WarriorsWorld is providing an unbiased series of posts while watching and reporting on Jarrett Jack, and only Jarrett Jack, on both ends of the floor for the entire Western Conference Semifinals. This installment covers Game 3 in Oakland.

Jarrett Jack Watch: Game #1
Jarrett Jack Watch: Game #2

During the regular season, Jarrett Jack oftentimes led the Warriors to a victory on nights when Steph Curry and Klay Thompson had off nights. Friday night at Oracle was one of those Curry/Klay off nights, but Jack did not step up.

It was the second average game in a row for Jack, who continued to try to get his teammates involved. Unfortunately, his teammates were missing good shots. Jack finished with just one assist in 34 minutes, but easily could have had at least six.

He had one bad turnover late in the game, but it’s questionable if the Warriors even had a chance at that point – down 7 with the ball and 45 seconds left. Regardless, that turnover ended any chance the Warriors may have had.

Here’s Jack’s quarterly rundown.

First Quarter:

A fairly non-impactful quarter for Jack. He checks in and plays the final four minutes. The Warriors go from up 21-16 to down 21-28. It was no fault of Jack’s, but the offense became stagnant as Diaw and Parker hit buckets to keep the Warriors out of transition. Jack ran a half-court offense featuring Curry and Klay coming off screens. Jack ran the offense well, but guys couldn’t hit shots, including a miss of his own. He made a difficult pass that Draymond had trouble catching, giving Jack one turnover in the quarter. A difficult one-legged corner jumper went in for Jack at the buzzer but the ball was still in his hand as the clock hit zero. No points.

Spurs lead 32-23 after one.

Second Quarter:

Jack plays the entire second quarter and helps keep things even with the Spurs, shooting 4-of-8 FG with one FT for a 9-point quarter.

The Warriors cut the lead to four with Jack running point. He gets back to the driving-and-kicking that was successful in Game 2 and helps set up some baskets.

Jack mainly guarded Leonard and Neal during the quarter as Parker went off on Curry and Klay. Parker did score on Jack once, missing a three but getting the offensive rebound on Jack who, instead of blocking out Parker, chose to get in position to receive the outlet pass to start the break. Parker his the open jumper off his offensive rebound.

Solid quarter for Jack. Not much activity on the defensive end, but hit some big buckets – including a three-point play that cut the lead to three with 1:16 left (48-51). His four misses were all good looks and he had zero turnovers in the quarter.

Third Quarter:

Checks in a few minutes earlier than normal, coming in for Klay at the 6:34 mark with the Warriors down three (62-65).

Running point, Jack zips a crisp chest pass to Curry, who comes off a screen and drains a 3-pointer to tie the game. Jack continues to do a nice job facilitating, but his teammates aren’t hitting the open looks. Jack doesn’t take one shot in over six minutes during the quarter and had one assist. If guys hit open shots, he has six assists. The missed shots and turnovers lead to an 11-0 run for the Spurs (65-76).

Again, not much defensive activity at all for Jack in the quarter.

Spurs lead 79-69.

Fourth Quarter:

Jack plays nearly the entire fourth quarter, taking just three shots and missing two (including a three) with no assists, one turnover and one steal. Curry gets just two shots in the quarter, missing both. Klay shoots 2-of-8.

Jack runs the point and keeps the ball moving well as the Warriors start the quarter on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 79-78 at the 10:06 mark.

The Warriors lose momentum as they miss open looks and the Spurs intentionally foul Bogut, who misses 3-of-4 FTs. It’s 90-79 with 5:39 left to play.

Then Curry hurts his ankle. But Jack comes up with a pull-up jumper to keep the Warriors in it, down 83-91 with 4:27 to go.

On the nest possession, San Antonio ends up inbounding on the baseline. Jack and Barnes switch after a Parker/Leonard screen. Jack picks up Leonard under the basket and Leonard spins on Jack nicely to get in front of him, receives the inbounds pass and hits a tough layup with Jack trailing. 83-93.

Jack drives and gets Curry an open look at a 3-pointer, but Curry continues to struggle and misses.

