Let's talk about this game in G3.
First of all, if I'm going to give the G2 to the Lakers fans, I also give it to the Warriors fans — that is, "don't put everything down to the penalty" — focusing only on the penalty will make you ignore the adjustments and game details that really affect the win.
In the last game, regardless of whether Lakers fans could do "not talk about penalties". But the Lakers players managed not to talk about penalties — in postgame interviews with Hamm, AD, LeBron, Hachimura, Russell, everyone said a lot about where they should improve, but none of them talked about Davis' second or third offenses.
Hamm said bluntly: "I don't want to evaluate the referee at all, I am paid to coach. ”
If you only focus on the penalty and ignore the reasons why the opponent really won - those adjustments, those detailed executions.
Then as a player, as a team, you may still lose even if the next penalty is favorable; And as a fan, if you only focus on the penalty, you will never understand the game and you can only be a "troll".
Let's talk about the game.
Before going into the formal analysis, I found it necessary to explain the "strategy adjustment" thing again.
In the last game, after I talked about the Warriors' strategy adjustment, I noticed that some Lakers fans and friends showed great despair - something like: "The Warriors' adjustment is so in place, so targeted, is the Lakers finished?" ”
Of course not.
First of all, in layman's terms, in the case that the two sides have their own advantages, the overall strength is close, and there are no extremely obvious shortcomings, the "strategy adjustment" itself is similar to guessing boxing - one thing descends one thing, and there are not as many psychological games as guessing, basically the last game of the other party out of the stone, this game out of our side - generally the adjustment party has the advantage.
Secondly, we said that in addition to the strategy game, the game also involves execution - the same tactical strategy, in some details of the difference in execution will also lead to different results - such as the subtle difference in defensive position, the difference in the emphasis of defense, the use of different defensive skills, the difference in aggression... The execution of many, many details will have an impact on the game.
Secondly, of course, there is also the impact of touch - I think the last offensive AD was that the impact of feel was greater than the impact of strategy. (This point was also written in the article, and he himself said: there is no difference between shooting and G1)
So when the opponent's adjustment is very effective, there is no need to panic.
The teams that can reach the second round and can be put into the championship group discussion naturally have a lot of resources and a lot of "backhand", and what we have to see is how they respond to the next game after a strategic defeat - this is another highlight of the game outside of the star's play.
(Of course, I will also try to add some space to the article for subsequent adjustment forecasts.) ）
Outline
The previous nonsense is a bit long, let's enter the analysis, or first outline the key arrangements and adjustments of both sides.
This time the Lakers are the "adjustment side" and put the Lakers in front.
Lakers
1. Change the starting position, Vanderbilt against Green, Reeves against Curry, Davis against Jay Mike Green, through the 1-4 position of direct defense to crack the Warriors G2 winning Curry, dream blocking, while allowing thick eyebrows to stay on the inside as much as possible.
(This is the adjustment that the Lakers really won this game, and it is also a defensive idea that we have been suggesting in front of and after the G2 game, which can be said to be called out for a thousand times.) ）
2. In the first half, two bridging segments, abandoning Gabriel and using Lonnie Walker to put a small lineup. It is hoped that the warriors will be limited by switching defenses while attacking at the other end.
(The effect is not ideal)
3. Davis adjusted his defensive position, reduced the delay, and paid more attention to the destruction of the Warriors' short-block dismantling passes; At the same time, the offensive end has added low-post ball holding tactics, and the tactics of receiving the ball near the paint area have also been richer.
warrior
1. The opening game continues Curry's more offensive style of holding the ball. (The effect is average)
2. After the Lakers changed the defense to crack the library and chase the block, change to the block between Curry and Jamie Green. (Same effect is average)
3. I don't know if the connection section "predicted" that the Lakers would become smaller, and I also adjusted a small lineup on my side, replacing Klay with Poole, and breaking the Lakers' defense through the speed advantage, and the effect was good.
4. In the second half, add singles and counter-run cuts, the former has a mediocre effect, the latter has a good effect.
Again, these adjustments are good and bad, and we will analyze them one by one.
