BOSTON – According to Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the biggest cube in Game 4 of the NBA Finals was none of Stephen Curry’s stunning 3s. He wasn’t even one of Klay Thompson’s jumpers or Andrew Wiggins’ rebounds. No, after the Warriors’ 107-97 victory on Friday, Kerr said the biggest was this left end of Kevon Looney:
Kerr isn’t just crazy about Looney. It’s about context. There was about a minute left and Al Horford had just made a 3, ending a Boston Celtics drought of more than three minutes. Looney’s tray turned a one-possession game into a two-possession game, and deflated a crowd that was about to explode.
You’ve seen warriors run sequences like this a million times, and that’s it. His bread and butter stuff hasn’t worked particularly well against the Celtics. Coach Ime Udoka said before the start of the series that he believes other teams tend to overreact to Golden State’s 3-point shot, opening an easy look at the basket. Instead of trying to get the ball out of Curry’s hands, Boston has changed a lot or relied on his guards to stay together and navigate the screens. That he changed course at the time of the crisis, sending two defenders to Curry and offering a 4-on-3 for Draymond Green, is a testament to Curry’s performance for the ages: 43 points in 41 minutes, 14 of 26 shots, 7 of 14 from deep, 10 rebounds, four assists, two days after Horford fell with his previously injured foot.
“This man’s heart is amazing,” Thompson said. “The things he does, we take for granted from time to time, but get out there and get on your back, I mean, we have to help him on Monday. Go on.”
Please check the box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe.
Thanks for signing up!
Stay tuned to your inbox.
Sorry!
There was an error processing your subscription.
After Golden State fell 2-1 in the finals, Thompson said he was “getting great vibes from 2015” from this series. This was his first experience of this stage, and he fell 2-1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers before winning three in a row. The vibes I’m getting, however, are more reminiscent of 2019, when a battle-tested Warriors team continually refused to die.
There was the fifth game of the second round against the Houston Rockets, in which Kevin Durant injured his calf at the end of the third quarter and Golden State held them. There was the euphoria of Game 6 in Houston, where Curry scored zero points in the first half and 33 in the second, a definite victory for the Warriors and Kerr’s offensive philosophy. There were also Games 2 and 5 of the Final, both in Toronto, both narrow and convincing victories against an opponent who was ahead of the series and took all the defensive tricks out of the book.
The Celtics defense combines the best attributes of these Rockets (changeability) and the Raptors (intelligence). He has pushed Kerr to an awkward place, where every decision in the lineup is a bet for Golden State, either to avoid a spacing problem or to get enough stops to survive. As impressive as the Warriors were in Game 4, their midfield offense was tough: 83.9 points per 100 midfield plays, their worst mark in the series, by Cleaning The Glass. They won by hitting the cup, boosting the pace and, most importantly, accepting that it won’t always be nice.
“Your normal sets or just the normal flow will probably not be there from the start of the game just because that’s what they are good at and how they dominate the games at this end of the court,” Curry said. “These are the times when you can be a little more aggressive, try, let’s say, to force the problem a little bit. That doesn’t always mean shooting, but just attacking, being aggressive and finding lanes, doing both over and over again”.
Faced with a potential 3-1 deficit, essentially a death sentence against this huge, athletic and well-coordinated defense, Curry and the Warriors found a way to play the hits. We saw some crazy shots straight from behind the 3-point line:
We saw Curry’s handle, balance and touch within the 3-point line:
We saw that the classic stick splits, giving Curry enough room to get his shot, even with his defender, Derrick White, overtaking the screen and flying towards him:
We saw a lot of transition plays and early offensives, situations where Curry causes chaos and confusion: in one play, both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown caught him, leaving Thompson unattended:
We saw Gary Payton II make his best impression of Zaza Pachulia, releasing Curry for a 3 leaving the ball in the corner and throwing it open:
And we saw that the magnificent Golden State defense (Boston scored 101 points for every 100 possessions) was overshadowed by the Curry Flurry. In this case, Curry’s brilliance with the ball overshadowed how he fought and turned at the other end, resisting the Celtics’ repeated efforts to score.
According to Green’s estimate, all the matches in these finals have been decided by force: who brings more defensive intensity, who cuts harder, who filters more, who imposes his will. Curry said that while Golden State had a bad offensive start, the tone of the game was completely different from the previous one: “It wasn’t a perfect first quarter, but we gave ourselves enough life.” That life allowed the Warriors to endure some difficult patches, stay and be in condition for Curry to take them home.
“He wouldn’t let us lose,” Green said. “It comes down to that.”