Down 93-88 after Parker misses two FTs, Jack brings the ball up and the play develops slowly. Landry comes up top to set a screen for Jack while the other three Warriors all stand and watch. The Spurs play it perfectly and Jack has nowhere to go and no one to pass to. He keeps dribbling and gets another screen from Landry as the shot clock runs down. Duncan plays great defense on Jack, who loses the ball, gets it back and has to force up a 3-pointer. Airball. Bad shot, bad possession. But you can’t blame all that on Jack. With Curry hobbling and Klay gone cold, Mark Jackson didn’t have many options. But he should have had a better play than the Landry/Jack pick-and-roll against one of the greatest defenders in NBA history.

After a Spurs miss, the Warriors get the ball back down 7 with under a minute to go. Though it’s not much of one, there is still a chance. It quickly goes away on a bone-headed move by Jack. He brings the ball up in transition and pulls up for the jumper on Danny Green. In mid-air, he changes his mind, doesn’t shoot, sees Landry cutting in the lane and fires an off-target pass that’s stolen by Manu with 47 seconds left.

Ballgame.

This turnover didn’t cost the Warriors the game, but it cost them a chance to get back in the game. If they score there, they are down by either 4 or 5 points with 30-40 seconds left and the Spurs in possession. It’s still a long shot, but Jack ruined the chance to have that chance.

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It’s one thing for a defense to cede mid-range jumpers.  It’s another entirely to steadfastly do so when there is a better option at hand.

The Warriors ranked 13th in defensive efficiency this season, allowing 102.6 points per 100 possessions.  That’s not an elite number but it’s not a bad one, either, and considering Andrew Bogut’s prolonged absence for much of the regular season it’s one that’s certainly encouraging for the team’s defensive future.  Several factors were key in Golden State’s major improvement on this end, but much of it is owed to their new, wholly consistent strategy in defending pick-and-rolls.

Instead of hedging hard to cut off the ballhandler or even taking a more cautious line of direct approach, the big man guarding the screener sits back around the free throw line as the guard chases the dribbler over the top of the pick.  The result is an open pocket of space that seems like a great opportunity for the offense, until you remember the inefficient nature of long two-point jumpers.

The Warriors goaded opponents into the 12th-most mid-range jumpshots of any team during the regular season.  More importantly and impressively, the opposition made just 37.9% of those attempts against Golden State, a mark that ranks sixth-best in the NBA.

Force two-point jumpers? Check.  Force teams to miss them? Double check.  But that’s a strategy better served against some than others, and Mark Jackson’s refusal to altar his team’s pick-and-roll coverage haunted his team from time to time over the course of the season.  And in the playoffs, as teams hone in on the other’s potential weakness and explore opportunities otherwise untenable, it makes sense that would happen again.

We saw it against Denver in the first round to some extent, as Ty Lawson consistently had a full head of steam coming around the pick to attack the paint with aplomb.  And we saw it in last night’s first half, too, albeit to greater frustration and effect.

Tony Parker scored 25 points on 11-14 from the field in game 3′s first 24 minutes.  Here’s his shot-char

Parker absolutely feasted on the left side of the floor in the first half of game 3, receiving high screens from Tim Duncan and simply taking what Golden State’s defense is designed to give him.  Against some players and on some occasions that’s a win, but not all two-point jumpshots are created equal.

Parker is one of the game’s truly elite offensive forces.  The best way to limit his effectiveness is to keep the ball out of his hands altogether, but that’s far easier said than done.  He’s always been a devastating finisher in the paint, and over recent seasons he’s developed one of basketball’s most reliable off-dribble jumpers, too; Parker shot a stellar 48.4% on shots from 15-19 feet this season despite nearly 80% of those makes coming without an assist.  The one area in which he’s far from elite is as a three-point shooter.  Parker made an above-average 35.3% from beyond the arc in 2012-2013, but attempted merely 68 shots from that distance all season long.  Clearly, coaxing him into three-point attempts  is the far lesser offensive evil.

But that mattered not to Golden State last night, even as Parker nailed jumper after jumper coming left around a high screen.  Klay Thompson and Steph Curry exclusively – and stubbornly, from a coaching perspective – maintained the status quo of chasing him over the top of the pick throughout the first half.

