One of the biggest keys in the Golden State Warriors winning the last two playoff games against the Los Angeles Clippers has been the defense against Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell.
Williams and Harrell may come off the bench, but they are two of the Clippers best players. With Danilo Gallinari not looking right, Williams and Harrell very well may be the top two players for Los Angeles.
Their pick and roll has been deadly all season long, and early in the series that was on display. In Game 1, the dynamic duo combined for 51 points on 22-36 shooting. They triggered Game 2’s historic comeback, putting up a stunning 61 points on 23-32 shooting.
And then the Warriors started to figure it out.
In Game 3, the Dubs held Williams and Harrell to 31 points on 10-21 shooting. They did one better in Game 4, limiting the two to 22 points on 7-18 shooting.
It’s been a team wide defense effort to limit those two, but one of the stars has been backup center Kevon Looney, who has done a tremendous job. After Game 4, I asked Looney what the team was doing differently, and he broke things down.
Kevon Looney on successfully defending the Lou/Trez PnR. Stresses switching up looks pic.twitter.com/hQTj4sUrBT
— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) April 21, 2019
“We just execute the game plan, try to pull in and get the ball out of Lou Williams’ hands,” Looney explained. “He’s a great scorer, he’s a great decision maker, so trying to make it tough, keep high hands on him, switching up the coverages - can’t give him the same diet or the same coverage every time, ‘cause he’s a smart player. Try to pull in and make Montrezl finish over the top. He’s a great finisher. We’ve got Bogues (Andrew Bogut) and me and Draymond [Green] collapsing, and when we all play along and we’re helping, it’s hard to score on us. We’re just trying to do that, but they’re great players, they’re gonna make shots, it’s not gonna be easy to stop them.”
Certainly not easy. But if Games 3 and 4 are any indication, the Warriors have started to figure it out.