The birth of the Warriors' death lineup
The crowd buzzes. The sideline scrambles. And the four gold-clad guys on
the court, watching the whole frantic scene unfold, try not to laugh.
“I love it,” Green says, a devilish smile creeping up his right cheek.
“I relish it. I see Dre come in, and I’m like, ‘Here we go. Now it’s
on.’” Rotations change, so Iguodala is not always the last one in.
Sometimes it is Curry or Thompson or Green or Harrison Barnes. No matter
the order, when those five reunite, they turn giddy, and their
opposition antsy. Coaches desperately send wings to the scorer’s table,
bigs to the bench.
“There’s a panic,” Green says. “It’s like they’re thinking, ‘I have to
get somebody out of there. I have to get somebody in there. I have to do
something.’ The reactions we get are pretty funny.” The Warriors call
their feared five the Small Lineup because no member stands taller than
the 6'8" Barnes. The Internet terms them the Death Lineup because no foe
survives their speed and spacing on one end, their strength and
switching on the other.
Traditionally, a team’s best lineup is the group that starts. The
Warriors typically deploy their killer quintet to close, whether
quarters, halves or games. They often call on it to negate an
offensive-minded post player who can’t cover on the perimeter, or to
match a stretch forward who won’t venture inside anyway. Golden State’s
coaches compare their mighty-mite unit to a trump card and a turbo
boost, to Mariano Rivera and Usain Bolt. They don’t like to use it for
more than 15 minutes per game. That would be like pitching Rivera for
three innings or making Bolt run a mile. Green and Barnes, tenacious as
they are, can only wrestle behemoths for so long.
But those 15 minutes are a marvel. All the qualities that distinguish
the Warriors are amplified: the fast breaks, the high screens, the
split cuts, the penetration, the movement, the flow. Golden State’s
rollicking five-piece band shot 53.5% from three-point range this
season. It defended better than the tight-fisted Spurs. And it outscored
opponents by 47.0 points per 100 possessions, the highest rating for a
lineup with at least 100 minutes together since such figures were
recorded. The next most productive group to log as many minutes this
season was a Cleveland crew with plus-24.2 net points. You can argue the
Dubs boast the best team ever—and the best lineup ever.
(SI.com)
Showing posts with label golden state warriors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golden state warriors. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
2016 Golden State Warriors Version 72
72 reasons to love the Warriors
From Steph Curry lapping the legends to the team lighting up the scoreboard, here are 72 reasons the Warriors captured our hearts
4. DESPITE HIS ADDICTION, CURRY FIGHTS ON.
68. A PB&J A DAY KEEPS WARRIORS LOSSES AWAY.
From Steph Curry lapping the legends to the team lighting up the scoreboard, here are 72 reasons the Warriors captured our hearts
4. DESPITE HIS ADDICTION, CURRY FIGHTS ON.
- Let's just come right out and say it: The best player in the world suffers from a previously unreported and crippling addiction. To popcorn. The ball boys in opposing arenas know to fill his locker with a stash of it. In New Orleans back in October, he received a massive satchel of the stuff before going out and scoring 53 points. Inspiration? Probably not, as a man who once lost minutes to Acie Law needs no extra motivation. After the 53-point explosion, Curry was informed that coach Keith Smart, who'd benched Curry for Law in the dark days of 2011, had offered congratulations. "Tell him I could feel Acie Law breathing down my neck," Steph quipped.
- Andre Iguodala thinks deeply about race, but he also revels in its awkward, comedic value. "It's fun for me," he says. Case in point: Last season in Dallas, Shaun Livingston was playing defense on Dirk Nowitzki when his hand connected with Nowitzki's crotch; the crowd hurled boos in Livingston's direction until the final buzzer. After the game, a media scrum had Livingston cornered as he frantically threw up his hands, trying to explain himself. Iguodala walked by and shouted into the scrum: "Look how they got the black man over there! You see? You see?!"
- With $160 million in projected sales, Curry should surpass LeBron as the top seller of signature shoes this year, according to Morgan Stanley. In fact, he's on pace to sell more than Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant combined.
- Thompson is legendary among his Warriors teammates for his monofocus, caring passionately -- perhaps obsessively -- about only basketball, Xbox and his dog, Rocco. Food sometimes cracks that list. He is particularly fond of a specific omelet at the team hotel in Memphis. As Thompson exited FedExForum after a practice earlier this season, a Warriors assistant cracked, "Every step of the way, Klay is thinking, 'omelet, omelet, omelet.'"
68. A PB&J A DAY KEEPS WARRIORS LOSSES AWAY.
- Speaking of addiction (see No. 4), the team has its own: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. No, seriously, the Dubs nearly staged a rebellion when trainers outlawed the sandwiches for not being healthy enough. Curry, who enjoys a PB&J before every game, and Luke Walton are thought to have led the mutiny. They, of course, got their way.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Wait, Who Did What?
Don’t Act Surprised But Mike Trout Can Dunk Like Zach LaVine And Drain Threes Like Steph Curry
On Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors played host to their inner-state counterpart Los Angeles Angels, allowing a slew of the baseballers to hang out at their team practice. Pretty cool of them, if you ask me.
