5th Seed Watch (was 6th Seed Watch)

[Onus]

Last game with LAC was like Play-In game, so

Curry tovs

2021 LAL 6tovs
2021 MEM 7tovs
2024 SAC 6tovs
2025 LAC 8tovs

Two of them we lost in OT and one by 3pts...This is almost 7 tovs per game. Curry made 7 bad passes from 8 tovs in game with LAC.

Basically teams just double Steph in high leverage games and the he tries to do too much because the team can't win 4v3.

So where is a problem? Maybe Green, b/c opponents can leave him wide open?

Watch on YouTube

Look at how the clips handled it. But since we don't have the shooters or the inside presence we struggle to take advantage.

[HiRez]

The book has been out for a while on how to shut down the Warriors (mostly, throw multiple bodies at Steph, deny him any shot or getting the ball in the first place, bump and jab him constantly). And it works really well, but teams have to have two things. Talent, specifically long, rangy athletes who can hound Steph and switch on/off quickly. Second, the commitment to keep it up. Some teams have the talent, but they only bring it occasionally. When they don't Steph breaks out. Some teams try it but their players are too small or too slow to contain Steph, and again, that obviously works out poorly for them.

The other big problem the Warriors have to overcome is physicality. Outside of Draymond and sometimes Jimmy (who is strong and doesn't shy away from contact, but is older now and injury prone), the Warriors are just not a physical team and can get bullied. We don't have bruisers like Bogut and West anymore. Steph is tough and takes a lot of abuse, but it gets to him eventually too. It's also just exhausting to be fighting the whole game, leaving them gassed by the end. This is why I worry about teams like the Clippers and yes, the Rockets, they will just beat you up. By being extremely physical from the jump, they condition the refs to just accept a good deal of it.

[Onus]

Watch on YouTube

Zubac really was a problem.

[AirP.]

Read on Twitter

[whatisacenter]

Read on Twitter

Might mean some minutes for Gui or Rowe.

[EvanZ]

Damn we're cooked.

[HiRez]

Damn, the back spasms are crazy this year. From what I can recall so far Draymond, Steph, Jimmy, Podz, and Moody have all had them, and I'm probably forgetting someone.

They should be able to win this game but they've lost a lot of games this year they "should" win, so I'm nervous. Bad enough to have to play this one, if they lose I really think their season is over even if it technically isn't. Just not enough rest.

[HiRez]

Basically teams just double Steph in high leverage games and the he tries to do too much because the team can't win 4v3.

So where is a problem? Maybe Green, b/c opponents can leave him wide open?

Watch on YouTube

Look at how the clips handled it. But since we don't have the shooters or the inside presence we struggle to take advantage.

It's disgusting to watch. It's bad how casually they double and rotate, but the real question is why are they doubling these guys at all? It just seems like they get burned way more times than the gamble pays off. The same could be said when the Warriors try to double a post player inside, it usually doesn't work because they're leaving a 3 point shooter wide open and don't have the speed to recover back outside.

I realize it's difficult because we have some poor defenders like Podz and Hield on the perimeter (even Steph at times), and we don't have the size/strength on the interior. Draymond and Loon try hard but they simply cannot consistently deal with 7-foot plus giants effectively one on one. But I would really like to see them try to just play straight up man defense and stick to their guy and not leave all these horrendous defensive gaps all over the court. Double-teaming a guy 30 feet from the basket is especially galling because it's completely unnecessary.

[Onus]

So where is a problem? Maybe Green, b/c opponents can leave him wide open?

Watch on YouTube

Look at how the clips handled it. But since we don't have the shooters or the inside presence we struggle to take advantage.

It's disgusting to watch. It's bad how casually they double and rotate, but the real question is why are they doubling these guys at all? It just seems like they get burned way more times than the gamble pays off. The same could be said when the Warriors try to double a post player inside, it usually doesn't work because they're leaving a 3 point shooter wide open and don't have the speed to recover back outside.

I realize it's difficult because we have some poor defenders like Podz and Hield on the perimeter (even Steph at times), and we don't have the size/strength on the interior. Draymond and Loon try hard but they simply cannot consistently deal with 7-foot plus giants effectively one on one. But I would really like to see them try to just play straight up man defense and stick to their guy and not leave all these horrendous defensive gaps all over the court. Double-teaming a guy 30 feet from the basket is especially galling because it's completely unnecessary.

They were destroying us in isolation so I guess they tried to get someone else to beat us. The issue is that we were doubling so far away from the hoop that there was a ton of room to operate. We then couldn't help off of isolation because then Zubac was just killing us so we were scared to leave his body. Our POA defense just wasn't good enough and we couldn't rebound to save our lives. We couldn't stop them so Kerr made it easier for them to stop us by playing gp2 even though we couldn't stop them and were doubling out to half. Just doesn't make sense.

[xdrta+]

Read on Twitter

Might mean some minutes for Gui or Rowe.

Not Rowe, two-way players not eligible for play-in.

[vvoland]

Watch on YouTube

Look at how the clips handled it. But since we don't have the shooters or the inside presence we struggle to take advantage.

It's disgusting to watch. It's bad how casually they double and rotate, but the real question is why are they doubling these guys at all? It just seems like they get burned way more times than the gamble pays off. The same could be said when the Warriors try to double a post player inside, it usually doesn't work because they're leaving a 3 point shooter wide open and don't have the speed to recover back outside.

I realize it's difficult because we have some poor defenders like Podz and Hield on the perimeter (even Steph at times), and we don't have the size/strength on the interior. Draymond and Loon try hard but they simply cannot consistently deal with 7-foot plus giants effectively one on one. But I would really like to see them try to just play straight up man defense and stick to their guy and not leave all these horrendous defensive gaps all over the court. Double-teaming a guy 30 feet from the basket is especially galling because it's completely unnecessary.

They were destroying us in isolation so I guess they tried to get someone else to beat us. The issue is that we were doubling so far away from the hoop that there was a ton of room to operate. We then couldn't help off of isolation because then Zubac was just killing us so we were scared to leave his body. Our POA defense just wasn't good enough and we couldn't rebound to save our lives. We couldn't stop them so Kerr made it easier for them to stop us by playing gp2 even though we couldn't stop them and were doubling out to half. Just doesn't make sense.

Whenever you can play an undersized PG at the 4 despite him refusing to look at the rim from 5 ft away and fouling 3pt shooters/playing matador defense, you just have to. It's not like we had an athletic marvel sitting on the bench that might have been worth trying...