Toronto Raptors Are Beating Golden State Warriors at Their Own Game
The Golden State Warriors are used to being on the other side of things.
That doesn't just refer to the series record. They're accustomed to being the team that's one step ahead, the one that uses passing and player movement to set the tone and the one that out-thinks an opponent and gives itself every advantage it doesn't already have through sheer talent.
Down 3-1 in the 2019 NBA Finals, Golden State's reality is crystalizing. The Toronto Raptors are beating the two-time defending champions by using their own strengths against them.
Frustration has begun to seep in that Kevin Durant hasn't fully recovered from his calf sprain. It's neither frustration with Durant nor frustration at the realization he helps them. They've known that all along.
The Warriors are frustrated because they're unable to do the things they normally do, the things that make them great. That begins and ends with the Death Lineup.
Small ball works because skill and speed are greater than size and strength when size and strength are not skilled enough. With Durant in the lineup, the Warriors can have five playmakers on the floor. Their scoring, spacing, movement and shooting are notable, but their defense—which they are able to sustain without a traditional rim protector—is what makes them special.
The Raptors put together a roster that transcends that.
As great as Stephen Curry has been, the Raptors' length, strength and speed have, at times, overwhelmed the Warriors while they operate without a safety valve in Durant to release some pressure. Not only are they unable to compete with that length in the forward's absence, but they're also unable to go to their not-so-secret small-ball weapon.
And without mobile centers to defend the perimeter, the Warriors hemorrhaged points in the second half of Game 4 after a smart adjustment from Toronto head coach Nick Nurse.
Draymond Green is an all-time defender. Just ask him.
But he's much more valuable to the Warriors as a defensive quarterback-free safety combination than as a lockdown isolation stopper. That's mostly because he's great at seeing the offense unfold before it happens, but it's also because, without Durant, the Warriors don't have another back-line rim protector to erase mistakes. Green's ability to read the game and defend the basket allows the Warriors' small lineup to be one of the greatest defensive units ever.
Realizing this, Nurse wisely decided to put Green in the pick-and-roll. Usually, this is something opponents would like to avoid. But the Raptors saw it as an opportunity to remove the rim protector, and it resulted in a career night for Serge Ibaka, who slipped screens and gained a runway to the rim:
Removing Green from his usual perch forced the Warriors to defend the rim with Curry, Klay Thompson and Shaun Livingston—not quite the deterrents Green or Durant have been for Golden State over the years.
The Raptors' passing has also been superb during this run, allowing them to outclass the reigning champions in yet another area. When the Warriors send a double against Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors' collective basketball IQ allows them to pass away from where the Golden State rotations are going in order to get the best possible shot:
"It's a tricky thing, I think in the playoffs," Nurse said ahead of Game 4. "You have to make adjustments even when you're winning. You have to fix things and change things and change matchups and rotations and all those things because, I don't know, I just feel that you have to. If you don't, then you're going to be making them after a loss if you don't."
From the infamous box-and-one that slowed Curry to starting Fred VanVleet in the second half of Game 3 as a way to inject some playmaking into the lineup, Nurse has clearly been willing to go deep into his bag of tricks. Attacking such adjustments has been a trademark of Golden State's playoff success, but now they've left head coach Steve Kerr and Co. stumped through four games.
To be fair, the Warriors don't have many adjustments they can make.
Their personnel is limited—the byproduct of constructing a team around four All-NBA players. Curry looks exhausted. Thompson is not 100 percent. Green is a true star, but he isn't giving you much in the way of scoring. Andre Iguodala has stepped into the starting role, which means no one is there to offer what he typically brings off the bench. Livingston is hanging onto his NBA life by a thread.
"The game plan changes if Kevin [Durant] is out there or if he's not," Kerr said. "So you adapt accordingly. It changes matchups, it changes rotations, all that stuff. That's true all regular season you deal with that, so you're constantly adapting and adjusting according to who is available."
The Warriors' center rotation has also become painfully problematic.
After a surprisingly productive Game 2, DeMarcus Cousins has been nearly unplayable. Kevon Looney was not a 40-minutes-per-night player even before his costal cartilage fracture. Andrew Bogut has had his moments, but he was targeted by the Raptors offense and ultimately played off the floor in meaningful minutes.
None of those options can defend the perimeter, and the Warriors have needed to choose between having their bigs played off the floor and having no one to defend the rim.
"We just look at everything game-to-game in terms of matchups, combinations," Kerr said. "One of the things that's been a bit of a struggle with the injuries is just finding the right combinations in terms of the numbers that we have and how many minutes guys are playing. We're just trying to find patterns that can help everybody who is out on the floor and go from there."
Regardless of the Warriors' remaining options, the Raptors have also realized something: Forcing the hobbled champions to defend longer stretches of the shot clock and dragging the pace of this series to a near-halt has granted them easier looks and beaten up their opponent.
A 97.75 pace during the Finals is nearly four possessions fewer than the Warriors' regular-season average (101.71). That's worked to Toronto's benefit.
The Raptors are exhausting the Warriors with their physicality. They're defending at the highest level and bludgeoning them on the other end. They're out-executing them in the game of chess and equaling them in passing and movement.
Those are the characteristics that have made the Warriors so dominant for the last half-decade. And regardless of whether Durant is able to go for Game 5, they'll need to rediscover those traits if they want to get back into this series.
Former NBA star and current NBA TV analyst Dennis Scott joins Howard Beck on the Full 48 podcast to discuss the NBA Finals and the upcoming free agency of the league's biggest stars.
Follow Will on Twitter @wontgottlieb
