The Anatomy of the Klay-Curry-Bogut Three-Man Game

"Chemistry" is a term that refers to an intangible aspect of sports performance. It soothes over the nuances of how well certain players fit with one another on the court with one catch-all term that we can easily grasp. In basketball in particular, part of that process of building "chemistry" is cultivating the interpersonal bonds between athletes in the locker room.

Coach Steve Kerr put the offensive improvements of the Golden State Warriors in more realistic and measurable terms: "[Bogut] has got such great feel and he and Steph have a connection that goes back over the last couple years. That's the nice part of continuity and keeping those guys together."

The Warriors at peak efficiency are running a movement offense that operates so quickly it doesn't allow the defense time to react through words. It forces their scheme to use muscle memory and talent to stifle its quick-twitch screens and cuts. Needless to say, the Utah Jazz aren't at that level yet. The San Antonio Spurs are a different story, quite obviously.

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I asked how natural it was for Andrew Bogut to run dribble handoffs and high-post action. Kerr, unlike a certain other coach, is excellent when asked about Xs and Os, even if it's only a few words.

"Bogues is made for dribble-handoffs. He's like a modern-day Arvydas Sabonis."

This is a next-level DHO. Bogut isn't even bothering to look at Steph as he runs off the Klay Thompson pindown. Trey Burke is already a couple steps behind, and completely lost his train of movement -- and thought.

What makes Bogut so impressive in his dribbling -- including a lefty in-and-out-dribble and finish over Derrick Favors earlier in the game -- is that he's completely comfortable, even at times careless, with the ball. He isn't afraid to swing it without hesitation, which nitrouses the speed of the offense and leaves guys like Burke, Favors and Hayward flat-footed.

"Klay actually made that play with his cut. So he cut, Steph came off that cut and the whole action happened because he came off that cut."

Hayward is caught in no-man's land here. What else is he supposed to do? He can impede Bogut's path to the rim for a second but he risks leaving one of the best shooters in the world wide open. And there's a high chance that Bogut runs him over anyway. Instead, he sorta does neither and Steph reacts accordingly.

"It's hard on the defense because Bogues will set a pindown on Klay, Klay comes out, and the big has to help a little bit on Klay because he's such a good shooter and if he helps too much, Bogues just goes, and Steph throws it up there."

I didn't get a chance to ask Bogut about Kerr's comparison of him to Arvydas Sabonis, but here's thinking he'd be pretty satisfied.

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