The rematch before and after the Lakers Warriors All-Star ended in a less unexpected way. It will take time for Curry to return, Payton's reinforcement cannot be cashed, Wiggins has not returned from leave, and there is no letter when he will return. The Warriors' current level of men and horses is here, and the Lakers who can't beat the reinforcement are also a normal result.
James didn't play well, 5-of-20 with a true shooting percentage of 31.1%, but his ability to play still had a chain reaction that forced Cole to adjust his starting lineup, take Looney down, and take Kuminga against James. This is a clear violation of Cole's previous promise that he "will not try to start with a small lineup."
Compared with the previous two months, which was a good response performance, Kuminga, who missed all three points in the first four shots today, was a bit of a hole in the offensive end. In turn, Looney's performance of consecutive rebounds in the transition and continued with a second offense can be described as a rare glimmer in the Warriors' fiasco. The natural question is, why does Cole play small lineup again, and why not use Looney more?
It's still the warriors' unbeatable employment circle.
Cole's defensive use of Dreams is usually only used against a center or a low-play striker/wing. This makes it easier for him to appear in the assistant defense position. Only when the counterpoint is really upside down, he will use the dream to lead the defensive points, such as against Durant and Jaylen Brown. Since Wiggins didn't play, the only option the Warriors could choose against James was Kuminga, so Kerr wanted to take him as a starter. And because Kuminga + Dream + Looney space is too poor, so the starter is not Looney. Without Wiggins, or Wiggins out of form, the Warriors have to sacrifice one in space and position, and this is not the first time we have seen it, and it will continue to be seen for some time after.
No matter how the Warriors start, the outcome won't change much. The All-Star has played two games before and after, and the Lakers have been successful in defense against the Warriors, mainly based on three principles:
First, the thick eyebrows squat deep pit, near the three-second area of large-scale empty chasing dreams;
The second is to prevent the ball from covering the outside cut to catch the ball, moderately give the inside cut, and hand over the cut player to the thick eyebrows;
Third, the non-center participation in the anti-ball round is mainly to change defenses to ensure that they are not disgraced.
In addition to these three principles, the Lakers also work hard to interfere with shots from behind when they are over. In a battle, the referee caught the cover foul strictly, and the Warriors made at least 4 mistakes. The rematch was slightly relaxed, but there were also reasons why the Warriors were relatively cautious in covering.
These contents are superimposed together, pointing to the result that the warrior's pass cutting system is completely prevented, once the pass cut is scrapped, the blocking hand can not attract the pinch, the dream chasing attack is also wasted, the classic arc top standing guard reappeared, his offensive problem is actually bigger than others.
In addition to the point of chasing dreams being let go, the Lakers are also completely disrespectful to the shots of several other Warriors forwards, not only Kuminga, but also Lamb and Jagreen, who together shot 2-of-13 three-point reports. Poor forward response was a big reason the game was spent early, and it happened to be the weakest link in the Warriors' configuration — in this case, Kerr still didn't try Baldwin's courage.
The Lakers' defense grasped the point and targeted it extremely successfully, which is something that needs to be emphasized in addition to the configuration upgrade.
Of course, according to fan tradition, the reason for losing is to find out from Poole. Poole's main problem is that it is not urgent. The third quarter was typical, with a few of Poole's blocks that could have slowed down after entering the three-point line, keeping an eye on the position of the cover man and playing some more Warrior coordination. For example, this breakthrough in the crack has completely destroyed the upper line defense, and he did not need hard steel thick eyebrows, he could have given follow-up support to Chase Dream, or assigned to DiVincenzo, who was 45° on the opposite side.
Another example is the emergency stop and forward throwing after this blocking, highlighting a "fear of wolves before fear of tigers". He was obviously wary of Bamba's size and impressed by the Lakers' two games from behind, so he made such a difficult choice. In terms of time, there is still time for Looney, and Bamba may not be able to block Looney's submissive confrontation. In addition, both of these Lakers were very strong from behind, and with Poole's foul-making skills, he could have taken advantage of them.
Poole doesn't slow down to play, it's not a two-day problem, so I'm skeptical that the theoretical optimal solution makes sense for him. But if the Warriors game — including the last time the two teams met — can effectively tear apart the Lakers' defense, Poole's blocking is certainly one of them. At the end of the second quarter, Poole's offensive wave narrowed the gap to 3 points, and the starting style was all blocking, and he used Curry's usual punishment for squatting in this way:
Looney and Dream made cross-cover with each other, James changed defenses wrong, Poole used this gap to break through Schroeder, Chasing Dream was a little slow down to delay the thick eyebrow basket, Poole made a layup;
Looney cut the bottom line empty, chasing dreams on the line as cover, Poole dribbled abruptly retreated to the three-point line to score;
Chasing Dream, Looney double cover, eyebrow Zhan double squat, Poole three points.
During this period, the shooters who opened up space in the bottom corner of the Warriors had strong containment (Tangshen, DiVincenzo), so that Poole's operation did not introduce additional defense, and the pressure in the middle was relatively small. Ball carriers can dribble the ball and make their own decisions depending on the situation, use cover to be more flexible, and can change direction to create hand space. Most importantly, without the receiving process, there will be no embarrassment of being forced to change positions or even offensive plans for the catch.
