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SAN FRANCISCO—Kids start by shooting a ball into a hoop. That’s the essence of basketball, scoring. The numbers part, the fun part.
But in time we learn that keeping the other guy from scoring, defense, while less glamorous, is the winning part.
There were two wonderful examples Christmas Day, in person at Chase Center, where the Warriors did a masterful job of defending the NBA’s leading scorer. James Harden of Houston
Then a couple hours later on TV where Patrick Beverley of the Clippers knocked away the attempt by the Lakers LeBron James for a tying shot.
That Clippers-Lakers game, the Clips winning, 111-106 after trailing by 15 was all that was predicted.
That Warriors game, the Dubs taking it, 111-106, was all no one dared imagine.
Until assistant coach Jarron Collins came up with a plan to limit Harden--borrowing the much-repeated advice, “You can’t stop him you can only hope to contain him”—and placed the burden on others.
Who failed to carry it.
Harden, averaging 38.6, did score 30, but where he usually has other teams in foul trouble, and gets a ton of foul shots, took only one free throw. And missed it.
The Warriors, the kids, the few vets, may have figured it out. Hound the ball. Switch quickly. Try not to leave anyone open.
“We’re probably not going to play a bigger game all year,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Three wins in a row now, and finally one over a team with a winning record. Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Now the Warriors are doing something different.
“I think our defense has really picked up,” said Draymond Green. He would know. He was the guy who preached defense and played it in the championship years.
“We’re doing a better job of following the game plan,” Green said. “It’s been a tough year. We had Jarron take over the defense under tough circumstances. We’re a super young team. He’s been doing a great job. That game plan was phenomenal. It doesn’t get much better than this.”
Kerr reminded that the championship Warrior s teams of the previous five years were composed of players who understood defense, Andre Iguodala, Shawn Livingston, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and played it beautifully.
But even they struggled to halt Harden, who would keep them off balance and grabbing when he stepped back to shoot those three-pointers.
“Harden has basically forced the whole league to reconsider how to defend him in particular,” said Kerr. “But even how to guard pick-and-roll with the amount of three-point shooters people have, I have seen a lot of innovative stuff out there.
“The best thing we did was not foul him. We didn’t foul (Russell) Westbrook either. That kept the game going and allowed us to play in open space, because their (Rockets) defense is really good in the half court. The tempo was right for us.”
The idea and execution is not new for the Warriors, albeit many of the players are. Keep the other team from making shots, grab the rebounds and move the ball to the other end before the opposition gets there was the stuff of Steph, Klay and Kevin. Christmas day it was the stuff of Draymond, Damion Lee and D’Angelo Russell.
“A national TV game against the Rockets,” Kerr said. “We’ve played Houston more times in the last five years because we have seen them in the playoffs so often.”
They won’t this year. The Warriors are thinking about where they’ll be in the draft not the post-season. Still, they showed Christmas Day they can defeat a contender,
Just a great win,” affirmed Kerr. “I’m happy for the players. I’m happy for the fans. I think the great thing about this season is the fans can feel our players’ effort.”
But the enthusiasm was tempered when Kerr was asked if this was the best win of the season.
“Yeah,” he confessed, “but there haven’t been many to choose from.”
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