With the momentous comeback win over the Oklahoma City Thunder to notch the Western Conference Finals, #Dubnation continues to lay the pavement on their road to history. This historic season has been filled with highlight reel after highlight reel of jaw-dropping basketball. Led by the diminutive yet wily Stephen Curry, the Warriors excite with every game they play. The electrifying atmosphere of Oracle Arena is something that I’d personally love to experience first-hand. But how do the Golden State Warriors play on such a high level consistently? How do they win a series down three games to one, and then start the NBA Finals with a definitive 104-89 win?
Steph Curry is a scoring maestro. His game IQ is off the charts, with a jump shot to match. His reinvention of the three point shot is so unreal that it has been meticulously dissected by sports analytic's, and there is actually a science behind it. According to the Wall Street Journal’s break-down of Steph’s shot, the reason why his shot is so quick is because his shooting motion occurs while he jumps. It’s one smooth motion that lets him shoot 0.3 seconds faster than the average shot. And do not get me started on this man’s handles. His mastery of ball-handling lets him score off the dribble or facilitate the movement of the ball with ease. All this combined with his passing ability and court-vision puts him up there with (dare I say) guards like Magic Johnson.
But the reason for the Warriors unrelenting barrage of wins is not all based on Steph Curry’s greatness, though that does play a key role. It’s teamwork. The Warriors have utilized the effective tools of ball movement and passing to post large score margins on opponents. Veteran players like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are huge assets when it comes to distribution. When players slash towards the bucket, it takes keen eyes and flawless passing past defenders to a teammate’s hands. The Warriors are one of the best in the league aside from the Spurs and arguably the Hawks when it comes to circulating the ball into all the player’s hands in some point in each possession.
Another reason for the Warriors success is due to the fact that each player plays a specific role in the offensive and defensive scheme. Each player fills a niche that they play particularly well in and play that according to the game’s flow. For example, Shaun Livingston plays an important role as the post-up guard. He does an exceptionally good job of slowing down the pace of the offense by backing down his defender to put up an easy turn-around jump shot. His talent is crucial when the team needs quick points to stop a dry spell offensively. Draymond Green plays the part of co-facilitator with his scoring and passing ability (averaging about 7.4 assists in this season, a career high). His ability to read and execute a play when Steph Curry is out allows the team to keep in rhythm even without their best scorer on the court. Klay Thompson, aka #Splashbrother, is a proficient scorer regularly lighting up the score board with his terrifyingly accurate three-point shot and steps in as one of the team’s best scorer's.
It helps that Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are all All-Star players with a veteran former All-Star (Andre Iguodala) who are all in the lineup. But what makes them so special is their ability to play effectively off each other. None of the guys stand out in physical stature compared to some other players in the league but they make up for it with their team-play. They’re breaking records and making history in spectacular fashion as a team. As the old proverb goes, a strand of many chords is not easily broken. I think Golden State lives up to that pretty well.