Why? Going behind Duncan and forcing Parker to burn you from deep is the smarter play in this instance even if it’s not against the majority of the league’s point guards.  The Warriors need to pick and choose when facing a player of Parker’s talent, but instead they stuck to their middling bread-and-butter defensive style.  And predictably, it burned them.

This season’s history says it’s too late to expect a major adjustment here from Golden State going forward; Jackson hasn’t altared his defensive plans in such a drastic manner all year long.  But the playoffs are a different animal, one rooted in games within the game won by changes made throughout a series.  For the sake of the Warriors chances against Parker and San Antonio, let’s hope he makes them in game 4.

Statistical support for this piece provided by NBA.com.

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Postgame quotes after Game 3:

Greg Popovich: We made shots and they didn’t have as good a night shooting the ball. Sometimes it’s as simple as that. There’s other factors, you think about turnovers, blah, blah, blah. But we shot it and they didn’t.

Mark Jackson: This is a make-or-miss league. That’s all. If we don’t play our brand of basketball we are not good enough to just win.

Klay Thompson: Collectively, we didn’t shoot as good as we did in the first two games.

The Warriors first three games (respectively) this series in shot chart form:

For a team built primarily around shooting the basketball, can it be as simple as “make-or-miss” in relation to wins/losses with the Warriors?

Over-simplication is often short-sighted, but it holds true in this particular situation.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined to make 1,134 field goals this regulars season, which accounts for 36% of the team’s shots. The starting backcourt attempted 2,594 field goals out of a team total 6,841 (38% of team’s total shots).

The narrative these playoffs — and especially after Game 2 — was the outrageous shooting numbers (48% FG, 40% 3PT) and the complementary play between Curry and Thompson. If one was off, the other was on. It wasn’t so much that these two players can’t both be off at the same time, it just hadn’t happened yet. That was the worst case scenario, and one everyone thought would never come.

Friday night, we saw what happens when that scenario indeed happens.

Curry and Thompson combined to shoot 12-for-37 (32%) and the team only made six (out of 20 attempts) three pointers. There simply wasn’t that third consistent option out there on the floor.

Jarrett Jack — since David Lee’s injury at least — has tried to be this third option, and for the first half kept the Warriors at bay with four shots in the 2nd quarter before failing miserably in the second half (on both ends of the floor). Harrison Barnes was aggressive going to the basket but couldn’t find his range from outside the paint, Andrew Bogut was 5-for-9 but can’t be counted on for consistent production and Carl Landry was 4-for-4 on shots inside the circle but struggled to get anything going from the outside.

The lone bright spot from was from David Lee himself, who in three minutes looked to be very much the Lee of old on the offensive end. Lee said postgame he’s feeling better than he did in the Denver series, but that bar was set pretty low. Coach Jackson said he didn’t keep Lee in the game because he didn’t like the way Lee was running his last trip down in the 2nd quarter. Lee’s performance in Game 3 was nothing more than a tease, and it doesn’t sound like that will change as the series progresses.

The Warriors simply weren’t getting as many clean looks as they were in the previous two games, and credit the Spurs defense. Danny Green hounded Curry all night, allowing limited open shots and not giving him much room to initiate the offense all night. Thompson was shaded by Kawhi Leonard for a lot of Game 3 and he did a solid job of not giving Thompson enough space to get off clean looks. With that said, Thompson had his chances:

Thompson succeeded in the mid-range but struggled from inside the free throw line, a scary (and troubling) trend.

Murphy’s Law was in full effect Friday night: Warriors were hounded on defense, missing shots, Curry turned his left ankle and the Spurs reminded everyone why they’ve been the class of the NBA for years. The Warriors were outclassed in every facet Game 3. For the first time this postseason they showed their age and inexperience. It was a scary sight for fans, and for the Warriors to have any chance this series they need to muster up the same urgency they’ve played with this entire playoff run.

If there’s anything the Warriors have proved this entire season is their incredible poise and resiliency. Bouncing back from each loss these playoffs with a win, the Warriors are incredibly mature for their age. This youth showed in Game 3, but it’d be foolish to assume a repeat performance is all but certain come Game 4.

The focus must start on the defensive end, as numerous players stated after Game 3. Throwing different looks at Tony Parker (Bazemore?)  in Game 4 or simply putting hands up on jump shots will pay dividends, but consistent effort and focus will prove to be the Warriors biggest improvement from their loss Friday night.

