© Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
With their 116-101 win Monday night, the Warriors jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs. Here are the five things we have learned.
Did the Warriors hoodwink us?
Maybe the Warriors coasted. Maybe they were bored. Maybe they were sandbagging, losing 10 of their final 17, just to make things interesting.
But through two games, they have been a steaming locomotive, showing no lingering signs from a strange end to the season, instead resembling the 2017 squad that went 16-1 in the playoffs, which ended in an NBA Championship.
Without a two-time MVP, the Warriors have dominated the Spurs through two games, while improving on a glaring late-season deficiency: defense.
Golden State allowed 118 points per game in the final four regular season contests. The Warriors have allowed only 96.5 points throughout the opening two playoff wins.
Most importantly, everyone, aside from Stephen Curry, who was has been sidelined with a left knee sprain, has returned in solid form. Health took precedence over results in the final month of the season, with the Warriors established as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. The most pressing question was how Golden State would look after all of its best players missed some time.
Through two games, we know those were false concerns.
Klay Thompson looks as good as he has all year
Sometimes it’s easy to forget the Warriors have a player with a 60-point game and 37-point quarter on his resume, with three of the past four MVP recipients and one of the most well-known NBA coaches chewing up headlines.
Klay Thompson may occasionally go unnoticed, but he rarely underperforms, especially in the postseason.
Through two games, he has been the best player in the opening-round series, stepping up in Curry’s absence while single-handedly taking over stretches of games.
In Game 1, Thompson made 11 of his 13 shot attempts, missing only one of his six three-point tries. He finished with 27 points in Golden State’s 113-92 win.
“He is probably not going to go 11-13 (again), but he was fantastic,” Steve Kerr said prior to Game 2. “He was patient, worked without the ball. It wasn’t just his shooting; it was getting other guys open. He was popping out, getting two guys to go with him. We were getting some backdoor stuff. But that’s what Klay does— he puts a lot of fear in the opponent, and they have to account for him.”
Kerr was right. Thompson didn’t carry the same near-perfect efficiency with him into Game 2, but Thompson went 12-20 from the floor and 5-8 from three-point range for 31 points. Not bad.
He consistently ran off screens along the baseline, shielded off shadowing defenders, and used his body to separate on catch-and-shoot looks. As Thompson has showed throughout his seven years in the league, he needs little air space to release, and convert on, his jumper. Throughout Game 2, particularly in the second half, he hit one contested shot after the next, derailing any hope of a San Antonio win.
“He’s a tough cover,” Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge said after Game 2. “He’s a big-time shooter, has a quick release. I thought our guys competed and battled with him. He hit some tough shots off one leg and had some friendly bounces, but that’s why they are who they are. He made tough shots, (Kevin Durant) made tough shots, and they won the game.”
Thompson is shooting nearly 70 percent through two games. Forty-two percent of his shots have come from three-point range. And only one of his 23 made shots have been taken in the paint.
Klay Thompson's shot plot through two games
-Only 1 of his 23 makes at the rim
-Hit a shot from 11 of the 13 zones
-He's 5/5 on left wing 3s
-He's 8/11 on long 2shttps://t.co/1vIi0q0fHU pic.twitter.com/16iwQDCRYF— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 17, 2018
That’s some of the most incredible shooting you will see. Thompson has made it look routine, against the stingiest point-per-game defense in the NBA.
In Game 2 Monday night, he produced only six first-half points. In a two-minute, 15-second span early in the third quarter, Thompson rattled off eight points. And early in the fourth quarter, he went on a personal 6-0 run, extending the Golden State lead to 11, which was ultimately too great for San Antonio to overcome.
He looks as fresh as he has all year after missing eight straight games with a broken right thumb last month. The first two games of the opening round series marked Thompson’s first back-to-back performances of at least 27-point games this season.
His hot playoff start caps a season in which he produced career-bests in field goal percentage (48.8) and three-point percentage (44).
On the other end of the floor, Thompson continues to assert himself as one of the top on-ball defenders in the league. His dominance on both ends has helped give the Warriors a commanding 2-0 lead.
Golden State’s surprising rebounding advantage
One of the few areas in which the Spurs held an advantage entering the series was in the rebounding battle. The Spurs corralled 23.7 percent of their misses, the sixth-best mark in the NBA, while Golden State rebounded 76.3 percent of defensive opportunities, the fifth-worst in the league.
The extra scoring opportunities yielded through San Antonio’s offensive rebounding help obscure its lack of complementary scorers. If the Spurs hoped to match Golden State’s scoring attack, it would be through offensive rebounding opportunities.
The Warriors haven’t let it happen through two games. They out-rebounded the Spurs 51-30 in Game 1 and 39-35 in Game 2. The Spurs, which averaged 10.2 offensive rebounds per game, have only 12 offensive rebounds through the first two opening-round contests.
“I knew we were doing a great job boxing out because we have been so poor with that in the last month,” Kerr said prior to Game 2. “That’s what I was really focused on.”
Golden State has eliminated one of the few equalizers in this series. The Warriors’ ability to switch screens and throw several defenders at Aldridge — whether Javale McGee, Kevon Looney, Draymond Green, Durant, or Iguodala — have mitigated San Antonio’s attack.
San Antonio’s lack of complementary scoring
The Spurs have virtually no chance at beating Golden State unless Aldridge plays very well. When he scored 14 points on only 12 shots in Game 1, he played right into Golden State’s hands. The Warriors switched screens and frequently doubled Aldridge, forcing the ball out of his hands, which seemed to surprise San Antonio.
Aldridge rebounded last game, scoring 34 points. But San Antonio still lost by 15 points due to the lack of complementary scoring.
After Aldridge’s 24 points-per-game average in two games, the next highest is Rudy Gay’s 13.5-point average. Patty Mills is next up, averaging 13 points through the opening two contests.
The Spurs are getting no help from starting point guard Dejounte Murray, who continues to look outmatched. Kyle Anderson started Game 1 but performed terribly, playing only 11 minutes, scoring no points, and producing a -15 plus-minus. The Warriors dared him to shoot, sagging several feet off him on the perimeter, yet Anderson continued to badly miss open jumpers.
With the exception of Aldridge, and perhaps Gay, the Spurs are devoid of players who can consistently find their own shot. When the Warriors are switching every screen and staying disciplined to their assignments, the Spurs have had few answers.
Iguodala’s emergence
It’s no secret that when Iguodala scores, Golden State is almost impossible to beat. It doesn’t happen too often. Iguodala scored in double-digits only 12 times in an up-and-down, injury-laden regular season.
But it happened instantaneously Monday night.
Iguodala splashed a corner three-pointer fewer than two minutes into the game. Then he knocked down a catch-and-shoot look off an offensive rebound two minutes later. Only 50 seconds lapsed, and he drilled another three-pointer in the left corner, sending Oracle Arena into delirium.
It would have been rare for Iguodala to make three three-pointers in an entire game. He had only one such game this season.
He did so in five minutes. And his early makes were huge, keeping Golden State close as Aldridge scored 11 first-quarter points.
Kerr inserted Iguodala into the starting lineup in each of the first two games for defensive purposes. With another athletic wing on the floor, Golden State can easily switch screens and match up 1-5 with a variety of personnel. Consider Iguodala’s first-quarter offensive outburst as a bonus.
Iguodala, who was hampered by a sprained wrist and knee tendinitis throughout the past month, appears fully recovered. He looks more like his NBA Finals MVP-self than what he showed in the first half of the season, when he shot only 23 percent from three-point range in his first 48 games.
Like Thompson, perhaps the extra rest has benefited Iguodala.
