Kurtenbach: Three keys to the Warriors’ Game 3 win aside from the
Morant-Poole drama
Grizzlies-Warriors series: Ja Morant's injury aside, Steph Curry, Jordan
Poole, and Golden State took an all-important 2-1 series lead on Memphis
Saturday.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 7: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry (30) stands on the court during an interview after Game 3 of a
second-round NBA basketball playoff series at Chase Center in San
Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, May 7, 2022. The Golden State Warriors
defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 142-112. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area
News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 7: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry (30) stands on the court during an interview after Game 3 of a
second-round NBA basketball playoff series at Chase Center in San
Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, May 7, 2022. The Golden State Warriors
defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 142-112. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area
News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: May 8, 2022 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: May 8, 2022 at 9:09 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/08/kurtenbach-three-overshadowed-keys-to-the-warriors-game-3-win/

SAN FRANCISCO — Oh yeah, there was a basketball game Saturday night.

Amid all the hoopla and nonsense surrounding Ja Morant’s unfortunate
injury, the Warriors put 142 points on the Grizzlies to claim a 2-1 lead
in the teams’ Western Conference Semifinals series.

Here are three things that I think proved critical to the Warriors’ win:

- Paint Domination

While the series might have relocated to the Bay for Game 3, the
Warriors won Saturday by going directly into the Grizzlies’ house.

Undeterred by being pinballed around in the paint in the first two
games, the Warriors attacked the basket early and often in Game 3 and
found little to no resistance along the way.

The Warriors are smaller, lighter, and older than the Grizzlies. You’d
never know it Saturday.

The Dubs had a whopping 62 points in the paint on an absurd 70 percent
shooting.

The Grizzlies paved a path of least resistance directly to the basket.

Steph Curry scored 30 points. Ten came in the paint.

Jordan Poole added 27, with 12 coming in the paint.

Otto Porter and Andrew Wiggins added 10 apiece.

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Photos: Warriors dominate Grizzlies in pivotal Game 3

It was a layup line, and against a Memphis team that has serious shot
blockers.

The Dubs’ spacing is a huge reason behind the success in the paint. The
Warriors often play a four-out, one-in offensive system with someone
either in the dunker spot or on the block. They run their favorite play
this season — split-action — out of this look.

But against the Grizzlies this series, and particularly on Saturday, the
Warriors went five-out with every player on the perimeter.

It puts the Grizzlies in a defensive no-man’s land. They almost always
have one, if not two shot blockers on the court, but those players are
also athletic enough to defend one-on-one on the perimeter.

Do they go out or stay home?

That, paired with the Grizzlies’ youth and lack of defensive
connectivity burned them time and time again. One cut seemed capable of
breaking down the entire Memphis defense and the Warriors were cutting
like crazy, both on- and off-ball.

The ease with which the spaced-out Warriors were able to score once they
stopped throwing the ball away in the first half could leave one to
believe that this series was effectively over before the Morant injury.
If it’s serious enough to chase him from even one game, that would be a
death knell for the Grizz.

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Photos: Golden State Warriors defeat the Denver Nuggets at Chase
Center in Game 1 of the NBA first round playoffs

- No-Go Zone

When you’re showing up to what you think is a back-alley fight, it’s a
good idea to ruffle through your junk drawer and see if there’s anything
that can be brought as a weapon.

For the Warriors, that weapon was a 3-2 zone defense.

We’ve seen the zone plenty the past season — the past few seasons,
really — and in these playoffs, too, but never with better effect than
Saturday.

Early in Game 3, it was clear that the Dubs were no closer to figuring
out how to slow down Morant, who was knocking down shots when left open
and driving past defenders with ease if challenged on the perimeter.

Morant was channeling early-era James Harden Saturday.

And there’s a reason the Warriors never tried out any serious kind of
zone defense against Harden.

But against Morant, the Warriors gave it a go, giving them a heavy
presence in the paint on drives and effectively conceding the wing
3-pointer to Morant’s Memphis teammates.

Or so they thought, at least.

The zone worked against Morant, but the Memphis point guard and his
coach Taylor Jenkins did little to properly align the Grizzlies to
combat the Warriors’ easy-to-crack defense.

“That threw off our rhythm,” Jenkins said of the zone.

--
Dieter Kurtenbach
@dieter
"oh, do we need to play a 3-2, too?"

Joe Viray
@JoeVirayNBA
Memphis tried to beat the Warriors' zone with this configuration:
[video]

2:20 AM · May 8, 2022
13 Reply Share
--

The Warriors are undersized and lack a single defender who can
reasonably check Morant, should he play again in this series.

If the Grizzlies are going to be flummoxed by such a simple tactic — the
zone — the Warriors will gladly go back to it.

- ‘On-Guard’

The Warriors figured something out in Game 1 that has carried forward
into Game 2 and beyond.

With Draymond Green ejected from Game 1 for a Flagrant 2 foul, the
Warriors had to run the offense through their guards. What a concept!

The Dubs, small by choice and circumstance in that first game, found
themselves running a lot of their classic motion sets with guards
setting screens for guards on the perimeter.

You know what? It worked.

With Green back in the fold the past two games, the Warriors have stuck
with the guards-for-guards screens and it’s continuing to pay dividends.

It’s even happening in the low post.

--
Dieter Kurtenbach
@dieter
The future of offense

chan0.eth
@chanodesigns
Steph with the Sling Shot to get JP free 🤣🤣
[Embedded video]

7:58 PM · May 7, 2022
244 Reply Share
--

Expect to see more of these kinds of actions as the series continues and
even beyond.