Will the Warriors shoot a measly 39% from the field in Game 4? Will Curry and Thompson combine to shoot 32% again? Will the team shoot 32% from deep while only making six treys? Will Parker score 32 points (25 in the first half) again?

All signs point to nay, but on even shorter rest (12:30 PST) and with Curry hobbling, the signs aren’t as clear as they once were.

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Mark Jackson has his weaknesses, and his Warriors threatening to crash the Western Conference Finals.

By: Ragnar Carlson

Some questions get a bad rap. Here’s one: “Mark, there’s been some criticism of your strategy down the stretch in close games. Have you seen any of that, and if so what are your thoughts?”

Dead in the water. There is only one appropriate response to this sort of query, and Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson gave it this week:  ”I don’t care about any of that.” And why should he? Warriors owner Joe Lacob and GM Bob Myers should care, though, because the question addresses both Jackson’s strategy in these playoffs and the Warriors’ thinking about a possible contract extension. Which is to say: Is Mark Jackson is the right coach for this team? It’s not only a good question, it’s the most important one this franchise faces.

Let’s dispense with the fake shock about debating Jackson’s status as he leads his team into Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals.  This is a billion-dollar business. You can bet that among the people who will make the decision, the questions relevant to Jackson’s future with the Warriors – how long, and at what rate ­– are even now being fully entertained

The criticism of Mark Jackson breaks down something like this: his rotations and substitutions are often inscrutable, and he is slow to make proper in-game adjustments.   More experienced coaches have exploited these weaknesses to great effect throughout Jackson’s tenure.

Less empirical but more alarming is Jackson’s apparent obliviousness and evident imperviousness to these shortcomings. He shows little sign of a coach interested in learning anything. Which is to say, little interest in growing.

Growing, and pains

If that’s the case, it’s self-evident that Jackson will not be the right coach for this group for long, no matter his success to date. Jackson is a Hall of Fame point guard with an obvious players’ touch, but his players are developing every week, to say nothing of the season-to-season leaps ahead for players mostly well ahead of their primes: Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, Festus Ezeli – key contributors all – are still completing their rookie seasons. As they grow, will Jackson grow with them?  Will his message be the right one over the life of an extension that would run at least three years?  Will it even work in one?

This team may be stronger than its regular season record revealed, but even Jackson and his players have been clear that they are playing with house money: a theme in San Antonio this week was “we weren’t even supposed to be here.” Jackson himself said after the breathtaking Game 1 loss that it had been a “great game for us.” Not in itself, of course, but as a experience to growth through and learn from as his team learns how to win a championship.

This is Jackson’s great strength. His tremendous confidence extends to and rubs off on his players. In situations where the Warriors have no business competing, they do compete. And they win. We saw it when they went into Miami and Los Angeles early in the season and handled two very hot teams. We saw it again Wednesday night.

Jackson’s faith-based approach is less successful with observers. When he speaks to and about his team, the things Jackson says often seem at odds with, or at least not to have the ring of, truth. The “great game for us” remark seemed to confirm that the coach is too invested in his own bravado to recognize when things aren’t working. But Jackson doesn’t intend his words to be true. He wants them to become true.

Most of us use language to describe basketball. Jackson uses it to create basketball. It’s understood that nearly all coaches do this, but for Mark Jackson is the primary – it seems at times the only – vector of his coaching.

Is it enough?   

If only so that this essay can be dismissed out of hand, let’s explore the parallels between this unextended second-year coach and the greatest NBA chief of the modern era.

The similarities between Mark Jackson and Phil Jackson are obvious enough: Both are  players turned players’ coaches, leaders who find success by making teams and players believe they could be winners in situations where there had previously been only failure. Both are master communicators, and both employ public and private language to great strategic effect. On the flip side, both are viewed as relatively weak tacticians, even as lucky beneficiaries of extraordinary player talent. Jackson and Jackson wear different jewlery, but they are coaches in the same  mold.

One clear difference: To his Zen Master repertoire, Phil Jackson adds what is sometimes called “constructive controversy.” He dispenses hard truths in public and private, often calling out his own players  not just in practice, but in the media. He’s not above generating internal tension with a well-timed public slight of his own players. The theory is that growth occurs when we are uncomfortable.

