Run, run, run February 19 at Portland: Blazers win 137—105 Returning from the All-Star break, the Blazers had two full days to scheme for the Warriors’ second trip to the Moda Center this season. After going through hours of Golden State tape, the Portland coaching staff designed a 48-hour preparation of practices simulating Golden State’s offense. Sadly, this is not one of those stories where a bench player grabbed a blue No. 30 jersey and mimicked Steph Curry for the day. The Blazers simply focused on shutting down the Warriors’ offensive philosophies. "Just the way they play,” C.J. McCollum told SI.com. “They don’t really run plays. They run like a freestyle motion offense, they play out of the pinch post a little bit, run some splits.” Portland particularly readied for the Warriors’ aggressive shot selection. “You know, they pull up from deep, run off screens,” Allen Crabbe told SI.com. “We just tried to simulate it as best we can and we were able to defend it well in practice and it carried over to the game.” Rather than play at their accustomed tempo, which is around league average, Portland matched Golden State’s relentless cadence. The Blazers’ pace paid dividends for the team’s offensive production. Head coach Terry Stotts urged his players to keep running all game, frantically waving his arms on the sideline like a third base coach signaling his players to race home. “It wasn’t necessarily trying to outscore Golden State, per se. I think every team, at least my philosophy, is that you try and get easy baskets when you can. And if you can’t, then you play against halfcourt,” Stotts said. “I have a lot of respect for their halfcourt defense and whether their big guys are on the court or Draymond Green’s at the five and they’re doing a lot of switching, it’s just easier when you don’t have to play against that.” Portland combated Golden State’s dominant small–ball lineup with a compact unit of its own, surrounding Damian Lillard at the 5:43 mark of the third quarter with Crabbe, Gerald Henderson, Al-Farouq Aminu and tasking Noah Vonleh with Green. “Coach felt I could be out there because I can cover multiple guys and switch different positions,” Vonleh told SI.com. “We said in our pregame talks we were gonna get into them, get into the ball, make it tougher to see passing lanes and that’s what we tried to do.” The group ripped off a 14-2 burst over the next four minutes, forcing eight Golden State turnovers and building a 102–75 lead. “When we go to a small lineup, we get deflections and we get steals and it allows us to get out on the break,” Crabbe said. Lillard provided the highlight of that stretch, diving for steals on back-to-back possessions that erased seemingly sure-fire Golden State transition opportunities. “You can’t give them easy buckets,”Lillard said.“Steph is gonna make threes, Klay is gonna make threes, you know the other guys are gonna do what they do, but you can’t give them too many easy opportunities.” Lillard of course made the most of his own scoring opportunities,hanging a career-high 51 points on the Warriors’ top-five defense. He played with a churning fire, which Lillard denied was fueled by his All-Star snub, shooting 9–of–12 from deep. “I just got in the flow,”Lillard said. “You see the ball go in enough times early, you’re able to get to spots. And once you get in a rhythm, a lot of guys in this league can tell you that, [no matter] how good the defense is, what spot on the floor you’re in, it kind of goes out the window. There’s pretty much nothing they can do.” Portland as a team shot a blistering 17–of–30 from deep. Even Vonleh drained his fifth triple of the season. The Blazers’ defensive effort clearly set the table for their offensive burst, though. Portland forced 13 Golden State turnovers—just two shy of their season average per game—in the third quarter alone. “The wheels came off,” Curry admitted to reporters post game. http://www.si.com/nba/2016/03/03/go...n-curry-blazers-bucks-nuggets-celtics-pistons
I could see the Spurs running the hell out of the Warriors too. They know for one quarter of it Steph's team would probably get a big lead. But then they could start wearing them down. The Spurs have Mills, Ginobili, Simmons, Diaw, Kyle Anderson all on the bench. Those guys have been more effective than the Warriors 8-11 men. The Spurs did similar waves of players with nonstop movement when they dominated the 2014 playoffs.
