Look, I’m staggered. The Denver series at least made sense. The Nuggets were bad at defending 3s, the Warriors were great at shooting them. What happened was less an upset than a series that Golden State probably wins again if you run it back. In theory, this meant that a playoff matchup against the almighty Spurs would ruin everything. San Antonio gives up the 5th least 3-point attempts in basketball. Fun’s over, go home. A silver and black team’s about to remind Oakland of everything the Raiders aren’t.

It hasn’t been that simple, though. The Warriors are getting their 3s and the series is tied. For the vast majority of these 2 games, Golden State has led. And I’d say “Golden State has led comfortably,” except, Game 1 renders almost any lead less comfortable than a couch made from chicken wire.

What the hell is happening? Well, it would seem that the overall season stats didn’t take specific matchups into account. Within those matchups we spy something bizarre: San Antonio’s three best players are hurting them defensively.

Warriors are Weird

First, some thoughts on the Warriors. This is a weirdo team. They shot better than 40% from distance this season, all without the aid of regular dribble penetration. Unlike Miami, OKC, San Antonio, and New York, Golden State didn’t rely on a slasher or a 4-out (four 3-point shooters) approach to create these looks. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson tended to launch off floppy action sets, and transition opportunities. And yet, after the All-Star break, Curry and Thompson combined to hit more 3-pointers per game than 10 teams. If Steph and Klay were a franchise unto themselves, they’d be tied with the Bulls at 19th for most 3s after the All-Star break. Two guys. The duo needs little room and uses little conscience when letting it fly.

So, some of the 3-stopping principles San Antonio used prior to this might not be applicable. Take Stephen Curry. Most smart defenses are used to worrying about easy catch-and-shoot 3s. The problem is that Curry, he whose dribble evokes the cocking of a shotgun, is quite comfortable firing off the bounce.

The Duncan Adjustment

This is connected to San Antonio’s Tim Duncan issue. In his prime, Duncan hedged masterfully when defending the high screen and roll. Few big men were better when flashing out to scare guards above the 3-point line. He doesn’t quite have that mobility now, and the Spurs adjusted for it recently. Duncan now sinks back around the paint on screens, much like Andrew Bogut does for Golden State. That’s fine against a lot of teams, but it’s death when facing Stephen Curry. He just dribbles around Bogut’s screen and makes the net dance.

This is what happened in Game 1 and San Antonio decided to tinker with plans in Game 2. The result was that Duncan waddled up high and Curry knocked a 3 over him anyway. Later in the game, Duncan approached and Curry drove right past. Duncan is still a plus player, and forcing Curry to drive is still the right call (Curry did have a mediocre Game 2), but does San Antonio really want Timmy running around, expending even more energy while playing heavy minutes?

Where to Park Parker?

The Duncan issue is minor compared to the Parker issue, though. There’s no safe place for him to hide on defense, really. I don’t believe TP to be a poor defender, but here’s where we get into how Golden State is weird and how they goofy foot your defense. Parker’s skill is quickness and strength, which is great for stopping dribble penetration. Too bad that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are far more interested in just shooting over the top of him. So much of this series so far reminds me of the Indiana Jones “Sword vs. Gun” scene. The Warriors are very, “Why sweat when you can just pull a trigger?”

In Klay’s case, he’s recently developed a knack for posting on smaller guards. I hated when the Warriors started doing this, but Thompson is surprisingly effective at taking fadeaways over guys like Mo Williams. Leave it to Golden State to make a commonly bad process into a good one in the specific.

Since Parker can’t hide on Thompson (as Game 1 showed), he’s getting put on the even larger Harrison Barnes. I’m fine with this strategy from a San Antonio perspective…until they send help and the 3-point defense breaks down. Also, the other problem with this tactic is that creaky Manu Ginobili then finds himself marking the frenetic, peripatetic Klay Thompson off the ball. Poor Manu got burnt to ashes in the second quarter of Game 2. Thompson, by the way, had himself quite a night in going 8-of-9 from deep with 34 points. Even more staggering: His facial expression never changed.

Klay Thompson also brings the added benefit of causing Tony Parker problems on offense. With his size and span, Klay is the prototypical Parker-marker, and so far, he’s quelling San Antonio’s best offensive player. When you step back from this series, it’s mildly hilarious that a Thompson-Parker crossmatch is a disadvantage for San Antonio.