Mark Jackson, from what we can tell, does none of this. By all accounts, his message to his players is that they are better than they believe themselves to be, that if they are willing to have faith in themselves and each other, anything is possible. The effect is a culture of belief that borders, at times, on the absurd. As Jackson strode into the interview room after Monday night’s crushing defeat, a reporter muttered, “here comes the bravado.”   Jackson delivered, touting his team’s performance, denying any connection to the near-total collapse his team suffered in Game 6 against Denver, promising better results.   It was a ridiculous performance, in some ways painful to watch. Then the Warriors went out Wednesday night and made it all true.

It’s working. Right?

The players Jackson has today – to a man – are much improved over the ones he started the year with. The team is in a playoff battle with a veteran championship team, one it is increasingly expected to win. Jackson deserves tremendous credit for helping them get here, as nearly every Warrior has repeatedly emphasized.

That said, they won’t be the same players next year that they are right now, either. What happens when this young team has grown up, when “you can do it” is nothing they don’t know? When “we’re all in this together” is all well and good but whatshisname keeps messing up the program. And come to think of it, you keep leaving him in there to do it. Coach.

Tight as these Warriors are, the weeds of dissent – the things that make repeating success so hard in any team sport – are already seeded.  They always are. Read closely some of the comments this week about the role of defense in the team’s success. Or about where the Warrior guards’ open shots are really coming from. About what gets covered in the press and what doesn’t. Winning brings fame and fortune, and there’s not always enough to go around. Golden State features a No. 1 overall pick, a stud center with a personality to match, as a supporting player. As recently as when he came back from injury in January, Andrew Bogut presented himself as the leader of this team. In May, he’s the same guy the Warriors traded for, the same guy he’s always been, and yet  he’s lucky to make the first paragraph. If that continues, it will become a problem. Believe it.

And yet every team has them. Mark Jackson makes tactical mistakes too often, but by any reasonable standard he has been masterful – masterful – for these Warriors, turning their broken franchise into a winning one and solving the problems of youth, inexperience and self-doubt.

On April 24, Mark Jackson called Curry and Thompson the best-shooting backcourt in basketball history and the sports world was aghast. On Thursday morning, ESPN hosts were putting the Warrior guards in the conversation with Michael Jordan and Steve Kerr, and Jackson was looking somewhat less the fool.

Jackson may have been late with his timeouts, and he was definitely slow to adjust his lineup to quell the Spurs late run in Game 1. Take that away from him. But two nights later, Jackson played three rookies a total of 85 minutes and won a playoff game in San Antonio. Give him that.

Time will catch up with Jackson eventually. His players are young and fresh and ready to believe, but they won’t be that way forever. Maybe not even another season, depending on how this magical ride ends. Because there’s a reason the story of Cinderella ends at the party: the next day, she’s not a chimney sweep anymore. No more daydreaming. She knows now. It’s her slipper. She will be queen.

That’s a different gig than being the prettiest girl at the ball. For one thing: a lot more people up in your business. For another: pressure.

Jackson himself is obviously up to that pressure. Are his players? We don’t know. Probably not yet. Most likely, like so many others before them, they will have to grow into it, and to do that they will need excellent coaching. As the Warriors mature, as they grow ever closer to the champions Jackson believes they can be, it’s likely that part of that coaching will have to be about hard truth.

But that’s tomorrow. Golden State is still at the ball, having the time of its life, and Mark Jackson is the one that brought them here. He doesn’t have to be the right coach for the imagined Warriors of the future. After all, he’s new here too. He gets to learn and grow too.   All Jackson has to do today is be the right coach for these players right now. As Golden State takes the floor for the first of two games in Oakland, it’s hard to see how anyone else fits.

Some good news for Warriors season ticket holders beyond just the W’s success so far this season and post-season.  Next year it might be possible to sell tickets to more than just Heat, Lakers, Celtics games.

