preface
From pre-game contempt, to disapproval in the first game, and not until the end of the second game, Warriors fans may not realize that this Kings team really didn't get to No. 3 in the West by luck. Compared to the anxiety of the Warriors losing by 3 points in the first game, the second half of the second game was more like a one-sided victory by the Kings. The Golden State Warriors also trailed 2-0 in the playoffs for the first time since Kerr coached.
In the second tense and exciting matchup, the Warriors lost by eight points. Although Kerr put Wiggins back in the starting lineup early and lifted his playing time limit, it was still difficult to stop the Kings Monk, Fox and Sabonis from causing trouble for the Warriors in the paint and outside. Kerr's problems with roster rotation adjustments in Game 2 against the Kings, as well as the Kings' ease of coping, were also pushed to the forefront with the Warriors' loss. Warrior News: Desperate! The king saw the trick, and Cole's adjustment was full of loopholes, which was very realistic!
The 20 turnovers are just a microcosm, and Kerr's 4-guard lineup is the key to losing, and Curry really tried his best
The Warriors really learned from the first game in Game 2, starting with Green's fluent attack with seven straight points in the first quarter, and the Warriors forced the Kings to make nine turnovers in the first quarter. However, the Warriors were unable to extend that advantage, and Kerr then used Wiggins+4 guards, and the Kings quickly reversed and established a double-digit lead. After the king controlled the rhythm of the game, he immediately adopted another targeted tactic.
The Warriors put a lot of their defensive focus on Sabonis on the court, and after achieving some results on the inside, they ignored the duo of Monk and Fox in the backcourt. In Game 2, Kerr used Wiggins to defend the Kings' backcourt for most of the time. It did keep the Kings from finding a way to conquer for a while, and the Warriors brought the game back to the same line.
However, Kings head coach Brown quickly changed his offensive approach, which was to increase Sabonis' presence on the court. Almost every attack of the King passes through Sabonis's hands, so that the weak defense of the Warriors' interior is perfectly exploited by the King in a short period of time. Sabonis forced the Warriors to pay a foul with a small hook and a turnaround layup in the bag against Green and Looney. Green received his fourth foul at the start of the second half, while the Warriors as a whole made five fouls in just over two minutes.
Looney then increased his personal foul count to a fifth, and then Rooney had to return to the court early after Green's vicinity against Sabonis. But Looney, who had five fouls, was useless on the floor, and Sabonis scored 24 points + 9 rebounds + 4 assists on 8-of-12 shooting in 40 minutes of playing time. The conflict between Green and Sabonis gave the Warriors a brief respite and helped the Warriors equalize the score.
The two sides also continued to start making mistakes, fouls, and becoming less efficient on the offensive end. After the timeout, the Kings once again adopted a defensive strategy against Curry, and on the offensive end, Fox and Monk continued to push fast offensive counterattacks. It can be said that every adjustment of Kerr's formation, when the team is just about to rise, the Kings can easily defuse and find the Warriors' weakness again.
It can't be ignored that the Warriors had a full 20 turnovers in Game 2, while the Kings had just 14 turnovers, nine of which came in the first quarter. This statistic is also a microcosm of the Warriors' entire game on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and the Kings seem to know every adjustment the Warriors make inside. But this is precisely because the Warriors are short on the personnel side, and Wiggins' return means that DiVincenzo will return from the starting lineup and play time will plummet.
As one of the few players in the Warriors who can take on the duties of point guard, DiVincenzo has shown irreplaceable role in Wiggins' absence. The well-known Poole has suffered an unprecedented slump this season, with his extremely inefficient offensive end unable to keep up with the Kings' Monk production. Defensive weakness was also frequently exploited by the Kings, which allowed Poole to get only 15 minutes of playing time. The Warriors are outside of Curry and lack players who can hold the ball.
Kerr had to adopt a 4-guard lineup several times to try to find a balance between offense and defense. Curry was under the Kings' high-pressure defense and shot just 3 of 13 from the outside. There's no denying that Curry is still the Warriors' best player, but Curry still has irritating turnovers at some point. Thompson scored 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting, and the numbers look very good, but from Thompson's offensive and defensive positions on the floor, it will give the outside world a feeling that he is not playing well.
Thompson's passivity on the offensive end and the decline in traverse speed on the defensive end make it difficult to step up and punish opponents with extraordinary offense and defense after Curry was targeted a few seasons ago. The Warriors' other major scorer, Wiggins' return has been mixed. Obviously, he was the Warriors' favorite to defend Fox, but Wiggins also made five fouls. In addition, Wiggins' repeated difficult and sudden out-of-the-minute jump shots on the offensive end, as well as stopping the ball too often, also hit the Kings.