Shooting: Unleash the Threast

It’s also mildly hilarious that the Golden State Warriors are playing this well against the San Antonio Spurs, just on the face of things. It’s funny, but there is sense to be made from it. There’s much talk of, “HOW ARE THE WARRIORS SHOOTING LIKE THIS,” even though this is, largely, how the Warriors shoot. Golden State averaged a shade over 40% from deep this year. In the playoffs, they’ve shot a shade over 40% from deep. Against the Spurs, it’s crept up to 41.5% from distance. Hello East Coast, hello national viewers. This is how the Warriors splash.

The difference is that they’re shooting more from deep than ever. Over the season Golden State tried 19.9 3-pointers per game; In the playoffs, they’ve attempted 24.9.

Remember, the Warriors were shooting a magnificent regular season percentage while not operating with a lot of space. When Lee went down, GSW went small, spread the floor and unleashed The Threast. The result was George Karl accepting his Coach of the Year award while looking glum. The result was a road win in San Antonio. The result was Golden State beating eight Las Vegas spreads in a row.

Is it sustainable? Over the long haul next season, probably. Within this series, who knows? Also, the Spurs missed a lot of open 3s on Wednesday night. Brace yourself for those falling soon. And get hyped for the East Oakland Madhouse on Friday night.

Stephen Curry is not a “kid” 

One digression regarding this sudden national media coverage of the Warriors: Stephen Curry is not a “kid.” I keep hearing him referred to this way, even though Steph has a wife, a child, and a four year track record in the NBA. While I understand that he looks quite young, the dude’s older than Kevin Durant. While I understand that average sports fan stopped thinking about him after Davidson, Stephen Curry did indeed age in those intervening years. I know, because I wrote about a lot of bad things that happened in those years. Really bad things. Things like Keith Smart benching Stephen Curry for Acie Law a lot. Let us celebrate Curry’s tooth-and-claw rise from the muck, for once.

Dwarf Quarter

The Warriors shrunk again in the 4th quarter, nearly (again) squandering a big lead. In the series, they’re shooting 30.6% from the field in the final stanza. Some of this is standard regression (You can’t shoot wonderfully all the time), and some of it is just poor execution. I believe that Golden State has hurt themselves by slowing down towards the end and trying to exert control  over possessions. Maybe it’s tough to stay loose and liable to launch in the nervy moments, but the Warriors could stand to try it. My heart can only take so many Jarrett Jack isolations.

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To be clear, I do not expect Golden State to win this series. I never did. That much hasn’t changed, but I have noticed some things that at the very least, make me less pessimistic.

Yesterday, Henry Abbott asked if I was more or less inspired by the notion that Golden State could win this series. I responded “No,” because it’s better to get the win than to play well. Upon review, however, there are more reasons for inspiration than there were prior to that crushing Game 1 giveaway–two, specifically.

Klay Thompson does a good job on Tony Parker

As Andrew McNeil pointed out, Tony Parker is an awkward fit in this series, early on . He can’t guard Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson can easily shoot over him. Not only that, but Thompson did a fantastic job bothering Parker, right up until the point where Klay fouled out, and Parker got loose. Tony was 4-of-15 at the Thompson foul out; He finished 11-of-26. Perhaps TP will figure out a way to play better against the second year wing, but if “Klay mutes Parker” is real, it has real implications for the series. The Spurs are carried by their collective approach, but they still need Parker’s slashing and scoring to function. When he’s played poorly, San Antonio’s lost playoff series.

Tim Duncan does a poor job on Stephen Curry

This was the strangest subplot of Game 1: The Spurs did so much better after an ailing Tim Duncan trudged off the court. Latter career Timmy hedges less above the three-point line on pick and roll defense than ever before. Against many teams, this isn’t an issue.  Against the Warriors, this can be a giant problem. Most players can’t efficiently uncork three-pointers off the dribble, but with Stephen Curry, the bounce of his dribble evokes the cocking of a shotgun. If Tim Duncan keeps sinking back towards the paint when Curry’s defender gets screened, the Warriors will have plenty of open above-the-break 3s for their star.

So there you go, San Antonio’s two best players offer two big reasons for optimism. Of course, Golden State’s porous three-point defense might negatively outweigh those advantages, but we’ll just have to see.

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Did the Warriors win an “upset” over perception, or did they actually beat a better team? After watching the series and reflecting upon it, I’d conclude that Golden State was only a nominal underdog, not an actual one. The Warriors sans David Lee should beat the Gallo-less Nuggets. Were this series played out again, I’d pick the Warriors to take it 60%-70% of the time.