After a rather convincing Warriors’ victory in game 2 down in San Antonio, the Spurs-Warriors series shifts back out west for games 3 and 4 to Oracle Arena in Oakland. The Oracle has provided Golden State with a tremendous home court advantage over the course of the season and is regularly touted as hosting one of the loudest, most raucous crowds in the NBA. During the regular season the Warriors were an impressive 28-13 at home and a mediocre 19-22 away from the friendly Oakland confines. The Warriors held serve at home in each of the first three games of the playoffs while taking on Denver, and managed to snag one win in Colorado in game two to become one of only four losses on the entire season at home for the Nuggets.

Behind the sharp shooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors have been able to stretch opposing defenses by forcing them to guard the perimeter while leaving gaps in the defense for the rest of the team to take advantage of. In addition to Curry’s ability to make teams pay by filling it up from outside, he also has the explosive ability to blow past opposing defenders, something the Spurs have found out all too quickly through two games. Curry has made Spurs’ starting point guard Tony Parker look his age while systematically abusing him on nearly every front on the offensive end. The Spurs experienced some success late in game 1 by putting a quicker, more athletic Kawhi Leonard on the sharpshooter, but were unable to replicate the success in game 2.

An additional opponent for the Spurs when the series comes back to Oakland is the aforementioned crowd, which fills up the Oracle on a nightly basis throughout the regular season, but particularly in the playoffs. The excitement in the Bay Area is even more palpable on the balance sheet as prices for Warriors tickets for the series have skyrocketed on the secondary market in comparison to the prices of tickets to the first two games in San Antonio.

The average price for Spurs tickets in San Antonio for the series is $163, while the Warriors’ average home ticket is an incredible $371. This is largely due in part to the high demand within the Oakland area for tickets to the game, but it is not entirely surprising when compared with the $309 average ticket for the first round series against Denver. The difference between the first and second round prices for these tickets is 20%.

Tickets for Game 3 of the series are going for an average of $384, with the lowest price available at $117. The tickets have increased in price by 26% over the past week. Game 4 is slightly more affordable for the average consumer as prices have decreased by 29% on the market and the average ticket is selling for $299 with the get-in price at a still respectable $112. With the series tied up at a game apiece, it is incredibly likely that the series will return to Oakland for Game 6, where tickets are already going for an amazing $442. The get-in price sits at $140 for these tickets and the price has actually decreased slightly by 8% over the past week.

Ticket prices will frequently represent a solid picture of how healthy a fan base’s support is, and Golden State’s prices are no different. The Bay Area is extremely excited about this team and this series, and with young guns like Curry and Thompson there is no reason they shouldn’t be. Not only does the Warriors’ future look bright, it appears that the future could be right now.

Another week of playoff action, another episode of the podcast! As the Spurs-Warriors series in full swing, we bring you three guests to get everyone ready for Game 3 and beyond.

In our first segment we welcome WarriorsWorld’s own Jesse Taylor as he discusses everything Jarrett Jack from Game’s 1 and 2. Jesse is doung a game-by-game analysis of Jack during the Spurs series.

We then welcome in former Warriors center and fan favorite Adonal Foyle as he talks the SA-GSW series, Stephen Curry, how the 2007 team compares to the 2013 team, the state of the center position in the NBA and more.

Lastly we welcome lifelong Warriors fan and rapper Mistah FAB to the show talking the atmopshere at Oracle Arena, the development of this current Warriors team, his officiating in the WarriorsWorld tournament and whether he’s changed his mind on the Monta Ellis-Andrew Bogut deal.

As always, you can listen to the podcast, subscribe and rate us on iTunes here.

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In Game 1, Curry hit a few 3s off Bogut screens, while Duncan stayed within the paint as though compelled by shock collar. As I wrote after Game 2, the Spurs switched up tactics and asked Timmy to venture far outside his usual rim-protecting defensive duties to contest Curry off of screens. At Warriors practice, I asked Curry if he was surprised to see Tim Duncan race out to challenge him on the perimeter.

“I wasn’t surprised, I knew they would make an adjustment. I shot the 3 ball well off the pick and roll, so I know they would try and take that shot away. And I’ve probably took more paint layups, floaters, close range shots than I’ve taken all year last night. I missed a lot of them, but I’ll try and keep working on finishing and make the right plays. Just trying to get in the paint and attack. We got like three or four offensive rebounds off of those possessions, because we were attacking the paint and drawing defenders, so, that’s good offense.”

