Even on the verge of turning 37, Steph Curry remains to be a tremendous participant. His offensive manipulation of area on the ground mixed with a mastery of his personal gravity and timing makes him a basketball wizard. In Monday’s blowout, he nonetheless led the Warriors in scoring with 18 factors and 4 assists, however he might have given that every one again on protection.
Of the 4 main American sports activities, basketball is the one which forces you probably the most to play either side of the ball. What Curry provides you on offense, his 6’2 body takes away on D.
“First play of the sport, Curry deflected a move and I assumed we made a acutely aware effort to be extra bodily with our put up assaults, whether or not it was Curry, [Buddy] Hield, and [Moses] Moody at instances,” head coach Joe Mazzulla stated after his Celtics doubled up their hosts 52-to-26 within the paint.
“I assumed that compromised their protection a bit of bit and we have been capable of make the most of that. I assumed the physicality of our deep put up catches vs. their smalls was impactful and we discovered other ways to get to that — whether or not it was JB, whether or not it was JT, whether or not it was KP. I assumed JB did job setting that tone from a physicality standpoint.”
“Simply being aggressive and simply being bodily. I’m guarding him, so chasing him round, however on the defensive finish, making him pay as properly,” Jaylen Brown stated. “Anytime we have been in transition, we have been crossmatched and he was on me, I’m making an attempt to simply make him pay, make him work, and simply making the correct play — drawing the protection in and kicking it out. That led to some open pictures, simply being a playmaker.”
Brown completed with a modest 17 factors and two assists within the 125-85 begin of their west coast street journey, however it was the style by which he stuffed the field rating that’s noticeable. 9 of JB’s fourteen shot makes an attempt got here within the paint.
The Warriors are a whirling dervish on either side of the ball; as a substitute of getting caught up in all of the movement and chaos, Brown and the Celtics have been aggressive and deliberate with their bully ball strategy. Drive Curry and Golden State’s smaller guards to defend towards Boston’s larger wings.
We’ve in fact seen this killer whale strategy earlier than. In final yr’s championship run, they focused Tyler Herro, Darius Garland, Andrew Nembhard, and Kyrie Irving. In the event that they’re going to harm you on protection, the Celtics made sure to make them really feel it on offense.
The query is whether or not or not they’ll proceed to do that on the highest degree towards championship contenders.
Regardless of their league-leading protection, the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder have holes. We’ve already seen Brown hunt Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and also you higher imagine that if these two meet within the Finals in June, that’s going to be a vulnerability the Celtics will take full benefit of.