What is the focus of victory and defeat?
Many Warriors fans may feel that the focus of this game is on Dream Green's foul — and I didn't say it didn't matter. But we need to figure out where these fouls come from? What is as important as these fouls?
To put it bluntly: the foul of the dream comes from Davis's stronger aggression (just as Davis's foul on the court comes from the Warriors' stronger aggression)
It's a matter of defense.
But the problem of defense is also related to offense.
Why is the Davis G2 not aggressive, this one aggressive?
In addition to his own decision to be more aggressive and the Lakers' tactical help, it is also related to the fact that he did not receive as much impact from G2 on the defensive end - Davis, who did not have a defensive foul, is naturally more aggressive than Davis, who has two or three offenses.
The Warriors failed to hit Davis as much as G2, but instead made 19 turnovers themselves — which is the real reason why the Warriors lost.
Next, let's take a detailed look at the Lakers' adjustments at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends:
Davis' offensive adjustments
Remember the last game, when the Lakers started six consecutive rounds with extremely low offensive participation?
This game the Lakers first started to change from this point: to activate Davis, if Davis wants to find the touch faster, they first need to let Davis touch the ball more:
The Lakers' first offense at the beginning of the game was initiated by Davis low - and the first two Davis low singles are rare. We previously said in the comments section that if the Warriors want to wrap, they must first force Davis to drop low - and in the last game, the Warriors did it.
So this round Davis fell low and singled itself, and the Warriors unsurprisingly caught the pinch, and Davis split Russell hit a three-pointer.
This is just the beginning.
In the next round, Davis again received the ball with his back low on the other side, this time choosing to turn around and attack the frame to be blown away.
It's okay, we're just letting everyone see the Lakers' offensive focus change — they're increasing Davis' offensive engagement, rather than just "dodging the game" like in the last game, knowing that the Warriors will be guarding the inside.
Then 9 minutes later, the Lakers tried to impact Green again:
This ball is actually a tactic for Russell, but with Russell already shooting two three-pointers, LeBron decisively chose to give Vanderbilt the basket after seeing Vanderbilt appear in the round - I'm not sure if this is the original tactical arrangement or a temporary intention, but LeBron has always paid attention to passing to shooters who feel hot, and Vanderbilt is not a player with a high success rate in attacking the frame - LeBron must know this.
Then his reasons for choosing this pass may also include that whether Vanderbilt can hit the frame in this round or not, when he does, there is a possibility that Green will be fouled.
After the G2 game, I think everyone agrees that Green's defense of AD and his and Curry's blocking are the key to the Warriors' victory - the Lakers naturally know this, so the best way to adjust, of course, is to impact Green, create his foul, and "knock Green" down.
Just like the Warrior G2 did with AD.
Van der Biao failed to cause a foul in this round, but we can see the Lakers' intentions.
Soon, Davis made another attempt to bring in a single Green from the outside, but was broken out of bounds by Green.
You can clearly feel that the Lakers are attacking the frame more frequently and in a more way than they were in the last game — and when you do it all the time, there's always a time when you get a good result.
It's a compound cover tactic, Reeves first makes a frontal cover with Davis, then goes low and then gives Russell a hand-to-hand cover - when the Lakers launch the first cover, we can see the Warriors piling up in the box like G2 to delay Davis' catch and attack path - but when Reeves came out to play the second cover, it caused confusion in the Warriors' defense, and Davis received the ball in a perfect position, causing Green's foul.
After the G2 match, Darwin Hamm said: "Green's defense is great, come up with more creative ways to get AD the ball. ”
We now see one of those "ideas".
There are others.
This is a thick eyebrow cut catch tactic that the Lakers have been using - Reeves did off-ball cover for Davis, Davis received the ball from the bottom line straight to the basket, and the G2 Warriors cracked the Lakers' tactic well through guard contraction, but this round the Lakers were different in execution: Reeves was tougher when doing cover, we didn't have a side perspective, but he should have used some small movements to slow down Green's squeeze through cover.
