The Warriors are laughing at your “old-school” defensive concepts

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Steinmetz

Well, that’s 10 in a row.

The Warriors may not have played their most impressive game of the season Thursday night against the Timberwolves, but it was plenty good enough to beat a young, upstart on the road with, quite frankly, very little overall challenging by the home team. Golden State 129, Minnesota 116.

The Warriors got up 33-17 before the first quarter was over and the rest of the game was spent managing and maintaining a lead for the final three quarters. Steph Curry ho-hummed his way to 46 points, going 15-for-25 from the field, including 8-for-13 from beyond the arc.

As the wins pile up, it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to beat this team. We keep hearing things like: “We’ve never seen anything like this team before” or “This team is changing the way the game is played” and the fact of the matter is: these statements are accurate.

But how do you explain how this team is so different? How do you describe the way in which they’re changing the game before our eyes? What makes them so unique? Well, I would put it this way: This team, right here and right now, is making a mockery of some defensive principles, ideals and foundations that we’ve never even thought to question. The reality is that sound defensive strategies, many engrained for generations, don’t work against this team. In fact, they work against you when you play the Warriors.

Three examples:

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Posted in Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, Warriors | Tagged | 6 Comments

The Grizzlies are in boatload of trouble … Tell me why I’m wrong

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Steinmetz

Every once in a while I think I’m going to do this thing called: “Tell me why I’m wrong.”

Let’s say I have an opinion on something, like I do right now with the Memphis Grizzlies. I’ll tell you what I think; you tell me why I’m wrong — if you think I am.

Here goes: I think the Memphis Grizzlies have trouble brewing … long term trouble brewing. After watching them a few times this season, and in particular two losses to the Warriors, it feels like Memphis’ window is not only shut, it’s boarded up with plywood and plastered with caution tape.

The Grizzlies are now 3-6, but it feels worse. And, yes, I remember the Grizzlies started 10-15 two years ago and wound up winning 50 games. But that was a long two years ago. Take a look at their core roster right now. Zach Randolph is 34, Tony Allen is 33, Marc Gasol is 30 and Mike Conley is 28. That’s an aging nucleus in any league. But perhaps worse, the Grizzlies are an offensively challenged team in an era where you have to be able to score to compete with the elite teams.

And scoring is a monster issue for them. For one, they don’t shoot 3-pointers well at all, which should be a prerequisite in this day and age. Second, because they’re built to utilize Randolph so much in the low post, they’re forced to consistently go to him despite the fact he’s getting up there and becoming less effective.

So, the style that made the Grizzlies so tough has become outdated. But not only must they cling to it, they must cling to it despite knowing they’ve gotten worse at it — because as good as Randolph is he’s not as good as he was a few years ago.

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Posted in Memphis Grizzlies, NBA | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Detroit Pistons unveil blue print: Best way to beat the Warriors

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Steinmetz

If a loss is a loss is a loss, then the Detroit Pistons did nothing to distinguish themselves in Monday’s game against the Warriors — yes, a 109-95 loss to the defending champions. But if you’re into even just a little bit more scrutiny than that, you’ll see that the Pistons didn’t do a bad job of defending the Warriors.

In fact, the Pistons may have provided the best blue-print to date on how to (possibly) beat the Warriors (possibly). Now, before we even begin, executing this plan doesn’t ensure success against the Warriors, as you can see by what happened to Detroit. But Detroit’s overall strategy and approach is the best way to go ahead and take a stab at Golden State, a team that is 91-20 since the start of last season and has won 23 games in a row at Oracle regular-season games in a row at Oracle.

For the most part, the Pistons played straight-up, man-to-man defense, relying on the simple principle of everybody just guard your guy. Period. No gimmicks, as little switching as possible, no over-helping, and quite frankly, sometimes you’re on your own — even if you are guarding Stephen Curry.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, an athletic 6-foot-5 shooting guard, was asked to do that simple, yet ridiculously complex thing: Guard Curry. Just guard him – you, all by yourself. And Caldwell-Pope was terrific on defense, and Curry was ordinary by Curry standards. It’s not that simple, of course, but on this night that’s what happened. And it’s how you have to play the Warriors — one-on-one, with as little deviation as possible — if you want to beat the Warriors in either a game or a series.

You have to put the onus on an individual player to defend Curry, and then by extension ask/demand the other four players to at least do the same with their men – who, by the way, aren’t as good as Curry. So, that’s the least they should be able to do, right?

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Posted in Detroit Pistons, NBA, Warriors | Tagged , | 5 Comments