Los Angeles Lakers: Stopping Stephen Curry is key vs Warriors
How the Warriors offense has changed this season:
During the height of the Warriors dynasty, Draymond Green and Andre Igoudala often initiated the offense as the designated point forward, which allowed Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson to play off the ball. If the late David Stern had still been the commissioner, he never would have allowed the Warriors to sign Durant for basketball reasons.
Durant joining the Warriors completely broke the NBA’s competitive balance. The Warriors were as overpowered as Bo Jackson in Super Tecmo Bowl. But I digress, only Draymond Green and Stephen Curry are playing against the Lakers this season. Warriors coach Steve Kerr had to change the offense to best suit the team’s existing personnel.
Kerr decided to run a traditional NBA offense centered around Curry, who has always had a high usage rate, as superstars should, but never got to be the only primary scorer in Kerr’s equal-opportunity offense. Kerr realized nobody else strikes the fear in the hearts of opposing defenses quite like Curry, with Thompson out for the season.
Teams are so afraid of Curry that they have resorted to double-teaming him even when he sets a screen. Give Warriors coach Steve Kerr credit for making this simple in-game adjustment to fool the Indiana Pacers’ defense.
https://twitter.com/warriors/status/1349202618472517633
That was an inverted pick-and-pop between Draymond Green and Stephen Curry. Normally, Green sets the ball screen for Curry at half court. Green often gets the ball in his hands with a 4 on 3 advantage because teams have no choice but to double Curry since he can make 40-foot three-pointers with ease.
Who benefits the most from defenses obsessing with Stephen Curry? James Wiseman, their second overall pick, has become a major threat to score off lobs from Green. Kelly Oubre Jr and Andrew Wiggins are both threats to score from the wing, as is Curry’s brother-in-law Damion Lee.
These guys are not as good as Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson. In other news, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and the girls are pretty in Paradise City.
So what should Lakers coach Frank Vogel do to stop the Warriors’ offense? Have Guns N’ Roses perform a virtual concert pregame to motivate the Lakers?