BOSTON – For the Warriors to take advantage of Steph Curry’s pantheon performance, a 43-point masterpiece to take advantage of the local Celtics home court, the Warriors needed to win. To win, Curry needed some level of help. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, his two most famous co-stars, did not offer enough. So, with the balance sheet in mind, who would do that?
Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Kevon Looney.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr assessed all levels of the Warriors ’3-game losing streak and opted for, among other adjustments, a couple of rotation tweaks that might seem counterintuitive. Kerr replaced Looney with Otto Porter Jr. in the starting lineup, hoping to extend the floor further with Green to open the game, but also planned to use Looney more often, despite the initial bench.
“I didn’t play enough with him in game 3,” Kerr admitted. “That was my mistake.”
Looney received 17 minutes in game 3 and not a second in the fourth quarter. He played 28 minutes in Game 4, including 7 minutes and 24 seconds of a fourth quarter that revived the Warriors ’title chances after the 107-97 victory.
Part of that fourth quarter was spent with Green, who played poorly in the first three quarters, on the bench and Looney on the floor as a big soloist. Then much of the buzz surrounded the green part of this equation, taking into account the dynamics of the team and the personalities at stake.
“He’s more confident in Loon and what he’s capable of doing than any kind of situation like Draymond’s,” Curry said.
The change of starting lineup didn’t do much for the Warriors. They went down 12-6 and only had two team rebounds in the first five minutes as Robert Williams III continued to crush them in the cup. Then Looney came in and had four rebounds in his first two minutes, establishing an inside presence that the Warriors seem to miss every time he doesn’t play.
There weren’t too many moments in this series where the size advantage tipped the Warriors’ direction. That Looney stage in the middle of the first quarter is ranked. Here’s the second of his first two offensive rebounds. The Celtics had fallen short, replacing Derrick White with Williams. White found Looney as Curry lined up a 28-footer. Curry did not miss. Looney just beat White and grabbed the rebound, and the resulting outing resulted in a Wiggins 3, one of the two 3s in Wiggins’ first quarter.
Looney’s 157 total rebounds are the third most in the playoffs, and his 56 offensive rebounds are six more than anyone despite his lightest use on certain nights. At Horford in Boston he leads all the playoff rebounds with 191. But he has played 743 minutes. Looney’s 157 rebounds came in 410 minutes. He is devouring them at the best pace in the league.
Its impact on glass is not just size. It’s also about his commotion and his way of reading angles. Take a look at this second quarter sequence. Looney was not even credited with an offensive rebound in that play. It was for Gary Payton II, but Looney did the work.
Watch him, in slow motion, anticipating where Miss Wiggins’ bounce will land and head to the right block a split second before Jayson Tatum. Tatum is in a better position for the rebound, but Looney’s extra effort sends a frantic Tatum to the ground. In a fight, he tilts it out of bounds to Payton, who receives an indisputable banishment.
These are two second chance points. The Warriors had 19. The Celtics only had 12. In the third game, Boston had 21 second-chance points, and the Warriors had 11. This change in script is directly related to the increase in minutes. of Looney.
“Loon is crucial to everything we do,” Kerr said. “He’s our best player, our best rebounder. One of our smartest players. He’s always in the right place. He made me think he was the biggest bucket of the game after Horford made it 3 from the corner. from the fourth quarter), Draymond passed the pocket to Loon, and finished with that left hand (to put the Warriors back on. up to five). “
Curry rested seven of the 48 minutes of Game 4. Those brief non-Curry pockets have been almost fatal to the Warriors in this series. This is mainly due to Poole’s inability to resolve Boston’s defense. With White and Marcus Smart, the Celtics have better attacking point defenders than anyone the Warriors have faced, in addition to Williams, who now has 12 blocks in the series, wanders like a dreaded tire protector in the back. The Celtics have collectively had Poole shuffled.
But Poole entered Game 4 with a more aggressive and patient approach. He chased his shot more regularly, but didn’t panic for 3 seconds or rush to the edge and challenged Williams every time he thought he saw the light of day. Instead, he slipped into his jumper when the situation called for it.
He asked for it early in the second quarter when Curry hit the bench. Poole nailed two big 3s and, as the Warriors were playing so well defensively, that increased them to a plus-2 in the segment that Curry rested.
Poole’s job was under an even bigger microscope when Kerr decided to rest Curry again to open the fourth quarter, protecting a one-point lead. Any shot he hit during that stretch would immediately qualify as the most important point of his career.
The Celtics bounced back two in the first quarter. One more stop from Boston and scoring, and Kerr would probably have been forced to return to Curry. But it was then that Poole weaved around a tall green screen, read to what extent Williams had sunk into the fall cover, and patiently stood up by a mid-range free-throw line jumper for tie the score and buy Curry a longer respite.
“Wow,” Thompson said. “The balance he has been playing with when he was 22 during all these playoffs is amazing.”
The Warriors lost those few minutes of Curry to start the quarter by three points, which means they were a minus-1 accumulated without Curry in game 4. That’s more than acceptable to them. He replaced again with 9:13 at the end and the Warriors two below.
This is the end of the first possession after the return of Curry. Jaylen Brown takes a corner kick from the right, but the ball goes wide. In Game 3, this is the kind of rebound the Celtics would get back.
But in this scenario, Wiggins reads the carom carefully and executes a left-handed stab and a side dribble to secure the loose ball and cause a quick break in the other direction. He stays patient and finds Poole on the right wing. Poole fakes and flies past Brown to make a tray before Williams can return to position to protect the edge. These are Wiggins and Poole who combine for a great swing moment in the fourth quarter.
Wiggins had no rebounds in the first quarter of Game 4. He finished the night with 16 rebounds, the highest of his career. He had five rebounds in the second quarter, five in the third and six in the fourth.
Throughout his career, Wiggins has averaged just 4.4 rebounds per game. He has never averaged more than 5.2 in any of his eight regular seasons. He has been part of the constant criticism of his game, this inability to translate his size, length and athleticism into a force outside the game.
But that narrative has changed in these playoffs as the Warriors have shrunk, relying on Wiggins as a small ball striker. He has rewarded them with 7.3 rebounds per game. What has changed?
“I want to win,” Wiggins said. “I know the rebound is a big part of that. I just want to win.”
Wiggins was the scorer. Kerr can’t get him off the ground. He protects Tatum or Brown for most of the game, has to come in offensively enough, and has become the Warriors’ second-best rebounder.
Wiggins has 50 offensive rebounds in these playoffs, the second most in the league. 49 and 50 reached the fourth quarter of Game 4. This one below is the biggest of them, probably the biggest offensive rebound of his career.
The Warriors have dropped four points while the clock is ticking less than five minutes. Your title odds are high. Poole passes in front of White on the far left, but fails to float him in another strong Williams contest. But look at the opposite block. This is Wiggins taking advantage of Smart, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year, out of position and grabbing a pogo-stick rebound for a rebound before Williams can eliminate another shot.
Curry has been a constant in these NBA Finals. He has been fantastic in all four games. But the Warriors have two defeats because they haven’t received enough help. They don’t win game 4 if it doesn’t come with those 43 transcendent points. But they also don’t win if Looney doesn’t bounce, Poole doesn’t score and Wiggins doesn’t give a 44-minute battle horse.
“Everyone grew up,” Curry said.
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(Photo by Andrew Wiggins and Derrick White: David Butler II / USA Today)