When Green is blocked, Curry can't stop AD, no matter how small the contraction is.
There may be a bit of a fluke in this round, but it's a good attempt to start — you always have to be tougher and look at the referee's scale today (which the Warriors are equally good at).
And after the success of this round, the Lakers immediately played this tactic again in the next round - but added some changes:
Or this bottom-corner no-ball cover tactic. Green increased the intensity and squeezed through cover this round, and the shrinking man was replaced by Wiggins, and the contraction was more in place - the Warriors must have thought they defended perfectly, but they were wrong.
James chose to pass first to Russell in the bottom corner, which Wiggins didn't seem to anticipate — he was too small. So he hurried to save, but was overtaken by Russell's inertia on the outside saving, and Green was forced to make up - AD at the bottom of the basket got another good catch to finish.
A small adjustment in detail can make the same tactics produce completely different effects under the same defensive style.
This is called "creativity".
Keep looking:
This is another "creative" tactic designed for AD - LeBron and AD roles are swapped, LeBron bursts into the basket to attract a pinch shot, AD stands at the top of the arc to "open up space" - with AD's three-point shooting percentage, of course, it can't open up space, but the Lakers' real intention is to let AD get an open space to rush inside.
Then we note that AD made excellent judgment this round - he saw Green standing up ready to make an offensive foul, so he passed to Vanderbilt who was dunking - and successfully caused Green's second foul.
The Lakers achieved their goal.
Let's add a few more Lakers' tactics for AD to end this chapter:
Thick eyebrows have added a lot of free throw lines and corner catches - the advantage of receiving the ball in this position is that you can directly attack the basket with a single dribble.
Like this round, Reeves made a counter-run cut, and Davis faked a false shot and directly forced Dream - causing Chase Dream to foul for the third time.
Still this tactic, the Lakers played the final attack of the half.
Chasing's fourth foul also came from this tactic - Davis received the ball at the free-throw line and dribbled to the frame.
My opinion is that instead of struggling with whether Davis has fouled Green in these two punches, the Warriors should consider more about how they defend the Lakers' style of play and how to prevent Davis from receiving the ball in this position.
Since G1, I've raised the issue of the Warriors' defensive catch — when you let Davis easily catch the ball in this position, the next thing that can only be interfered with through a strong body collision — and how you blow it depends entirely on the referee's scale today. (Either don't blow, blow it will be difficult to challenge success)
Warriors need to do better at what they can control than things they can't control, don't they?
For example, have you ever wondered why Davis dared to risk an offensive foul today and attack the basket so aggressively?
The Lakers' defensive alignment adjustments
In fact, while AD's offensive adjustments are equally critical, I think what the Lakers really win is their defensive alignment adjustments.
In the last game, we analyzed the key to the Warriors' victory: Curry held the ball more to block, Jay McGreen opened up space so that James could not shrink the defense.
So today's game, the point is that the Lakers need to crack these two points.
They took the last of our G2 review articles - change the alignment, Vanderbilt vs. Green, Reeves vs. Curry, Davis vs. Jay McGreen.
Let's take a look at the defensive effect:
Unsurprisingly, the Warriors continued their winning strategy in the previous game: Curry held the ball and launched a high block.
But the Lakers' alignment change paid off — when Curry and Green blocked, Vanderbilt only needed to switch defenses directly with Reeves.
This solves the problem that Vanderbilt and Reeves are both on cover for Curry and Thompson, and secondly, it can also keep Davis on the inside and force Curry to go one-on-one.
We can see how uncomfortable the Warriors are from the first offense - Green doesn't have the ability to attack misalignment, the Warriors wasted 10 seconds, and still had to let Curry play Vanderbilt one-on-one, and he forced his breakthrough through the Davis hat contracted inside.
Here is a little digression - the friends who follow my Weibo should know that I posted on Weibo before the start of this game that the Lakers can use Davis' defensive coverage area to take care of the bottom corner and the inside:
Keep watching the game.
