Steve Kerr's Excellence In Capitalizing On The Brilliance Of Stephen Curry
The Warriors took Game 2 of their Western Conference Semifinals matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers as an opportunity to make a statement. A myriad of costly mistakes - including playing to the Lakers’ strengths, for the most part - gave them a 5 point loss in a close game.
This one was a little different. The Warriors only shot one less free throw than Los Angeles this time… and won by 27. How did they pull this off? Largely in part because the ball was in Stephen Curry’s hands: Curry had a highly-efficient 20 points, but what highlighted his dominance was his 12 assists… And the spacing he created for his teammates.
This wasn’t just Steph proving the narrative that he can’t be a true point guard wrong (yet again), but it was also a tactical masterclass by Steve Kerr. While Kerr is famous for being an excellent head coach, a common critique is that he likes to experiment too much: He can be slow to make what seems like the obvious choice. This carries into the playoffs sometimes, and this season is one of the seasons where that is true.
His stratagem started with a surprise, last-minute change to the starting lineup. Kevon Looney was reportedly feeling under the weather and only logged 11 minutes as a result, meaning he had to be replaced in the starting lineup. Kerr would normally go with Jordan Poole here, and after a good Game 1 from him, that seemed like the logical course.
So naturally, he starts JaMychal Green, who logged all of 23 minutes in the first round against the Sacramento Kings.
Green has been in an out of the rotation this season, meant to be a replacement for Otto Porter Jr. in the same breath that Donte DiVincenzo was meant to replace Gary Payton II. His rebounding and big presence down low is complemented by his shooting, making him a floor-spacing big ideal for the Warriors system. After Game 1, it was obvious the Warriors weren’t going to be able to attack the basket the same way they did against Sacramento, primarily because of Anthony Davis, so Kerr went to Green’s floor-spacing capabilities early.
It paid off to the tune of 3-for-6 from downtown from JaMychal Green, forcing the Lakers to empty out the paint and respect his shot, or get punished for it. Another Kerr adjustment was one that history made relatively obvious: Draymond Green on Anthony Davis. Green’s had some success against Davis in his career, namely being 8-1 in the playoffs against AD from the Lakers big’s 2015 and 2018 stints with the New Orlenas Pelicans. The Warriors have been able to bottle up Davis before because Green forces him to be a jumpshooter, denying him the paint and forcing him to take tougher mid-range shots than easy ones at the basket.
What this also did was give the Lakers a difficult choice when the Warriors went on offense: Have Davis leave JaMychal Green, a shooter, open to let it fly from the outside while he stays home and patrols the paint, or have Davis guard Draymond Green and forfeit open looks to Steph Curry off of on-ball screen actions. As it turns out, neither really worked for LA, because Curry was loose constantly and he made his impact felt throughout the whole game. This freed up Klay Thompson to light it up as well, torching the nets with 8 threes and cracking the game wide open with each of his flurries.
A lot of the credit has rightfully gone to Curry because he’s a transcendent scorer and playmaker. The Lakers much prefer to play drop coverage against opposing ball-handlers because they want to deny easy looks in the paint. The problem is what the Boston Celtics learned the hard way in last year’s Finals: Curry will get going and be unstoppable after finding a rhythm. This forces Davis and the other LA bigs to play at the level of the screen, even blitzing Steph with double-teams, but Curry’s underrated acumen as a passer allows him to get rid of the ball early and leave the Lakers at the mercy of a 4-on-3 with Draymond in the drivers seat, often leading to an open shot.
But while that credit can be correctly attributed to the brilliance Steph brings, it’s Coach Kerr who wrap his impact up in gift paper with a nice bow, giving his superstar point guard a lot more freedom to operate with the personnel he puts on the floor and the sets he has them run while Steph and Dray work the pick-and-roll. There’s a consistent narrative that big teams have to punish their opponents when they go small, and there’s a consistent reason why that doesn’t work against the Warriors: The only way to guard Stephen Curry without him going off is to double him, and when you double him, somebody is going to get an open shot in a paint that doesn’t have a big man in it because that big is the second person in the double.
This is what Steve Kerr recognizes and capitalizes on constantly. The Warriors’ motion offense being so deadly is a direct result of the defense trying to keep track of Steph at all times, and when there are talents like Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins on the floor, their strengths make it even more potent. It’s Kerr’s gameplan, however, that institutes both solid sets and more overarching principles which helps those guys get theirs. And of course, sometimes he just has to let 30 be 30, something he’s always been good at when it matters most.
It remains to be seen what kind of adjustments Lakers coach Darvin Ham will try and toy with in Game 3 now that his squad is back on their home court. But the evidence suggests, as it always has, that the Warriors may end up being Los Angeles’s nightmare matchup when the league’s most effective set - the Curry-Green high pick-and-roll - is complemented by Kerr’s savvy lineup-crafting and the integration of so many off-ball actions which keep the rest of the defense moving.
(Photo credit: Melissa Tamez / Getty Images)