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Explain One Play: Curry screens for Looney cyclone dunk

A brief history of the classic Steve Kerr play “Cyclone” and how Steph Curry screened for a Kevon Looney dunk in the Bulls-Warriors game on Nov 24 2017.

NBA: Orlando Magic at Golden State Warriors
looneylooney!
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

This is a very brief history of the classic Steve Kerr play “Cyclone” and how Stephen Curry screened for a Kevon Looney dunk in the Bulls-Warriors game on Nov 24 2017. This is a classic play that we’ve discussed in the past under the name “Warriors Rip” because a backscreen for a cut straight down the lane is sometimes called a Rip.

But somewhere along the way Ethan Sherwood Strauss found out that the Warriors themselves call it “Cyclone”. It makes a kind of sense, as players end up going in a whirling pattern.

As the video below shows, this play memorably made its debut in the brutal 2015 Grizzlies series. In Game 6, the Warriors unleashed a series of second quarter backcuts to punish MEM for its tough overplays of the passing lanes. Teams this year are doing the same thing to the Warriors, and GSW will need to go back to that part of its offense to punish overplays.

Last night, GSW ran Cyclone again and it got Looney a dunk. Here’s a brief video:

The Warriors Secret Play, Cyclone

Inside GSW's secret play Cyclone, where Stephen Curry screens for dunks.

Posted by Golden State of Mind on Saturday, November 25, 2017

(alternate YouTube link)

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