Look at another option for the Warriors after the Lakers changed their alignment - there was no chance after the frontal change of defense, Green went down to give Jay Mike Green as a cover to shoot a bottom corner three-point shot - but it didn't work, Davis' defensive area could still be covered. That's what I said on Weibo.
If the Warriors hope to defeat the Lakers in this way, this is undoubtedly a fantasy and a favorite of the Lakers.
So the warriors quickly adjusted:
They quickly switched to Curry and Jay Mike Green and successfully made it 2+1.
Then there was Curry's chasing and dismantling - again cracked by the Lakers, Curry's ball burst deeper into a deeper position, trying to create opportunities for Jay Mike Green in the bottom corner - but still didn't work, Davis' defensive coverage was too large, and it instantly came to Jay McGreen, and then caused Green to step on the sideline out of bounds.
Again changed to Curry, Jay Mike Green blocked, dangled past AD, but Curry did not choose to attack the Lakers' contraction, but distributed the ball to Wiggins on the outside - Wiggins did not shoot resolutely, wasting an opportunity.
(I think the Warriors need to do better this round, let's see a few more rounds together)
Curry and Jay Mike Green blocked and used cover to make a three-point shot - note that the defensive position of this shot is different from the previous game, which is another adjustment for the Lakers.
Curry's offensive choices this round seem to be justified and have received good results? Let's take a look first.
Or the blocking of Curry and Jay Mike Green, this ball Curry went in, Davis simply completely empty Green - Green shot a big open three-point miss.
In fact, whether it goes in or not, this is a shot that the Lakers are "willing to accept" — if the Warriors want to win with such a shot, they first need Jay Mike Green to break the playoff three-point record — and he can't shoot too much, otherwise in the process, the Warriors will be killed by the Lakers counterattack caused by his missed shot.
Then Curry chose not to cover Reeves singles - this is also one of the solutions, after all, Reeves is better than Vanderbilt, but today Curry is not in the form of 50 nights, Reeves successfully prevented this shot.
After the Warriors transferred, the Lakers still took the No. 4 position to change defense - this time James prevented Curry's layup.
Have you found any problems in the above rounds?
Throughout the first quarter, Davis was almost uninvolved in the frame-guarding task, and the Warriors barely formed any impact on Davis - the Lakers successfully weakened the Warriors' offensive aggressiveness by inducing the Warriors to shoot on the outside through defense changes and weak delays.
You know, the Warriors limited Davis in G2, mainly by letting him get into foul trouble when guarding the frame, and when they can no longer do so, Davis has no foul pressure (even less defensive pressure), he can naturally make a bolder impact on the offensive end (without fear of offensive fouls).
And of course, Davis himself is making fine adjustments this time:
Looking at this round, after the Lakers changed defense, James was flown by Curry, Curry hit the inside - Davis is in front of Curry, but he can even be said to be "hiding from defense" this round - it is clear that he does not want Curry to cause himself a foul than to let Curry score two points.
There are also changes in defensive position:
Let's take a look at how the thick eyebrows were prevented from being dismantled in the last game.
Basically grabbed a position parallel to cover - what we call "strong delay".
And this one?
Obviously, Davis is staying under cover this time - that is, "weak delay". (Including Curry's first three points above, too)
Why did the Lakers dare to change like this?
On the one hand, in order to avoid the Lakers' 1-4 defense, the Warriors changed to let Jay McGreen serve as Curry's cover, and Jay McGreen's cover quality is not as good as Chasing Dreams, which makes the quality of the Lakers squeeze through cover interference shots become higher (so the Lakers dare to challenge the Warriors to shoot like this);
On the other hand, it is the lesser of two evils, Davis is delayed, the Warriors only have James shrinking to supplement the inside after hitting the ground pass, and the old Jame's age is no longer realistic to take care of the basket and the bottom corner, and the Lakers are more willing to let them shoot such a difficult shot than let the Warriors have a complete gap.
