Golden State Warriors Playoffs 2014: Five Keys To Beating The Los Angeles Clippers (Photo: Kelley L Cox / USA Today)
With Saturday’s Game 1 quickly approaching, time to discuss the short-handed Golden State Warriors keys to making it the second round of the post-season for the second consecutive season.
1. Slowing Down Blake Griffin And Chris Paul
Most of the Warriors’ success defensively will stem from their ability to slow down Griffin, who has averaged 25.8 points per game since January. Defensive Player of the Year candidate Andrew Bogut, of course, would have been a big part of that particular game plan.
With him nursing a potentially life-threatening rib injury, Coach Mark Jackson is left with Jermaine O’Neal, David Lee and Draymond Green, none of whom have had the same success slowing down the Clipper power forward. Finding ways to make Griffin a jump shooter without Bogut will be vital to slowing the NBA’s top offense.
The other big concern is keeping Paul from controlling the pace of the game. While Stephen Curry doesn’t have the physical gifts to challenge CP3 on the perimeter, both Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala have the size and length to give Paul problems, as well as be effective on pick-and-roll switches.
If the Warriors can balance all three players’ time on Paul and keep themselves out of foul trouble, it’ll be a win for the Warriors. Paul is simply too good to shut down completely, so the Dubs will instead have to make him work hard for everything he gets.
2. Production From Green And Harrison Barnes
What Green, who will likely play large minutes at power forward, provides is a way to aggressively attack the Paul and Griffin pick-and-roll offense. He’s taken his turn defending both players, and while he lacks the quickness or size to keep up with Paul and Griffin all game, he can challenge at the perimeter far better than any other Warrior big man.
It’s also important for Green to keep up his hot shooting from beyond the arc. Since the All-Star break, Green has shot 39.3 percent from three-point range, including hitting 24 of his last 55 coming into the Denver Nuggets game Wednesday night. If he can continue to stretch the floor while providing his trademark defensive impact, he can provide the perimeter-centric advantage the team found in last year’s playoffs.
The other side of the coin is Barnes, who had seemingly only struggled since the season’s mid-way point. Following a season-high scoring performance of 30 points in the regular season finale at Denver, the hope is he’s found renewed confidence going into the playoffs.
If the Warriors expect to win while going small, they’ll definitely need his contributions. Barnes has had his best success as a part of the Dubs “small-ball” lineups in last year’s post-season, and hasn’t really been afforded the same opportunities to succeed since a pre-season foot injury this year.
3. Don’t Get Beat By “Lob City”
Everyone who’s seen more than a handful of Warriors games this season knows their struggles with taking care of the basketball. While they’ve improved greatly since the season began, the Warriors are still susceptible to a 20-giveaway performance every now and then.
Particularly, it’s the oft-mentioned “live-ball” turnovers that could hurt them. Curry is one of the main culprits, with a number of his league-high 3.8 turnovers coming in the live ball variety.
The Clippers are the NBA leaders in points off turnovers, and the resulting fast break dunks often act as catalysts for the entire Clipper lineup, so keeping them out of transition will be key.
4. Protecting The Paint
Normally, this means keeping Bogut out of foul trouble, but now the Warriors are in need of an alternate strategy. The Warriors will likely go with the smaller, quicker lineup mentioned above much like they did last season in the playoffs.
While that might make defending inside a little tougher, it could definitely help their transition defense. Getting back quickly will be key to preventing the Clippers from getting easy baskets, with or without unnecessary turnovers.
5. The Foul Game
The final key might be the Warriors need to contain the Clippers is at the free throw line. While the Clippers shot just 72.9 percent, 5th worst in the NBA, they attempted the second most shots from the charity stripe, behind just the Houston Rockets.
With the Warriors best interior defender out, the Dubs will be hurting on multiple levels. Not only will it be difficult to keep the Clippers out of the paint, where they are a Top Five scoring team, the Dubs will also lack for bodies when their remaining big men do end up in foul trouble.
If Green or O’Neal find themselves drawing regular whistles, the series could be over quickly.
When fouls are committed, it’s important to be smart with them, especially if Jackson plans on making use of the hack-a-Deandre Jordan strategy he’s used in the past.
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