Forgive me for dwelling on the past as we’re supposed to immediately start previewing Spurs-Dubs. It’s just that Golden State’s first round victory continues to interest me, continues to place me in the homerish position of defending GSW’s status as rightful winner. They beat six consecutive Vegas spreads, with little market adjustment to how the series was unfolding. As Denver’s season lay in ruins, some observers blamed randomness for the destruction. I’ve had this argument on Twitter with a few people, and with Matt Moore of CBS, with whom I respectfully disagreed on the fortune factor. Golden State did not beat Denver on account of a shooting hot streak; Denver bequeathed a hot streak unto Golden State with typically absent perimeter defense.

The Denver Nuggets had a bad three-point defense all season (gave up the second most threes per game, right behind Charlotte) and the Warriors shoot the best percentage from downtown. Further helping Golden State’s cause, the Nuggets shoot poorly, bailing out GSW’s shaky, Denver-esque three-point defense. So Denver played to GSW’s strength and couldn’t take advantage of GSW’s weakness. Perhaps the Nuggets aren’t a worse team than the Warriors in terms of how they’d do against other playoff competition, but against Golden State? Yep, they’re fighting uphill.

In the first 4 games of the series, Curry “got loose” (George Karl’s term) for many an open three. That much is well documented, and it was expected by anyone who’d watched both teams closely  this season. Denver’s point guards are complete liabilities against three-point shooters. Ty Lawson’s too short to contest shots, and Andre Miller either can’t move or doesn’t bother.

What people couldn’t foresee was how Denver also ceded threes to the rookie duo of Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green. That Barnes shot well isn’t much of a shock. Green, on the other hand, surprised some people. While I’ll admit that Green’s 6-of-12 was anomalous given his .209 three-point shooting this year, he was also about as wide open as you’d expect a .209 three-point shooter to be. That’s fine and well, the Nuggets aren’t obligated to cover a shooter with his track record. The problem was that they guarded Harrison Barnes as though he was Draymond Green.

Harrison Barnes can actually hit an open three, and the Nuggets gave him a steady diet of them. Below, I’ve taken a snap shot of every three-pointer Barnes made this series, all 13 of them. The only time he faces anything close to a closeout is when the diminutive Ty Lawson takes a flail.

As Denver scattered to cover Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, players like Barnes and Draymond Green got just this open. With David Lee out, GSW spread the floor 4-out, ratcheting up their total three-point attempts to 24.5 per game from their regular season average of 19.9, while still hitting 40% of the tries. The stretched (and often trapping) Denver D also opened up easy opportunities for dump-offs to Andrew Bogut, who shot 63.2% in the series.

I understand how people can point to the final shooting results as inherently flukey. Barnes shot 40.6% from three! Green shot 50%! What luck! But merely citing the number is to act as though the defense played is meaningless–as though you’re allowed to barely try and claim “variance” when the shots fall. On nearly all their made threes, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green were facing what might as well have been a high school defense. In Green’s case, he was open for a reason. You can defend the lack of defending, while also pointing out that Denver gave Draymond every opportunity to find the stroke that eluded him this season. In Barnes’ case, Denver was just spotting points to Golden State. Harrison faced a decent close-out on 4 of his 32 three-point attempts. The rest were essentially nationally televised shooting practice. Even a rookie will put up numbers if you neglect to guard him at all.

Even an average regular season team will beat a great one if the conditions are right. The Nuggets were a prototypical regular season performer, between the altitude advantage, depth, and pace that caught unprepared teams off-guard. In the playoffs, teams better acclimate to the altitude, and depth matters less. Subjectively, Denver was hurt by a lack of offensive structure (Karl’s style is more improvisational) and yes, the lack of a star who forces consistent strategic concessions over a series.

On a certain level, it is shocking to watch a 57-win team lose to a 47-win team. Chalking it all up to luck is to learn the wrong lesson, though. The lesson is that the regular season doesn’t tell us all we need to know about the postseason. It can greatly inform our expectations–for instance, I expect San Antonio to easily handle Golden State based on what both teams have done this year. The information is useful, but a total reliance on aggregate record and point differential is simplistic. Teams aren’t the same over the course of a season. They go through lulls, players get injured, new strategies are tinkered with. Stars play less, scrubs play more. There are a myriad of factors that explain why it’s foolish to base all expectations on record and point differential. So, coming off a series in which the “underdog” had the best player and best big man, we should probably question our process just a bit.

