SAN FRANCISCO – It’s only one game in a best-of-seven series, but after the Warriors dismantle a Dallas defense in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday, it’s reasonable to wonder what the Mavericks are up to next to do.
It took less than 30 minutes to play, but Steph Curry has put this Mavs defense in a band that has no obvious solution.
The Dallas defense came up with a lot of buzz in this series. After all, their tight rotations and superb gameplays caused the NBA’s top regular season team, the Phoenix Suns, to fold in Games 6 and 7 of their semifinal series.
The Mavericks fatigued 37-year-old Chris Paul in the final round and then played double against Devin Booker when the 25-year-old guard had the ball.
Because Paul is only a minor player without his signature first step — unable to tear down a defense or stand a chance at an elite level — and Booker, despite once being this team’s point guard, unable to is to play with the ball in his hand, the Mavericks’ defensive tactics made the Suns essentially become the woeful operation that existed before Paul’s arrival two seasons ago.
So naturally, Dallas was eager to try the same effective defense against the Warriors with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line.
But the Warriors don’t play the high pick-and-roll style of the Suns or Dallas’ first-round opponent, the Utah Jazz, and the Golden State’s sharp cuts, rear fenders, and ball moves slice Dallas like a slow-cooked ribeye. in game 1.
“I think every series has a different makeup, right, and this team has very distinct differences from the last two we’ve played,” said Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie after Game 1. “They were the best team in the league since probably 2015… This [series] will be completely different with their off-ball movement. They don’t rely on pick and rolls like you said like the other teams have. Just getting used to it and getting ready for Game 2.”
But what will that adjustment be?
I don’t see one that will work.
Dallas’ defensive game plan for Game 1 was to play Steph Curry with a doubles team when he encountered half court.
I know they expected a different result than what happened, but I’m not sure why.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd definitely has Doc Rivers’ phone number, right? The former Clippers coach tried that trap tactic year after year and the Warriors always managed to beat it. It was the definition of coaching madness. No one else had been bold enough to take on Rivers’ mantle since he’d been fired by the Clippers.
So the Warriors clearly welcomed the double team when they saw it recaptured by Dallas.
The Dubs’ counter is simple: Curry gets the ball to Draymond Green or Jordan Poole and they take full advantage of a 4-on-3.
“The way we play, once you get it, the first pass, they had two guys on me and then we have more moves to follow, that’s what we’ve been doing for years, and there’s a chemistry to that,” said Curry .
That chemistry was most evident in Curry’s wild, over-the-head pass from the corner to no one in particular in the third quarter Wednesday. Curry had unnecessarily got himself into a problem (as he sometimes does), so he threw the ball over his head to the top of the fretboard. Who does that?
Someone who implicitly trusts his teammates. Sure enough, Draymond Green didn’t send the pass to anyone, and just over three seconds later Curry hit a three-pointer courtesy of a laser beam pass from Green and a bluntly rattling screen from Kevon Looney on the perimeter.
The piece looked chaotic. It was chaotic. But the Warriors are well trained in chaos.
“Those guys have a synergy from playing together for ten years… There’s a lot of value in that. Draymond has always been kind of a fulcrum of our offense as a passer, screener. He sees the floor so well. He sees those guys at the ball He sees the cuts out the back door,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “That was an example of those guys who just knew each other well and Draymond knew exactly what Steph was going to do… You can put Looney in that too. There is a lot of continuity with our team, which is important. Boys read each other well.”
If Kidd hopes his team’s defensive focus on Curry will tire the Warriors’ guard, I don’t think he’s done his homework. Curry’s superhuman ability isn’t necessarily his marksmanship (though that’s incredible) – no, it’s his endless stamina. You could argue that no one in the NBA is in better shape than Curry.
So the double team will not work.
Yes, if the Mavericks keep trying to double up on Curry, this series will soon work for Golden State.
But what else can Dallas do?
The problem is, the Mavericks don’t have a perimeter defender that Curry can control one-on-one.
The defense of the Dallas backcourt goes from bad to worse. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie are unable to stay ahead of Curry and Luka Dončić is a downright terrible defender. Plus, the Mavericks shouldn’t want him chasing Curry. He needs to conserve his energy.
Maybe they can put bench guard Frank Ntilikina – a good but barely great defender on the ball who gets lost in rotations easily and a huge offensive liability – on Curry, but that didn’t work on Wednesday and he’s a huge negative on offense. Forgive me that doubling down on such a move will sway the series in Dallas’ favor.
But changing the size of Curry won’t change anything either. Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith are tall and mobile, but they had defensive ratings of 115 and 116 (points allowed per 100 possessions) after the Mavericks’ trade in Kristaps Porzingis, leading to this nice run they’ve had over the past few months. .
Those defensive assessments are not accidents. Curry posted an offensive rating of 141 when Bullock was his primary defender on Wednesday, according to NBA tracking data.
Against Finney-Smith it was 138.
Okay, so Dallas can’t trap Curry and they can’t guard him one-on-one.
Can they follow Kerr’s template and go with “janky” defenses?
It seems the only logical route. The problem is, the Mavericks aren’t really good at it.
Dallas’ basic defense is a matchup zone. They guard the perimeter man-to-man, letting their fullbacks roam about generously protecting the paint. It creates traffic on pick-and-rolls and drives, and Dallas rotates well enough to make up for the ball’s overload and their lack of a true edge defender.
The Warriors know this defense well – it’s what they perform with Green on the floor. So they also know that one cut ball can destroy everything. It did.
After the Porzingis trade in February, the Mavericks didn’t have enough time to experiment with alternative defenses. They were just trying to figure out this matchup zone under a first year head coach.
So a 3-2 or 2-3 zone, a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two seem out of the question as a viable defensive option against Curry, Poole, Klay Thompson and the Dubs.
In addition, a real zone would leave the Warriors wide open shots from distance. We saw Dallas give up the mid-range with their match-up zone in Game 1. The Warriors took advantage and made 12-of-18 mid-range shots. Turning those 2s into 3s is not a model for success for Dallas or any other team.
I’m sure there are other options for Dallas. Right?
Dallas may hope to turn off the lights every game, but will he succeed in four of the next six games? I highly doubt they can pull it off in one go.
I bet Kidd, a Basketball Hall of Famer, is more adept at solving these defensive problems than some jerk with a newspaper column.
But from the vantage point of this jerk in the arena, I see no defensive solution for the Mavericks beyond hope and prayer.
And that won’t get you to the NBA Finals.
#Kurtenbach #Steph #Curry #left #Mavericks #defenses #facing #unsolvable #riddle
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