In this video clip of three Curry drives, you can see just how easily he skates by Timmy. Even in the last drive, where Curry gets his shot swatted, Klay Thompson’s open for a corner 3 and Harrison Barnes is open for a lob dunk.

That’s fine and well, and Steph seems to be hurting the defense once his shot’s taken away. But I can’t help but wonder if this is part of a broader effort to turn Curry into a layup artist. Note these plays where Curry meets little resistance on the perimeter after his crossover…until he gets to the rim.

The weakness in Steph’s game, aside from his ankle, is his layup accuracy (Note: Those two weaknesses might be connected, as Curry’s layup percentage took a dive after the ankle injuries started up). On the season, Steph actually converted fewer than half his shots at the rim.

Keep in mind that the 49% figure includes a lot of open breakaway layups and plays where Curry was all alone at the hoop. A contested Curry shot at the rim is about as bad as Curry gets.

Now, Steph is probably making the correct choice in driving by Duncan on the perimeter. It’s almost like getting an uncontested gimme because Timmy isn’t there protect the hoop. But the plays where Curry is using his quickness advantage (Something he cited at practice) in driving by Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green? That just might be playing into Greg Popovich’s hands. It’s hard to tell when Steph is beating the defense into the lane versus getting funnelled  in that direction.

In general, the Spurs have done a great job in preventing Stephen Curry from getting clean looks above the arc, off the catch. Now they’re trying to remove his off-the-dribble opportunities. And Curry must negotiate a difficult balancing act of looking for his shot, and taking what the defense gives him.

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Game Info

• Tip Of: 7:30 PM PT
• Television: ESPN, SNET1 (Canada)

San Antonio Spurs Team Profile

• Offensive Efficiency: 108.6 (2^nd in NBA playoffs)
• Defensive Efficiency: 96.9 (tied for 3^rd in NBA playoffs)

Scope the Opposition: 48 Minutes of Hell.

Preview: The Golden State Warriors are in the proverbial driver’s seat. With their victory in Game 2 on the road over the San Antonio Spurs, they earned themselves a series split with the next two contests at Oracle Arena.

What may be puzzling for most fans outside of the Bay Area — author included — is the notion that Golden State has been the better team through two games.

The Dubs have been blowing out the Spurs early, only to find themselves struggle in the final period as the score tightens. San Antonio has simply executed far better down the stretch than Golden State.

But on the other end, there is a reason Mark Jackson’s troops have consistently managed double-digit leads in the first two games of the Western Conference Semifinals.

This might not be readily apparent to all, but the 2012-13 Warriors are what many always hoped the Phoenix Suns would become with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire in their heyday.

The Warriors are getting great guard play and stellar perimeter shooting as evidenced by their 40.7 percent 3-point conversion mark in the playoffs. The big wildcard though: defense.

Klay Thompson has played superb individual defense so far in the postseason. Jackson has called upon him to defend Ty Lawson and Tony Parker in consecutive rounds and he’s been up the to task.

The sharpshooter has contested Parker’s jumpers whenever possible, although that’s been difficult in this series because of the Warriors’ pick-and-roll coverage. Andrew Bogut typically retreats to the paint and concedes the Parker jumper around the elbows.

Where Golden State has really done damage is with the combination of both Bogut and Thompson at the rim. Indeed, Golden State’s starting shooting guard keeps funneling the Frenchman towards his defensive anchor where Parker has struggled converting at the basket.

During the regular season, the Spurs’ leading scorer converted 64.2 percent of his shots in the restricted area. However, that figure is down to 47.1 percent in the two playoff games against the Warriors according to NBA.com’s advanced stats tool.

The interior resistance combined with the misses from downtown partly explains why the Warriors are holding the Spurs to 104.3 points per 100 possessions. This is the same San Antonio team that produced 111 points per 100 possessions in their four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Warriors’ offense is getting much of the publicity so far in the postseason, but the effort on the other side of the ball has helped widen the scoring differential in both series.

The defense hasn’t been great, but anything between average and above average might suffice with an offense that consistently puts points on the board against their opponents.

Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them in the comments section or you can contact me by email at [email protected].

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