Not only did the Angels’ slugger show off his ability to throw down a decent dunk at will . . . . .
On Tuesday, the Golden State Warriors played host to their inner-state counterpart Los Angeles Angels, allowing a slew of the baseballers to hang out at their team practice. Pretty cool of them, if you ask me.
Not only did the Angels’ slugger show off his ability to throw down a decent dunk at will . . . . .
That would be Albert Pujols missing, Mile Trout dunking. Just another day at @warriors practice. #Angels #KTVU pic.twitter.com/GOP6qyqBOf
— Scott Reiss KTVU (@StanfordVoice) April 12, 2016But evidently Trout can also stroke the corner three ball like Steph Curry (at least on this occasion when the cameras were rolling).
@MikeTrout going up . . . . . pic.twitter.com/hlPKUPTBLv
— Angels (@Angels) April 12, 2016(BroBible.com)
Friday, April 1, 2016
A Good Read With An Awesome Title
How the Warriors discovered the cheat code to basketball in the 2015 NBA Finals
THE DUBS STILL have some toxins to sweat out before they take the floor again. Inside the visitors' locker room before off-day practice, Green holds one of his emotional revivals as Kerr addresses the team after watching film.
"I interrupted [Kerr]," Green says. "I just said -- and if you recall I went to the media and said it -- 'We're being soft. We're not being who we are. Matthew Dellavedova is getting loose balls. Why is Matthew Dellavedova getting loose balls and we're not? Why is he the first to the floor? Why do they have three people on the floor and we have one? What that says is that they want it more. Do they really want it more?' I told the guys, 'We're playing soft. Right now, it's my fault. I'll get 10 [loose balls], but we're going to get every loose ball. And when we get every loose ball, they don't stand a chance.'"
At the shootaround the next morning, Kerr announces a decision the staff has been mulling for a while, first prompted by Nick U'Ren, special assistant to Kerr: a new starting lineup featuring Iguodala in place of center Bogut.
It will be months before anyone will refer to this as the Lineup of Death or declare it the defining statement of who the Warriors are. The five-man unit of Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Iguodala and Green has, to this point, played together a mere 102 minutes in the 2014-15 regular season and 62 minutes through the first 18 games of the playoff run before it takes the floor for the opening tip of Game 4 in Cleveland.
But from this moment forward, this particular lineup is neither just small-ball (though it is undeniably small for an NBA unit, with no player over 6-foot-8) nor a "shooter's lineup" (though it's unquestionably one of the most efficient shooting quintets in history, with a true shooting percentage this season of 76.9 percent, outscoring opponents by an absurd 47.1 points per 100 possessions). It's the Golden State Warriors at their most entertaining -- and lethal.
The Warriors don't regard themselves as revolutionaries -- a championship banner is sufficient affirmation, thank you. But a scheme regarded as gimmickry is now a blueprint, developed in Phoenix and San Antonio and Miami, perfected in Oakland. When the Warriors first toyed with the Lineup of Death, it was as a next gear, dictated by matchup or need. But over a six-day stretch last June, that novelty transformed into a new standard.
(ESPN.com)
THE DUBS STILL have some toxins to sweat out before they take the floor again. Inside the visitors' locker room before off-day practice, Green holds one of his emotional revivals as Kerr addresses the team after watching film.
"I interrupted [Kerr]," Green says. "I just said -- and if you recall I went to the media and said it -- 'We're being soft. We're not being who we are. Matthew Dellavedova is getting loose balls. Why is Matthew Dellavedova getting loose balls and we're not? Why is he the first to the floor? Why do they have three people on the floor and we have one? What that says is that they want it more. Do they really want it more?' I told the guys, 'We're playing soft. Right now, it's my fault. I'll get 10 [loose balls], but we're going to get every loose ball. And when we get every loose ball, they don't stand a chance.'"
At the shootaround the next morning, Kerr announces a decision the staff has been mulling for a while, first prompted by Nick U'Ren, special assistant to Kerr: a new starting lineup featuring Iguodala in place of center Bogut.
It will be months before anyone will refer to this as the Lineup of Death or declare it the defining statement of who the Warriors are. The five-man unit of Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Iguodala and Green has, to this point, played together a mere 102 minutes in the 2014-15 regular season and 62 minutes through the first 18 games of the playoff run before it takes the floor for the opening tip of Game 4 in Cleveland.
But from this moment forward, this particular lineup is neither just small-ball (though it is undeniably small for an NBA unit, with no player over 6-foot-8) nor a "shooter's lineup" (though it's unquestionably one of the most efficient shooting quintets in history, with a true shooting percentage this season of 76.9 percent, outscoring opponents by an absurd 47.1 points per 100 possessions). It's the Golden State Warriors at their most entertaining -- and lethal.
The Warriors don't regard themselves as revolutionaries -- a championship banner is sufficient affirmation, thank you. But a scheme regarded as gimmickry is now a blueprint, developed in Phoenix and San Antonio and Miami, perfected in Oakland. When the Warriors first toyed with the Lineup of Death, it was as a next gear, dictated by matchup or need. But over a six-day stretch last June, that novelty transformed into a new standard.
(ESPN.com)
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
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