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sport / alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors / Kurtenbach: The Warriors can’t become taller, so they’ll have to elevate their game

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o Kurtenbach: The Warriors can’t become taller,Allen

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Kurtenbach: The Warriors can’t become taller, so they’ll have to elevate their game

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From: ala...@yahoo.com (Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors
Subject: Kurtenbach:_The_Warriors_can’t_become_taller,
_so_they’ll_have_to_elevate_their_game
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2022 16:12:56 -0700
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 by: Allen - Thu, 28 Apr 2022 23:12 UTC

Kurtenbach: The Warriors can’t become taller, so they’ll have to elevate
their game
Golden State Warriors Playoffs: The Nuggets size seriously affected the
Dubs in the first round. Can the Dubs turn smallball into an advantage
again?
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond
Green (23) and Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins (22) defend against
Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić (15) in the first quarter of Game 2 of the
team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay
Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond
Green (23) and Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins (22) defend against
Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić (15) in the first quarter of Game 2 of the
team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay
Area News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: April 28, 2022 at 9:51 a.m. | UPDATED: April 28, 2022 at
11:46 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/28/kurtenbach-the-warriors-cant-become-taller-so-theyll-have-to-elevate-their-game/

SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe the NBA’s regular season does matter, just a
little bit.

Because one of the Warriors’ biggest problems in the 82-game schedule —
the fact that they weren’t big enough — has already proven to be an
issue in the postseason after just one round.

Now, it wasn’t enough of an issue that the Warriors couldn’t defeat the
Denver Nuggets in five games, culminating Wednesday night, but it’s an
issue nevertheless.

And moving forward, I can’t imagine that the problem won’t become larger.

The Dubs, meanwhile, cannot. So it’ll be upon them to play better around
their literal shortcomings.

Let’s first establish that the Warriors play their best basketball when
they’re playing small. Draymond Green is only 6-foot-6, but he can guard
any big man in the NBA. Andrew Wiggins has played up this postseason,
particularly on the defensive side, and has done a great job, and Klay
Thompson’s rebounding in the fourth quarter of Game 5 provides hope that
he can fill some of the Warriors’ size gap.

When the Warriors play small, with Green guarding the opposing team’s
center while playing point guard on the other side of the court, they
can push the pace of a game in a way rivaled by only a few teams in NBA
history. It’s chaos at both ends of the floor, and the Dubs’ best
players thrive in chaos.

But then there are the minutes when the game is not running at 100 miles
per hour.

And Denver found a way to increase those minutes as the team’s
first-round series progressed.

In turn, they created a blueprint for the rest of the NBA.

It took the Nuggets a couple of games to realize what their only route
to winning was, but they finally went big and tried to muck the game up.
The goal: Guard the Warriors’ small players with size and consistently
give the ball to their big man, putting the Warriors in positions to foul.

The Warriors, who averaged 21 fouls per game this regular season — the
fourth-worst mark in the league — were happy to oblige. They averaged 25
fouls per game in the last three games of the series against the Nuggets.

Golden State needs to get out and run. They can’t do that when their
opponent is consistently at the free-throw line.

The Dubs’ fouling led to messed-up rotations and only 7.6 percent of the
Golden State’s points coming on the fast break against Denver in the
five-game series, a mark that would have been the NBA’s worst in the
regular season.

Pair this with the Warriors’ penchant for turning the ball over and you
can understand why coach Steve Kerr has to practice stoicism on the bench.

But this is Golden State’s roster. It’s not changing now.

If they go with their biggest lineup, they have two non-shooters on the
floor, allowing opposing defenses to slack off in a way they never would
in the regular season. They’re basically playing 5-on-3. Less than ideal.

If the Warriors go small, they have incredible offensive firepower, but
they’re susceptible to losing control of the game to a post player and
opponents’ offensive rebounds.

Now, not every team the Warriors face this postseason will be able to
execute the blueprint.

Nikola Jokic averaged 34 points and 15 rebounds over the Nuggets’ last
three contests of the campaign — he was dominant in three games Denver
could have won.

But when he wasn’t on the floor, DeMarcus Cousins was eating up the
Warriors, too. The former Dub went 14-of-19 from the floor in the 35
minutes he played, total, in the last three games of the series.

Now, Jokic is going to be the back-to-back NBA MVP and Cousins is one of
the most talented (albeit mercurial) big men in the NBA. That’s a great
combination of centers — the likes of which the Warriors will probably
not see again this postseason.

But all Denver had in this past series was size. Jokic, Cousins, and
Aaron Gordon when he decided to play big in the final two games of the
series showed the ability to control the contest against the diminutive
Warriors.

>RELATED ARTICLES
Watch: Steph Curry and daughter Ryan do secret handshake to celebrate
Warriors’ win
Steph Curry leads Warriors to first playoff series win since 2019:
‘We hopefully have a lot left to do’
Kurtenbach: The Warriors gave us every reason to believe — and a few
reasons to doubt — in their first-round win
‘Unfazed’ Gary Payton II surprises with clutch shooting to seal
Warriors’ clincher
Photos: Golden State Warriors beat Denver Nuggets to advance to
Western Conference semifinals

Other teams will have some size, too. Memphis has Jaren Jackson and
Brandon Clarke and a ton of strength on the wing. Minnesota has Karl
Anthony-Towns, who averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds against the
Warriors this season. Phoenix will always have a competent center on the
floor, starting with the underrated DeAndre Ayton, followed by Javale
McGee and Bismack Biyombo, the latter of which was signed mid-season to
a 10-day contract.

But those possible playoff matchups for the Dubs also boast All-Star
point guards, ascending players on the wing, and elite shot creators.
Everything Denver didn’t have.

So the challenge for the Warriors will be ramped up, significantly, in
the next round and perhaps rounds to come.

This isn’t to say they cannot win. No sir. Golden State looks to have a
gear that no other team can touch.

But the series against Denver does make me wonder how often they can
reach that gear.

There are more giants blocking the road, after all.

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