Five Gifs: Warriors Take Game 1
"That's what gifs do, isn't it? They're just...endless."
You may have heard by now, but the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets played a throwback Game 1 that had the old heads dreaming of fisticuffs and scores in the 90s salivating.1 In a matchup of two of the NBA’s best defenses, Golden State came out on top 95-85. Here are five gifs and attendant observations.
1. <Sterling Archer voice>DANGERZONE!
If you are a nerd about NBA defense, or just love watching smart players figure out different schemes on the fly, the Rockets-Warriors series is for you. The Rockets have multiple defenders capable of sticking to Steph Curry and getting up in his jersey.
The other side of the defensive battle was even more interesting. Golden State tossed out every manner of zone defense against Houston in Game 1. Zones work well against teams with questionable outside shooting, or those without a player who can get into the teeth of the defense and make plays from the nail. Houston was a bottom three three-point shooting team in the regular season per Cleaning the Glass, and bottom ten in accuracy. Moreover, as smart and connected as Houston is on the defensive end, they lack an offensive playmaker capable of busting open a zone (something Golden State struggled with as well, prior to the arrival of Jimmy Butler III.) If you watched the Rockets in the regular season, you would have seen teams regularly trotting out zone looks against them.
At the start of the second quarter, with Steph Curry on the bench, Golden State ran out a 1-3-1 zone on successive possessions. They generated turnovers and got the Warriors out in transition, something Golden State will need to do more of, with points hard to come by against Houston in the half court.
(Bonus: For notes on how to penetrate the zone, here’s Jimmy Butler navigating Houston’s own 2-3 zone.)
2. Body Language
The Warriors committed to packing the paint and showing bodies on Houston drives, daring the Rockets to make drive-and-kick plays. Watch how little attention Draymond Green pays to Amen Thompson cutting in from the weak side here, or how deep Brandin Podziemski sinks in, even though Dillon Brooks is a semi-dangerous spot-up shooter.
There’s little reason for Golden State not to pack the paint. Part of it will be necessity; as expected, the Rockets pounded the Warriors on the offensive glass with a 45% offensive rebounding rate in Game 1. That means Houston rebounded nearly every second missed shot. And they missed a lot of shots! The Warriors are smaller than the Rockets, so gang rebounding is their only solution. Packing the paint helps with that.
On fun defensive schemes, watch that clip again. The Warriors are running a box-and-one, with Buddy Hield marking VanVleet while the the four Warriors behind him zone up. That came after the two aforementioned 1-3-1 zone possessions. Coach Kerr is in his bag.
3. Who’s Afraid of Jalen Green?
Although he isn’t their best player, if the Rockets have one bonafide bucket getter, it’s Jalen Green. Outside of manufacturing second chance points, Houston was unable to get anything going on offense in Game 1. Some of that owes to Jalen Green’s continued slump.
While Golden State didn’t start with Steph Curry matched up on Green, they were happy to let Green cook in isolation when he had Steph on an island. And Steph did reasonably well.
Two reason why Golden State may stick with that plan: first, at 0.86 points per possession per NBA tracking data, Jalen Green is not an efficient isolation scorer by any means. Second, watch Draymond Green in that clip: He plays free safety behind Steph (with Brandin Podziemski helping the helper and tagging Alperen Sengun.) Had Green gotten a step on Steph, Draymond would have been there to help on the back side.
Going back to the point on showing bodies, the Warriors made a strategic gamble that Green and VanVleet are not good enough playmakers to find open shooters. On Green’s attempted drive above, Moses Moody ignores Dillon Brooks in the corner and devotes all his attention to boxing out Amen Thompson in the dunker spot. The Rockets are going to need Green to hit Brooks in those situations.
4. Steph Rising
A road game on Easter Sunday? I had my worries about how Steph would perform in Game 1. They turned out to be unfounded. After the Rockets really took away the three early, Steph found his way to the rim multiple times. That was followed by a series of ridiculous threes, none more so than this one.
Aside from the degree of difficulty, notice the shot clock in that clip. Houston succeeded in forcing the Warriors late into the shot clock on multiple possessions. Some of them results in shot clock violations. Others led to hail marys from Steph and Jimmy Butler that came off. On a different night, perhaps those don’t go in (although it is Steph Curry we are talking about here.)
More to the point, that shot speaks to Golden State’s belief in its two stars managing to manufacture enough points in the half court when they need it. After leading the league in passes made for the umpteenth season (332 per game), Golden State made “only” 282 passes in Game 1. Fewer passes means fewer turnovers, but it also means fewer opportunities for Golden State’s preferred motion offense to hum. Winning the turnover battle may mean that the Warriors need more otherworldly shotmaking from Steph and Butler.
This game was sludgy, only 88 possessions across the entire 48 minutes. Both teams will try to run as much as they can, but in the half court, expect more late clock situations.
5. More Jabari Smith Jr?
While clawing back from a 23 point deficit to come within a couple of possessions of the Warriors, Houston had starters Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, and Alperen Sengun on the bench. The lineup that did the damage featured one-man-rebounding-machine Steven Adams, Jabari Smith Jr., Fred VanVleet, Amen Thompson, and Tari Eason. That five-man unit only played 21 minutes in the regular season, so there isn’t much to take away from those minutes. But it makes sense and I wonder if Coach Ime Udoka will call on it more.
Consider: Smith isn’t the rebounding force and interior scorer that Sengun is, but he provides more switchability on defense and an outside threat (38% on catch and shoot threes per Cleaning the Glass.) Meanwhile, Adams by himself guarantees the Rockets second chance points; per Cleaning the Glass, lineups with Adams as the lone big were nearly as effective on the offensive glass as those with Adams and Sengun. And Eason is a significant defensive upgrade over Jalen Green.
In general, lineups featuring both Smith and Adams performed well in the regular season. Maybe that’s the base to start with and figure out the right perimeter combo to put around them.
The key might be to task Amen Thompson with ball handling duties, leveraging Smith and VanVleet as spot up threats:
Another option: Swap Smith into the starting lineup for Jalen Green. That five-man unit blitzed opponents to the tune of +31/100 across 130 regular season possessions. It’s a small sample and those lineups rode some hot shooting.
85 points is not going to cut it for Houston. That they couldn’t score more, even with a huge offensive rebounding performance, should be some cause for concern. Then again, surely Fred VanVleet won’t go 2/13 from three again?
Although we still got some Steph Curry magic from deep. Steph was in his bag and so was Kevin Harlan, each moon shot spurring Harlan on to greater heights of eloquence (“GEOMETRICALLY, THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED!”)