Explain One Play: Warriors defy Barkley, switch and win anyway

If you don’t understand the vocabulary, check the end glossary.

Let’s look at a play from the start of the fourth quarter where the Warriors got their final separation from a game, scrappy Utah Jazz team.

The key lineup in Game 1 was Ian Clark (+7), Klay Thompson (+23) , Draymond Green (+19), Andre Iguodala (+9) and David West (+14). The +/- numbers are striking on a night where Stephen Curry (+5) and Kevin Durant (+2) didn’t post their usual big +/- numbers. It wasn’t so much that Curry and Durant played badly, but that they mostly shared the floor with Zaza Pachulia (+6) and JaVale McGee (-1). These two centers got singled out for repeated attack by the Jazz by having their man set screens for the pick-and-roll, and forcing them to defend against speedy drivers in space.

West, in contrast, was able to stay with the smalls he got switched onto, and that forced the Jazz to go to less advantageous offensive sets.

Q4. 10:14, GSW 90, UTA 73.

The W’s began the quarter up 12, but a lucky Green and-one plus a Green three have put them on the verge of putting this away.

This play was filled with very high-level switching. The Jazz actually run a version of a Warriors’ staple play: the split-cut dive-pop (see glossary). I’ll just roll it and see how many switches you can see in the video.

The ball gets thrown to Boris Diaw in the post to let him pass to cutters.

The play begins with Klay Thompson guarding George Hill (#3), Ian Clark on Dante Exum (#11), Green on Derrick Favors (#15), West on Diaw and Iguodala on Rodney Hood (#5).

• Thompson switches off Hill to Clark and takes Exum (there’s the split cut).
• Exum cuts to the basket, so he’s smoothly taken by Green, so Thompson switches to Favors.
• Favors sets a screen for Hill, so Thompson smoothly takes Hill and Clark takes Favors.
• Favors has a mismatch and pile-drives Clark into the paint to post him up. But watch Green yelling at Clark that he will take Favors. You can see Green point out where Exum is so Clark can switch to him.
• By now, the shot clock is winding down and Diaw tosses it to Favors. (Notice how Green pushes him several feet out on the catch.) In the end, the Jazz get Favors hoisting up a mid-range shot against Green, the real Defensive Player of the Year.

That’s a lot of smooth switching in 12 seconds.

An interesting subplot to the telecast was that Charles Barkley spent the whole TNT halftime show complaining about modern switching defenses. He got Dominique Wilkins to agree with him that the mismatches would kill you. A good rule of thumb for TNT commentary is that their notes are relevant circa 1990, when those commenters were learning the game. Back then, post play was more important since teams rarely shot three-pointers and, furthermore, there were rules to force teams to play one-on-one defense. So, back then, it was a great outcome to have a big guy isolated on a small he could back down and score on.

But this is the modern day, and teams have to defend against more sophisticated offenses. The Warriors have pioneered the switching defense, and more teams are adopting it because (a) it works and (b) it is the only known defense against the Warriors’ offense. The Cavs used switching against the injured Curry to fuel their Finals comeback. So the TNT folks are woefully out-of-date.

Here’s Jazz Coach Quinn Snyder on the Warriors’ defense: “They switch a lot against the pick-and-roll; they switch a lot of screening actions ... how quickly they think and connect.”

So, in other words, the TNT folks are completely wrong, and a better rule of thumb is to not watch the halftime show at all.

Bonus play

By request:

This play starts in confusion but ends up being standard W’s action:

Basically, a screener (usually JaVale McGee) sets a pin-down screen near the low post and a shooter (usually Thompson or Curry) curls around it. They expect the screener’s defender to step out to stop the curl, and then the screener cuts in for a thunderous dunk.

Tonight’s play looks like it’s supposed to be the same idea, but run by Durant curling around Pachulia. Since it’s Pachulia, you know it’s not going to end in a thunderous dunk.

Early on, Curry waves Thompson through. He gets grabbed by two Jazz men, like in a cheap gangster movie — where do you think you’re going bucko? — and Joe Ingles holds him the entire play. So I’m not sure where Thompson is supposed to be.

Anyway, Durant cuts down the baseline and curls around Pachulia. Rudy Gobert looks like he has Durant contained, as well as Pachulia, but Durant throws a highly ambitious pass that magically slips by into Pachulia’s hands.

There was a lot of holding off-ball in general, to the extent that Curry’s defender actually got a foul call for holding.

Game tweets

Explain One Play Glossary

Basic Terms

• pick (or screen): To stand in the way of a defender.
• pop: After setting a pick, run to open space, ready to catch a pass to shoot.
• roll: After setting a pick, run towards the basket
• slip (the screen): Begin to set a pick, but roll or pop early
• drive: move towards the basket with the ball
• cut: move without the ball
• dive: cut to the basket
• kick out: pass to the perimeter from the paint.

Kinds of Screens

• back: screen for a player to cut to the basket
• down: screen for a player cutting away from the baseline
• flare: screen for a player to pop out for a jumper.
• ram (pre-screen): screen for a player who then sets a screen.
• dribble-pitch: dribble towards a player and hand the ball off while setting a screen for them.
• drag: a high screen set early in offense as the screener arrives

Defense

• switch: When a defender is screened, they switch assignments to the screener, and the screener’s defender guards their previous assignment.
• trap/blitz/double: Two players closely guard one.
• goalie/shadow/overload: A secondary defender is positioned to backup a player’s primary defender.
• show, hedge: a screener’s defender jumps out to slow the ballhandler, then recovers to their assignment
• go over a screen: go around the screen on the side farther from the basket (so the ball is open to drive rather than shoot)
• go under a screen: go around the screen on the side closer to the basket (so the ball is open to shoot rather than drive)
• close out: get close to a shooter to intimidate the shot.

Locations

• high/low: Closer to the baseline is “low”, farther from the basket is “high”
• weak/strong side: The side of the court with the ball is the strong side, the other side is the weak side.

http://www.coachesclipboard.net

Plays

• Floppy: Ball at the top, a screen is set at each side of the lane, 1+ shooters starts under basket and curl around a screen. More.
• HORNS: Two bigs at elbows, two smalls at corners, ball up high. More.
• High HORNS: Like HORNS, but two bigs set screens above the free throw circle.
• Motion Strong pick-and-roll: Ball goes from right to the top. The top dribble-pitches away to the left, then backtracks quickly cross-court to screen for the original handler. (example)
• Motion Weak Zipper: Explain One Play: Durant and Thompson (finally) execute to close out Blazers
• Split cuts, dive-pop: Passer holds ball in post or up high. Two players converge, then one pops out to the arc, one dives to the basket.

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If you want to read more video breakdowns — one for well-nigh every Warriors’ win since 2015 — check out the Explain One Play Mega-Index, searchable and sortable by player, play, team and date.