The Golden State Warriors Defense have been somewhat of a silent team for the past two NBA seasons after capping off their dynasty with a championship in 2022. Regardless of their offseason success in the playoffs in preceding years, they possess a well-developed roster that hustles on both ends of the court, offensively and defensively. Yet, in the following game, it can be said that one of their greatest strengths that assisted in their past of winning consecutive championships has now become their greatest weakness, defense. This is what made them lose their first home game to begin the 2024-25 regular season.
In the following play, superstar guard James Harden uses his exceptional dribbling skills and ball handling to promote and penetrate into the Warriors’ defense. This leaves center Ivica Zubac wide open. All five warriors defenders are within the arc, focusing solely on Zubac as opposed to the direction the ball is going to. Zubac clearly used that to his advantage here, deliberately holding the ball longer in order to lure Draymond and Kuminga towards him which opens up Derrick Jones Jr. who can shoot the 3-ball well at any given point during a game. The most logical reason behind Kuminga going after Zubac instead of remaining on his marked player Derrick Jones Jr. was to provide additional defensive support for Green, who may struggle to guard larger centers, especially one with a formidable hook-shot, regardless of his strength and defensive prowess. Green would not be marking Zubac if not for Harden’s extensive pick-and-roll with Zubac.
Here, once again Harden’s exceptional pick-and-roll skills allow him to take advantage of the Warriors’ current defense given that he knows this move has succeeded before, aiming to pass to Zubac who is the primary interior threat for the Warriors given their small lineup. Currently, Hield and Green are the closest to Zubac and have their eyes on the ball once more, leaving not only one Jones Jr. open but a lethal 3-point shooter in Normal Powell wide-open to drill home a 3-pointer. In addition, focusing on the Warriors’ current roster in the paint, Hield is 6 foot 4 and his matchup with Zubac due to the effective pick-and-roll is clearly a mismatch in size and strength. Instead of Hield closing in on Zubac, Green should utilize his strength and be the defensive anchor the Warriors rely on in order to prevent Zubac from entering his hot-spot in the paint. The key is to make haste in such a situation by focusing on assigned markings and at best leaving the two strongest players in Green and Wiggins to double team Zubac while leaving the Clippers’ worst shooter open. Clearly Payton II gets the right idea, being the first to pivot and charge toward his original marking, showing off his hustle efforts in situations such as this.
This prevents the paint from being a weakness for the Warriors, suggesting that they are in a dire need to find a strong and suitable center alongside rookie Trayce-Jackson Davis to make their interior stronger on the defensive end.
However, regardless of their defensive inconsistencies that allowed the Clippers to take advantage beyond the arc, the Warriors had far from a terrible game against the Clippers, showing up on the offensive end and knocking down 3-pointers in the clutch to narrow a larger point deficit and penetrating effectively in the paint for close-up shots. In particular, Andrew Wiggins delivered during this game, scoring an enormous 29 points on 5/8 shooting from deep whist maintaing a 73.3 field goal percentage and grabbing some boards; he was responsible for hitting the clutch three pointer at the 3:43 mark in the 4th quarter to narrow the larger deficit to 3 points. Other core players such as Brandin Podziemski and Trayce-Jackson Davis also showed off their stardom as rookies, being an-around team effort as opposed to relying on individual talent to make this a close game.
Very well written Shivaan and extremely informative