The Golden State Warriors find themselves in a bit of a hole in these NBA Finals. After taking a 1-0 series lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and finding out the news that Cleveland’s starting point guard and perennial all-star, Kyrie Irving, will be out for the rest of the series, the Warriors have dropped two straight games.
While this is cause for concern, the Warriors know they have been in this situation before. During their Western Conference Semifinal match-up against the Memphis Grizzlies, they found themselves in an eerily similar situation to the one they are in now. After winning the first game at home, they then lost back-to-back games, both at home and on the road.
The stats are also oddly familiar. When it comes to Stephen Curry who is as consistent a player as anyone, his numbers dropped in the first three games of each series. In the first three games of the Memphis series, Curry shot 39.7% from the field, and 28% from deep. During the first three games of the NBA Finals, Curry is shooting 39.7% from the field and 32% from deep.
The problem now is figuring what adjustments to make, to get the series right back on track and in the Warriors control.
“We have to play better. We won 67 games this year. We’re a good team,” head coach Steve Kerr said during shoot around, “There are some things we can do to get back to our style, our pace, but the biggest adjustment is to be more like us.”
The pace of the game is another area of concern for the Warriors, who like to push the ball up the court and take quick shots when possible. On Wednesday, Kerr was on KNBR talking to Tom Tolbert and Ray Ratto about how adjusting the pace for this series will be harder than it was against Memphis.
“We were able to speed up the Memphis games with some defensive adjustments that we made against Zach Randolph in particular. It’s harder to do it against LeBron (James),” Kerr said, “They’re playing well, they’re playing their style, they dictate the pace. It’s something we’re trying to do, we’ve got a few ideas.
“We got some adjustments but if we do what we do better, we should be able to play a little faster.”
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @kassiwashita)
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