How the Warriors can Beat the Lakers

Warriors play Lakers tonight on ESPN.  Obviously, this is an important game.  Here's how they can win.

1.)  Offensive Rebounding.  Shockingly, the Lakers, while a good Offensive rebounding team, rank 23rd in the league in defensive rebound rate.  Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, and Derek Fisher's defensive rebounding rates have all fallen from last season.  The key will be for our wing players (Wright, Ellis and Curry) to crash the boards (shocking, right?).  Simply put, you can't expect to beat 7 footers for rebounds, though Lee and Udoh should still make them work for rebounds.  The Lakers' guards, however, are another story, because they often don't box out, allowing people to slip in to crash the boards, which is why their defensive rebounding rate is so bad. 

2.) Turnovers.  The Lakers have taken the ball pretty badly as of late, possibly to do late-season apathy.  The Warriors thrive on steals,  since they cannot play one-on-one defense, so the Warriors should gamble often and force some turnovers.  Turnovers also allow the Warriors to get out and run, preventing the Lakers from being able to use their length.   However, the Lakers on the season are good at not turning over the ball, so the Warriors should stop gambling if the turnovers aren't coming, though of course that has never stopped them before.

3.)  Give up three pointers.  The Lakers have also been shooting the three badly.  The rank 28th in three point percentage.  And let's be honest here - the Warriors need to give up something on defense.  So they should just pack the paint, and let guys, especially Kobe, shoot three pointers (Kobe isn't good at shooting threes, but his mid-range game is deadly).  This also involves doubling whoever is in the post, because neither Udoh or Lee is a good post defender.  Also, for some reason, in the last two games the Blazers and Mavs missed a lot of open looks from three, so look for the Warriors to try to continue this streak.

4.)  Take advantage of the Lakers' bench.  Keith Smart will probably play his starters incredibly big minutes (again), so look for them to take advantage of the Lakers' second unit.  Obviously most of these guys would be starting for the Warriors, but the Warriors should still be able to take advantage.  The weak link appears to be Shannon Brown, who often burps up terrible shots off the dribble, even though he is better catching and shooting (though it's still not that good).  Try to get him to do that, and the ESPN announcers will say the Lakers are "going cold" at some point in the broadcast.