The Warriors played the Nets away, and the process of winning was far less than expected. The difficulty of the game comes from the warriors themselves. The regular season was a long run, and after a few back-to-back road trips, the Warriors were tired after 48 hours of overtime in Atlanta. But their eventual victory sent a positive signal that the Warriors were finally on the right track.
Getting on track is done through the update iteration of the main attacker. In the past three weeks, the Warriors' number one main attacker has not been Curry, but Jonathan Kuminga. How does the status of the main attacker appear on the court? First, when the opening game is full of physical strength, a team's main tactical routine. The second is to pass, after a timeout of a key ball, a team chooses who to give the ball to. The Warriors' main tactical coordination at the beginning of the game changed from "post split" to create shooting opportunities for the Splash Brothers in the low post to "head tap" Kuminga's main offensive tactics in the low post, and "flip", through Curry to Kuminga to cover and help the latter create opportunities to break through and score. In terms of handling key balls, the Warriors have also prioritized Kuminga's air cut and back-to-back singles in these games, rather than Curry's shooter tactics.
Kuminga was blown by the referee to 6 fouls in the last game against the Hawks, breaking the scoring record of 8 consecutive "20+" games. But today he scored 28 points on 9-of-18 shooting and became the number one contributor to the Warriors' victory. Throughout the second half, the Warriors went from falling behind, to tying, and finally playing a wave of attacking climaxes to close the game, everything was related to Kuminga.
In the first offensive round of the third quarter, Kuminga used Curry's cover to dunk Claxton with the ball, blowing the horn of the Warriors' counterattack. In the second offensive round of the third quarter, Kuminga and Klay cooperated with each other, and the two defenders of the Nets pounced to pinch Klay, and Kuminga easily cut into the air to close the gap to 2 points. At 8 minutes and 57 seconds in the third quarter, Curry covered Kuminga again, the Nets changed defenses, Kuminga went directly from the free throw line, stabbed Bridges to the basket, carried Bridges to the basket, scored a tough two points, and led the Warriors to erase the point difference.
In the last round of the third quarter, Kuminga showed the attributes of offense and defense, he first helped defend, blocked Thomas's layup, and then picked up the rebound, all the way to the opponent's restricted area, causing foul kills. After making both free throws, the Warriors went into the fourth quarter with a five-point lead. At 11:34 in the fourth quarter, Kuminga beat Bridges in the low post and hit a two-point jumper to give the Warriors' lead to eight points and completely dominate the game.
The above pictures intuitively reflect the tactical thinking of the Warriors: the shooter creates a one-to-one space for Kuminga through covering and running, and Kuminga, who has the ball and space, directly opens up, using perverted physical talent to overturn everything in front of him. The Warriors relied on Kuminga to open up, won two of the three away games, and relied on Kuminga to dig out today's tough battle under fatigue. This is enough to show that the way Kuminga shows off his muscles is the strongest form of the Warriors at the moment.
After more than half a season of exploration, the Warriors' strongest form has finally been found, but the question is, how long can the Warriors last in their strongest form, and how many games can they win? The entire game against the Hawks the day before yesterday and the first half of today's game with the Nets all reflect that there are still great hidden dangers in the Warriors' current style of play.
Playing the Hawks and playing the Nets, the Warriors have a common problem during their struggles: Kuminga is no longer moving. First of all, the two teams coincidentally adopted a similar defensive arrangement for Kuminga, that is, when Kuming's blessing broke through, three people stood in a line at the free throw line, using the advantage of numbers to resist Kuminga's impact. A similar defensive set-up was the highest courtesy that an Eastern team had ever shown against Antetokounmpo, and now they are blessing Kuminga with the highest courtesy. Kuminga, who can't break through, will expose many technical shortcomings, he will walk, he will drop the ball, and he will make mistakes. This stuck the offensive ceiling of the Warriors' system.
It's also worth noting that in two games in a row, Kuminga couldn't keep the center out of position. The Warriors now focus on "intimidating basketball", and the center is usually not only the core of the defense, but also the largest and most intimidating player on a team. In the process of hard encounter, the warriors have to smash the hardest link of the opponent, and this new set of tactical play has a real ceiling. But the reality is that Kuminga, as the Warriors' top player, was first sanctioned by Capela in two consecutive games, and then repeatedly deflated here in Claxton today, and even faced Cameron Johnson, who was slightly sized and defensive, Kuminga couldn't move. Now is the honeymoon period for the Warriors' transformation, once the honeymoon period is over, and the major opponents all start to defend Kuminga, form a human wall at the free throw line, and use the center to make mistakes, will the Warriors still be able to win?
The day Kuminga was able to knock out the rim center was the day he was in charge, symbolizing the change of the banner of the Warriors era. But until that day comes, Kuminga still needs Curry's protection and support. This season, especially the last game against the Hawks, has shown one thing very well: Curry can't win the game just by holding the ball and throwing three points. Once Curry shoots the basketball, the Warriors will be chased by opponents and counterattacked, and in the fast-break environment, the Warriors are limited by mediocre talent, short size and poor rim defense, and they will always lose the game. That's why, on the night when Curry threw in 10 three-pointers and slashed 60 points, the Warriors still allowed the Hawks to score 18 points on the fast break and 72 points on the inside, and the probability of the Warriors winning is extremely low.
The best way to stop a fast break counterattack is to throw the ball into the basket so that the counterattack can't be pushed at all. Ensuring the success rate of positional offense, low post backs and ball-carrying rim priorities will always be higher than three-point shots. That's why, Curry's number one main attacker, was replaced by Kuminga in these games, and only when Kuminga rested or was sent off by the referee did the offensive dominance return to Curry's hands.
Kuminga needs the shooter's containment, the shooter's help him open up space, and the shooter's help him shoot to solve the trouble of protecting the rim center. In this regard, Curry is top-notch, he uses diligent running combined with a huge shooting threat, while disrupting the defense, creating space for Kuminga, and at critical moments, he can also shoot three-pointers with a single ball, training the center while making the difference between winning and losing the game. In fact, not only Curry, but Klay Thompson not only couldn't shoot three-pointers, but also supported Kuminga in two games. The Splash Brothers and Kuminga teamed up to show the warrior's fangs.
The problem now is that the Warriors have and only Kuminga in the whole team who can scare people, and there are only two Splash Brothers, who are the shooters with containment. The Splash Brothers are old, and after fighting the double-overtime game with the Lakers, Thompson has not recovered after more than a week, and Curry has finished the overtime game with the Hawks, which is visibly sluggish to the naked eye. Kuminga doesn't have the help of a shooter, he can't solve all the problems alone, this is the hidden danger of the Warriors, the trade deadline is approaching, hurry up and solve the hidden danger.