What does this mean?
This is the difference between the blocking and cutting system. Blocking can rely on the individual ability of the ball carrier to make some adjustments and decisions, and the pass needs to be wrong in the opponent's defense and needs to be solid in cover. But the Lakers don't make much mistakes, and focus on the outside cutting of the shooter, and the thick eyebrows let go of the dream-chasing/Looney wiping the butt behind him, making it very difficult to run, and a large number of rounds ended with low-quality shooters three-pointers, or the main shooter's adjusted and twisted body shots. It is impossible to win by fighting like this.
The Warriors' passing system often ran into trouble in the high-end innings. Generally speaking, the opponents who can cause problems for passing are generally changing defensive teams. It is rare for a center to crouch inside and make the Warriors uncomfortable. But not without precedent, such as last year's playoffs, the Warriors met Adams' version of the Momo Bear, and there was a situation where Adams could not be effectively punished. There are two reasons for this:
Before the Finals, although the playoffs were misplaced and played well, the stability of Curry's use of cover to directly hit the squat pit that season fluctuated greatly, and the Celtics also caught up with Curry's extreme pullback in the squat pit;
Cover foul is a risk that is not easy to avoid and difficult to control. If a cover foul is blown early in the game, subsequent enforcement will be affected somewhat.
The Warriors' last way to break the game was G6 Tang, and Tang played the role that responded to the big center's failure. And Bane, who is chasing Tang God, the biggest regret in life is his arm span, not giving Tang God too much interference from behind cover - this is why, in these two games, I have repeatedly praised the performance of the Lakers' defense interference behind him, in fact, the Lakers do not have talented outside defensive players, but the degree of effort is impressive.
So, can the Warriors break the Lakers' defensive strategy?
Yes, there are two ways:
Poole scored some block-and-shoot shots, requiring him to create shooting space by dribbling in the process;
Tang Shen relied on his height to score some difficult three-point points that did not completely get rid of the defense.
The case can be referred to the game in which the Blazers beat the Lakers not long ago - Lillard and Simmons' three-point shooting eruption. But with the stability of the Warriors' current backcourt duo, it's really hard to win this way. After a fight, Poole made do with it, and Tang Shen fought poorly. In the rematch, Poole only played a good quarter, and Tang Shen barely counted the half. Only with Curry, and Curry's state is OK, can the Warriors ensure the reliability of this style of play, and then force the Lakers to adjust their strategy, and other points may survive.
The Lakers are all soldiers, James personally did not perform well, the thick eyebrows offensive presence is not high, but everyone else has their own contribution. Beasley showed his compatibility with the Lakers, and Reeves continued his "Mr. Right" performance, playing the Warriors' two offensive and defensive games, making the right decisions while efficiently finishing and making fouls after physical contact in the impressive breakaway.
But objectively speaking, the Lakers and Warriors have met in the last two matches, only in terms of positional offense, just as the Lakers prevent the Warriors from constipation, the Warriors can not be said to be bad for the Lakers. It's a quagmire battle. The second-time Warriors used Jerome heavily for offensive reasons - there is no problem with using Jerome in this lot, the Warriors development scene is too ugly, and the most capable player on the team is probably Jerome - even if garbage time is removed, he and Poole play at the same time for an extremely long time. In other words, the Warriors are actually using a very small lineup to protect the attack, and the defensive size can no longer be taken care of.
What really broke the Warriors by the Lakers was the fast offense. In the past, we remembered that the Warriors were a fast-attacking team, and they were not afraid to play the line with constipation. In fact, the Warriors are no longer this style, and their ability to propulsion and counterattack finish have been downgraded too much. In turn, the Lakers' advantage in fast attack has been firmly grasped. Fight constipation, warriors are very unfavorable. That's probably why, Cole would rather sacrifice his size to keep the ball spot.
The Warriors didn't ignore the environment, and the constipation bureau was hard to solve. After repeated offensive setbacks, the Warriors had Kuminga and Townsy play two low posts in the second quarter, and in the game against the Wizards, Wiggins also punished the backcourt and flank in the low position. For the Warriors, this method is rare and inefficient, but when the pass cutting system that relies heavily on passing, running, and blocking fails, this kind of "picking" method is still an indispensable adjustment to stabilize the hearts of the military, after all, you can't always count on Looney's frontcourt rebounds.
Against different opponents, the Warriors showed different problems. You can't stop playing the Clippers, and you can't attack the Lakers. When resources are too tight, entangled in who to use or who not to use, in the final analysis, it is just a story of tearing down the eastern wall to make up for the western wall, which is always unsatisfactory. The Lakers' experience over the past two years is a mirror, when you have serious flaws in the configuration, with a bunch of undefensive shooters, or with a bunch of small ones with only athletic ability, the result is just a slightly different posture for losing, and the fundamental problem will be placed motionless. Only when you have enough good players in hand and the configuration is improved, many problems will be solved.
After the Lakers have fought two "rich battles", everyone will understand that how to hire people is far less important than there are people available.