Without Steph Curry to serve as its focal point, the Golden State Warriors’ offense is and has always been quite the adventure. But think about who they were up against, as well as who wasn’t present on the opposing side.
Two of the San Antonio Spurs’ finest players were absent from the game. With his developing defense skills in particular, Victor Wembanyama is becoming a player of a generation. After eliminating garbage time, the Spurs were rated 23rd defensively overall (118.7 defensive rating), according to Cleaning The Glass. This season, the defense’s rating drops to 124.6 in 2,762 possessions sans Wembanyama, which is equal to the lowest defense in the league.
Due to an ankle injury, Wembanyama was unable to play tonight. Devin Vassell, the Spurs’ greatest perimeter scorer and creator, was also out. The Spurs team had only 13 wins in 63 games and was without their two greatest players. The Warriors should have had enough quality on paper to defeat them even without Curry.
But as you’ve undoubtedly already discovered working with this team, reality rarely matches paper truths, and most of the time this is because of obstacles and challenges that you put in your own way.
Naturally, the biggest “obstruction” will always be the absence of the offensive engine, which is the offense’s lifeblood. Beyond that, though, I thought the Warriors did themselves no favors by failing to make an offensive statement early in the game.
Their game has always been to move the ball, move players around, and get the opposition to commit to one or more breaking points—with or without Curry. When Curry is on the court, the defense has an extremely difficult time stopping him; when he is not, the defense is forced to pick their poison, simplify their coverages, and accept some of the shots the Warriors attempt.
But once more, take into account the opposition, a squad that suffers greatly on defense in the absence of Wembanyama, who, according to Cleaning The Glass, elevates the Spurs from the poorest defensive unit in the league to the level of the ninth-ranked defense. Even with their primary engine out of commission, the Warriors’ backup pieces were undoubtedly sufficient to identify those weak spots on a defensively challenged squad.
However, that proved to be a more difficult challenge than anticipated, and it’s possible that the starting lineup selection had some influence on that.
I can see why Trayce Jackson-Davis was started; his goal was to capitalize on Chris Paul’s complementary skills with ballscreen moves. It also made sense for Draymond Green to go to the four, though it’s unclear how well he fits with Paul because of their disparate offensive styles (i.e., more willing passers than scorers). Although Jackson-Davis, Green, and Jonathan Kuminga on the court causes a lot of spacing issues, their presence as a scoring threat was necessary.
Since I am just someone writing and tweeting from my couch, I don’t pretend to know any better than NBA coaches. *But if I could have changed anything, I would have started the game with more space on the floor—Klay Thompson starting instead of Brandin Podziemski, for instance. Alternatively, I would have much like to see Green start at center, put Wiggins and Thompson on the floor, and increase spacing and tempo if maintaining ball handlers on the floor was the top aim.
Rather, the issue of a lineup featuring Kuminga, Green, and Jackson-Davis emerged. In the first half, stagnant possessions frequently resulted in isolations and post-ups. In the absence of Curry’s spacing, the Warriors turned to these kind of possessions, which did not result in wins.
It was present all around the field, not just in the starting lineup. That’s more of a process-oriented illness than a who-is-not-here issue. You’re making opponents who are weak defensively appear much better than they actually are if you’re unwilling to move the ball and put pressure on them to actually move around and defend, especially in the absence of your greatest shot creator and scorer:
In part, this issue was resolved in the second part. Green moved from the four to the five to take Jackson-Davis’ place, while Thompson was added to the lineup to help with scoring and spacing.
It was clear how different they were in terms of mobility, creating advantages, and identifying the previously mentioned breaking points:
But another problem developed to replace the one they solved: The Warriors couldn’t stop the ball against a team that did not have its two greatest offensive players.
The Spurs had multiple perimeter looks since they were unable to stop the ball. Their unlucky variance combined with a weak defense made it possible for them to shoot 17 out of 33 (51.5%) shots from beyond the arc.
When players like Zach Collins (30.6% on threes) and Jeremy Sochan (32.4%) are making outside shots despite the scouting report indicating they shouldn’t be able to compel defensive commitment out on the perimeter, not much can be done. The Spurs were able to create open threes as a result of the lack of stopping strength at the point of attack and the player’s frequent rotation to make up for the weaknesses on the ball. Nevertheless, there was something that might have been done:
Although I’ve written more in-depth articles about the overhelp issue in the past and how it typically stems from a lack of resources at the offensive line, it is concerning to observe that this issue persists against one of the worst teams in the league when their primary offensive moneymakers are out of the picture.
This loss further nails the Warriors to the 10th spot and a date with destiny (a lousy one, at that) with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Play-In Tournament. There’s still chance for them to move out of the 9-10 play-in bracket and move up to the 7-8 tier, which would mean they’d only need to win once to go into the playoffs. An implausible advance toward the sixth seed — and an outright playoff spot — seems much likely to become unattainable after this loss.
It’s an awful stroke of luck that Curry was injured not long after the Warriors became entirely healthy — but again, they didn’t exactly do much to assist themselves against the Spurs, either.
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