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The Warriors are not better without David Lee, but Lee’s injury may have caused them to stumble upon a way to get better. Confused? Well, allow me to un-bewilder.

As we have discussed in these parts, playing Harrison Barnes at the 4 is the fun future we should all embrace. In this series, such a tactic can pay off wonderfully because Denver lacks large power forwards who’ll kill Barnes’ defense. Against, say, the Clippers, Barnes at power forward might not work so well. When the opponent is trotting Wilson Chandler out there in a big man role? Yep, there’s your small ball opening.

Fresh off the road win, some are already questioning whether the team is better off, sans DL (Doesn’t Twitter make for a convenient straw man, by the way?). The short retort to that opinion is, “Does Lee have a better replacement?” Carl Landry is essentially a more offensively limited David Lee. You could sell me on Lee’s replacement exceeding his output if said replacement is a defensive stalwart. Instead, Lee and Landry are more or less similar in terms of defensive effectiveness, and Lee is certainly a better offensive player.

Back to Barnes, who had the game of his life within a new, ad-hoc, spread-floor GSW approach. Harrison has a loose handle for a perimeter player, so when the space around him shrinks, so does his willingness and ability to attack. Playing him at power forward spreads the opposing defense thinner, allowing more space for Barnes to blast off towards the rim. Note the lack of interior resistance as Barnes blows by Anthony Randolph (Also note how Ezeli wisely walls Faried out of the picture).

It’s not just Barnes who can prosper with more room on the floor. As Darius Soriano pointed out, the Warriors as a team were incredibly offensively efficient in the time they used that Curry-Jack-Klay-Barnes-Bogut lineup. Jarrett Jack found some late success getting to the rim, in part due to the increased scope of space:

The stretched floor also helped the Warriors can 14 three-pointers, with quite a few coming in transition. More options on the perimeter can mean more defensive confusion as the pace quickens. Check how the Denver defense breaks as the Warriors swing the ball.

Barnes-at-the-4 is necessity as-mother-of-invention, and a wholly positive development for Golden State going forward. It bodes well for their chances in this particular long series, and should make them a better team as Harrison develops. What it does not do, is make David Lee expendable. To engage in some cross sports analogy, say a fastball pitcher develops a changeup and the latter pitch is flummoxing a certain kind of hitter. Success against that hitter doesn’t obviate the need for a fastball against others.

Lee is a huge, helpful part of GSW’s base offense. It just so happens that this offense, like many offenses, is well suited to going smaller against certain defenses. And Denver just might be the kind of team that’s ill suited to handling Golden State’s 4-out approach.

Stuff

• Holy hell, Andrew Bogut’s been incredible. I’m not sure how he’s conjuring this sudden mobility, but Bogut’s stymying many a driving Denver player’s plans. Dude creates more chaos in the paint than Jackson Pollock.
• There’s a lot of “nobody thought we could win this!” talk out and about. A) The series is far from over and B) Plenty of people thought the Warriors could win this series. Just because the ESPN experts panel unanimously picked against GSW doesn’t mean these experts thought a Warriors victory impossible. Stephen Curry’s the best shooter alive but if I guessed “miss” whenever he shot, I’d be right most of the time. Does that mean I’m shocked whenever Steph hits a three-pointer? Far from it. There’s a wide gulf between “Nobody picked us to win” and “Nobody thought we could win.”

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David Lee is out for the playoffs with a torn right hip flexor. This brings doom, gloom, and a potential 4-game broom.

In a vacuum, the injury is awful news for an already thin team. There is opportunity in destruction, however. Something may be gained by GSW resorting to guerilla tactics.

Mark Jackson has been averse to using a small frontcourt. I don’t have many criticisms of Jackson, but this is one of them. On account of his size and athleticism, Harrison Barnes should be a prototypical stretch four. That hasn’t happened yet, even though the Warriors might reap rewards from spreading the floor with four three-point shooters.

Not only can Barnes help Golden State’s offense by allowing it to stretch the opposing D, but such a strategy can help Barnes individually. The rookie is an explosive leaper, though his first step is slow. If GSW operates with more space, that should spring Barnes for layups and dunks. The four-out (four three-point shooters) often makes the average player look magnificent, as guys tend to flourish with more space.

