CLEVELAND — So it seems the Warriors are sputtering on offense. If only there was a player they could turn to who had experience rescuing a championship team.
There’s a reason Steph Curry and Klay Thompson call Andre Iguodala the smartest basketball player they’ve ever been around. There’s a reason Steve Kerr calls Andre Iguodala the team’s rock. He knows when and where to pick his spots. He knows when he’s needed most.
So far the attention Iguodala has garnered in the 2016 playoffs has revolved around his defensive mastery. But now pressed up against a brick wall after a 30-point loss, and clinging on to a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals, the Warriors are looking for just a little bit more from their 32-year-old point forward.
They need an unexpected scoring outburst from him.
In Game 4 of the NBA Finals last season, Iguodala famously ditched his facilitator role to become a vicious attacker on offense. He poured in 22 points, hit four three-pointers and oddly did not record an assist. With Iguodala slashing his way toward the rim, Golden State’s shooters found themselves wide open behind the arc. The Warriors won by 21 in Cleveland, commencing the Cavaliers’ unraveling. Iguodala’s gutty effort justly earned him the NBA Finals MVP.
This time around the matchups are different, but Golden State hasn’t had the luxury of Iguodala railroading Cleveland with his scoring. It could be the missing element that’ll help Curry and Thompson get the open looks they crave. Iguodala’s averaging 10.0 points per game in the Finals, but here’s the kicker: he’s shooting at an incredibly high clip — 13/22, equaling out to 59 percent. Whether Kerr has to nudge him or Iguodala realizes it himself: it’s Andre time for the Warriors on offense.
If he doesn’t take the scoring route in Game 4, Iguodala still has that inherent feel for what the proper flow of Golden State’s offense should look like. It’s his reassuring presence that often helps the Warriors crack open big leads early in the game. He’s the player that understands when his team should run a fast break, or when they should slow it down to slice up the opponent.
Iguodala’s also got a smoke detector with him at all times — he can sense when things are going wrong on offense. When the Warriors take shots early in the shot clock without moving the ball around, they aren’t getting open looks, and worse, they aren’t draining energy from Cleveland. LeBron James can be worn down. Although always dominant, he’s not the same energetic stallion he once was.
The flow on offense was nonexistent in Game 3. Quick shots are the Warriors’ kryptonite. They can’t be as prevalent in Friday’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Iguodala has to lay down the law in the huddle if they do.
“Sometimes you’ve got to hit a bunch of singles to get runs in,” Iguodala said Thursday after practice. “You can’t just look for home runs, and sometimes we go for home runs. When you try to force home runs, it usually bites you in the ass, and it can come back to haunt you. Taking a quick three or shooting too quickly early in the shot clock and not making the defense work, they get the rebound and they’re off to the races. I think that happened in the second half. We were trying to get it back all at once, and that led to them getting easy transition baskets.”
Without openly saying it, Iguodala seems to think the Warriors need to slow the basketball down against James and the Cavs’ defense. Golden State overwhelmed Cleveland at home playing an up-tempo pace and using fresh legs off the bench to run the Cavs into the ground. That doesn’t exactly work on the road at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cleveland fans have injected life into their team. The 9-0 run to begin Game 3 on Wednesday night shook the Warriors. Pressing to try and quickly get the lead back in the first quarter, it forced the Warriors into taking bad shots. That’s a recipe for another road loss.
When you actually look back on the Warriors’ last two road playoff wins, it took heroic performances to get the job done. Thompson blasted Oklahoma City for 41 points in an epic Game 6 win, setting an NBA postseason record with 11 made three-pointers. And who could forget Curry’s record-setting 17 points in overtime at Portland, on his first game back from an MCL sprain.
Golden State will gladly take one of those doozy games tonight from Curry or Thompson. Or maybe it’ll have to be Iguodala who turns in the hero card.
“We’ve been here before in this situation, and we’ve been down many times which can mentally be taxing on you,” Iguodala said. “Being down 3-1, being down 2-1 a few times. With the regular season we just had, with all the coverage and the pressures of that. So we’ve seen some of the situations, but this is kind of the height of the NBA and this is where you want to be.”
