, only Wendel Carter and Sabonis Jr. have done better than Green in restricting Jokic. Green's height and tonnage are not as good as Jokic's, but he can block Jokic out of the box and force him to make a difficult shot.
"Green's value is irreplaceable," Curry said, "and if he can limit the opponent as much as possible on the defensive end, we can play the conversion offense." ”
In Game 4 and Game 5 of the series against the Nuggets, the Warriors' death five-little performance was actually not good. However, the strength of the Warriors lies in the fact that they can adjust the death five according to the situation and come up with a mutated version. If forward height is required, the Warriors will replace Poole with Otto Porter or Iguodala, at which point the Warriors are playing a double guard + three forwards. If defensive ability against the ball is required, the Warriors will replace Poole or Curry with Payton Jr. The Warriors ended game 5 of the Nuggets, and Payton played an important role in both of the Warriors' small lineups that had the advantage.
The second round of the Grizzlies will be tested
The Warriors' new version of the Death Five small offense is indeed strong, but compared with the previous two generations, this set of five small heights and defense is a hidden danger. In the Western Conference semifinals, the Warriors will play against the Grizzlies, and the weaknesses of this lineup may be exploited by opponents, which is a great test for Kerr's platooning ability.
The Warriors' first two generations of five small lineups are good at infinite change of defense, and only Curry is a relative defensive weakness of the five players on the court, but the Warriors can hide Curry's defensive weakness as much as possible by tacit rotation. But the new version of the five smaller Pooler's defensive weaknesses, Thompson's defense has not yet found its peak state, encountering the Grizzlies, Wiggins is likely to go to the opposite Morant, Dillon Brooks, one of Bain will definitely face a certain defensive weakness of the Warriors.
Judging from the series of games against the Nuggets, the Warriors have insufficient confidence in the infinite change of defense, their proportion of changes is only 22%, and from 2017 to 2019, the warriors have changed defenses to 36%, and even Curry admitted that they will worry about the problem of alignment.
In the series between the Warriors and the Grizzlies, the Warriors' highest Bjelica is likely to not be able to enter the rotation due to speed problems. If the Warriors play five small, their highest on the court, Porter and Cuminga, are only 2.03 meters, Poole is only 1.93 meters, and Curry is only 1.88 meters. Compared with the Grizzlies, the Warriors are seriously downwind, Jackson Jr. and Adams are both 2.11 meters tall, Tillman and Clark are both 2.03 meters, Brooks are 2.01 meters, and Bain is 1.96 meters.
The Grizzlies are a team that advocates rushing to grab offensive rebounds and play second offense, and they have averaged the number of offensive rebounds per game and the second offensive scoring per game this season. In addition, the Grizzlies are also ranked first in the league with an average of 17.7 points per game. If the Warriors want to advance to the Western Conference Finals, they must first withstand the Grizzlies' rush and speed, which requires them to do a good job of rebounding and scrambling, reducing unnecessary mistakes.
In the words of ESPN expert Pelton, the Warriors' series with the Grizzlies, as long as the Warriors' three guards are on the floor, their offense can collapse the Grizzlies defense, but what really determines the Warriors' prospects will be the defense, which is also the biggest difference between the Warriors' new version of the five and the first two versions.
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