The key would be playing Harrison alongside Andrew Bogut, so the Warriors can compensate for a small power forward with Bogut’s shotblocking and board work. That’s a lot of pressure to put on the big fella, but he might benefit from playing next to a faster defender. The small forward slot can be filled by Klay Thompson whenever Jarrett Jack is in the game.

It’s far from an ideal solution, as Barnes is a rookie, and not quite used to playing power forward. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The Warriors are not going to win this series by merely being less of themselves. They must shake the snow globe up, change the terrain. It’s not enough for everyone to “step up” in David Lee’s absence. The Warriors must wholly alter their offensive constitution. To avoid going out in four, Golden State must go four-out.

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Something happened in the Portland game, and it was glorious. We see it every so often, but not as often as we could or should. It’s a reminder of a dormant quality, one that might propel the Warriors to new heights. Witness David Lee grabbing a board and conducting the break like a maestro.

See how confused the opposing bigs are, soak in how amusing that fan’s Carl Landry flex celebration is. She’s roaring like a grizzly in a salmon farm, I’d bet. Behold, the power of Golden State’s weird fastbreak.

Lee played a lot of point guard growing up and it shows. He passes well for his position, dribbles well for his position, but only has so many opportunities to demonstrate either skill. The Warriors big man is at his best, creatively, when combining those qualities of passing and dribbling. It’s as though the quickened pace of a dribble-drive heightens his vision and imagination. When the Warriors offense is humming, you’re liable to see Lee get the pick-and-roll pass from Curry, drive towards the hoop, and skip it past the closing defender to Bogut or Landry.

That’s an important feature of GSW’s offense, but it would be nice to see them optimize David Lee’s oddly complete offensive skillset. While he doesn’t look like your typical floor general, Lee’s demonstrated a facility with directing open court offense. So he’s a power forward? So what? Positions are for suckers.

The advantage of Lee pushing the break a la Charles Barkley isn’t just the novelty of seeing it. Defenses get confused when a big man acts like a little one. When those defenses play the Warriors, they’re often keyed on preventing Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson from sinking transition 3′s, with the assumption that the former will bring up the ball. Lee on the loose is a good way to spill ink on their defensive blueprints, and force improvisation.

There’s also good precedent for this kind of effective whimsy. I asked current ESPN Insider, bitter frienemy, and former Phoenix Suns employee Amin Elhassan about Lee’s fastbreak potential. Amin responded:

“In Phoenix, Mike D’Antoni allowed Boris Diaw the freedom to push the ball up the floor after defensive rebounds and make plays in the open court, rather than the traditional practice of outletting the ball to a guard. D’Antoni recognized Diaw’s vision, ballhandling and passing ability in these ‘bust out’ situations, and how the team was able to take advantage of the unorthodox attack of a power forward handling against an unsettled defense.”

Golden State can do the same off the eight or so defensive rebounds David Lee snags. Right now, the Warriors are going to be an underdog against any playoff opponent they face. To win a series, something dramatic or drastic has to occur. They still have a trick up their sleeve, and it has the potential to turn a round against a shaky defensive unit like the Nuggets or Clippers. It’s time for the Warriors to bust out and get weird with David Lee’s abilities.

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When I went on Steve Berman’s podcast, Steve mentioned our reflexive reluctance to discuss positive Steph Curry developments. Smart guy, that Steve. This is a true observation, when it comes to discussing the oft-injured, oft-great Stephen Curry. There is a pervasive, superstitious sense that a Curry compliment might be so strong as to bend his ankle into an “L” that presages many an “L” in the standings.

As we were reminded on Saturday night, Steph Curry’s capricious ankle is always primed to ruin good times. His ankle hangs over Warriors fandom like the Sword of Damocles, and if that ankle actually did swing from Oracle’s rafters by a string, it’d only be a little less connected to his foot than in its current state.

But that perpetual concern has blotted out a lot of analysis. So much of the Curry conversation is “if healthy” that it distracts from what he tangibly does when healthy. Because, while the Curry ankle situation remains, the earth has shifted beneath it. Consider what’s happened since Golden State’s point guard shut it down last season.