And, while the delay was weak, Davis paid more attention to the destruction of the Warriors' ground pass — after the last game, he said he noticed: "The Warriors aggressively defended pocket passes, narrowing the box to test our three points."
And this time, he returned the favor in another way, and also blocked the Warriors' ground passes many times, so that the Warriors could not get the opportunity to directly kill the basket.
And the loss of the G2 victory Kuchasing blocking, Klay, J Green also felt bad today, resulting in the Warriors' starter responding to the Lakers' defense today is extremely poor - the plus and minus values of Kutangchai's trio are -26, -23, -27, respectively, which can be seen.
If you can't kill Davis, you have to be killed by Davis - that's the status quo of this series.
With Green fouled on the other end, the Warriors completely collapsed, and the game lost its suspense in the third quarter.
(By the way, the Warriors also had a big problem in this series that they could not prevent Russell, and in this game, James shook a shot, and after going up and down with Wiggins in the third quarter, he suddenly signaled the coach to replace him, and then scored 6 consecutive points and a block, which was also the winner of the game.) ）
Next, we come up with ideas for the warriors and talk about what they should do.
What should the warriors do?
In fact, in my opinion, although the Lakers' No. 1-4 defense change in this game very well limits the lifeline of the Warriors: Curry - Chasing Dreams, but this defensive strategy is far from "invulnerable".
First, the most obvious problem with this defensive strategy — it relieved Davis of the pressure, but the pressure didn't go away — was just transferred to Austin Reeves.
Reeves is tired this time, really tired.
How can I see it?
The vacant seats are not stained by three points.
Fast attack dribbling can't get up fast, staggering.
The first free throw is made before the frame, upside down.
The second free throw before the frame.
The third free throw before the frame.
As a reminder, Reeves was a regular season free-throw shooting 86.4 percent — this time, he was clearly too tired to lift his hands.
Chasing Thompson in the first two games has exhausted Reeves enough, and now, the Lakers are asking him to chase Curry in the next 4 games?
You know, Curry doesn't just block with the ball, changing defenses doesn't really help Reeves much — his no-ball run is far from full in today's game — it's just that the Warriors haven't turned around in G2 mode in the first half.
And even then, Hamm had to start using Lonnie Walker to share some of the pressure on Reeves. (And Walker's rotation caused a lot of chain reactions, today I am also unhappy with the Lakers' rotation selection, which is considered a separate article tomorrow)
Let's go back to Reeves — the Warriors have so many ways to target Reeves.
For example, the no-ball anti-run cut they used in the second half:
Although these two Warriors focus on Curry's ball-carrying main offense, this does not mean that they must let Curry hold the ball - Reeves vs. Curry, Russell vs. Klay, these two sets of alignment itself has certain flaws, the Warriors in the second half of these two empty cuts, one easy to score, one to create a good opportunity but dunk.
We said that "strategy adjustment" is like guessing - the Lakers have adjusted their ball-holding mode, they just need to switch back to the original no-ball mode.
For example, they can change to let Wiggins and J Green block - nothing Wiggins thinks, just fly to the thick eyebrows after blocking, as long as they can succeed 1-2 times, they can have a major impact on the game - this time their main problem is that they are too superstitious about their three-point shooting. (Similarly, the job of killing the frame can also be done by Curry or even Poole and Klay)
Something like this:
Even, they may not need to do anything, and the Lakers' change of defense will collapse on its own - as we said above, Reeves' fitness is already reaching its limit. In this case, adding some front-mounted off-ball runs, or Jay McKegreen covering more solidly, can weaken the Lakers' squeeze cover defense shooting effect.
In addition, when Reeves' fitness gradually bottomed out, Curry playing him one-on-one may not be as untouchable as it is today. (Reeves' solo defense against Curry today is a bit surprisingly good)
They can also let Curry borrow a cover without the ball, first replace Vanderbilt back, and then launch a library chase like G2 - just one more step.
All in all, the Warriors still have very, very many "back hands" to take out.
The Lakers, it is far from the time to "breathe a sigh of relief".