• Steph signs the deal: Curry ends speculation that he might flee (to Charlotte of all places), signs a 4-year, $44 million contract. Not only is the contract quite Warriors-friendly, but it transforms Curry’s situation from “he’s on the team for now” to “building block.”
• Steph plays big minutes: Unlike Keith Smart, Mark Jackson proves quite content to play Stephen Curry 38 MPG, even after Curry makes mistakes. Curry garners greater national acclaim on account of having larger raw numbers, and he makes fewer mistakes.
• Steph gets All-Star consideration: This might have something to do with the aforementioned boost in minutes. While Curry misses the All-Star cut, he’s also widely viewed as a snub. Curry didn’t deserve to make the game over any of the selected guards, but he probably should have made it over a few of the forwards (including teammate David Lee).
• Steph scores 54 points at MSG: Arrival, announced. Not only does Curry hit the Knicks up for 54 points and 11/13 on three-pointers, he does so on national TV. He scores 50 points in the final three, thrilling quarters.

So yes, the dynamics have shifted, even if the ankle remains shifty. Even if the biggest improvement Curry made was simply turning the ball over less.

Stephen Curry currently leads the NBA in three point attempts. Stephen Curry currently leads the league in three-point percentage. Those two sentences shouldn’t go together. In fact, no player has pulled this off ever before. The best three-point shooters are often specialists, standing in the corner till a wide open shot finds their hands. Curry is flinging these tries off the dribble, from 30-feet away, and in transition.

The paradoxical nature of Curry’s game is that he’s a subpar athlete who can easily create his own shot. Normally, we associate one’s ability to self create with elite athleticism. Quickness and power leads to separation or penetration. Steph circumvents this by being a fast draw with a good handle. He hits shots with uncommon accuracy, with a release that eludes closeouts. You wouldn’t think to compare Stephen Curry to Dirk Nowiztki, but I would. Both unleash the ball in a way that defenders can’t thwart. Dirk relies on shot height to do it, and Curry relies on shot speed. Even Anthony Davis can’t block it with a well-timed closeout.

Most three-point attempts. Most accurate from three-point range. This is why all those who obsessed over whether Steph was a “true” point guard were missing the point. The Warriors have a unique weapon on their hands, one that defenses send help to stop. Instead of obsessing over how Steph Curry must pass some holy test of point guard purity, we should be asking after how the Warriors plan to build around this.

Because, if healthy, Golden State finally has somebody worth building around. He looks a bit frail. He missed a lot of layups early in the season. His ankle is a skin-shrouded slinky. The last time he tried to dunk, the result was comedic. But he’s a top-20 player today with the talent to be top-10. This is the year Stephen Curry became a star.

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Stephen Curry revealed that one of Golden State’s favorite plays is actually a pretty cool metaphor. As Jacob Frankel has demonstrated, the Dubs like to run Stephen Curry between two teammates at the free throw line. His teammates close up after Curry squirts through, thus creating a siamese twin double-pick for Curry’s above-the-break 3. GSW ran this action in their win against Detroit, and while it resulted in one of Curry’s few misses, the process was on point. That process, as Curry calls it, is “The Elevator.”

Blair Witch Shaky Cam With Bad Sound Quality Curry Question of The Night: 

“The Elevator,” besides evoking memories of an underrated Eminem song, also serves as a macro metaphor for GSW’s current situation. They’re racing to snag a playoff spot, hoping that the doors close in front of either Utah, Los Angeles, or Houston. Sometimes these situations just sports writer cliche themselves.

If Golden State pulls off their first playoff appearance since back when Baron Davis was skinny, it will be in large part due to actions like this one. GSW lacks a penetrator, or anyone who can draw fouls in bunches. They rely on the long ball and the space created by that three-point threat. But creating three-point opportunities isn’t as simple as merely jacking up shots. The Warriors have managed a top-10 offense in part because they prod and poke defenses with plenty of off-the-ball screenage like we see with “The Elevator.”

After the game, I asked Mark Jackson if he enjoyed designing such an offense. His focus was more on the functional than personal:

“You have to utilize the strengths and try to hide the weaknesses of players. One thing those guys are incredible at is moving without the basketball, moving off of floppy, or motion-offense, catch-and-shoot knock-down shooters. So I try to utilize that to the best of our abilities and make that weapons.”

This is probably connected to what Mark Jackson means when he says that Golden State “isn’t Miami or OKC.” The Warriors lack a superstar who can create offense by brute force. Instead, they must pick their spots and optimize. On the balance, the approach has been working this season. The Warriors Panic Button remains unpressed for now and so long as they stay at least two games above the 9th seed.

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