With the Golden State Warriors maintaining a nine-point over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Warriors were sauntering into their after-timeout (ATO) play with Stephen Curry bringing the ball up the floor and Quinten Post trailing close behind him. De’Anthony Melton lifts toward the wing in order to receive the pass from Curry; Melton then immediately dishes the ball to Post at the top of the arc. Meanwhile, Curry relocates to the opposite wing via a “shallow” cut.
While the top action is developing, there is another layer of action happening underneath the rim, in the form of Gui Santos receiving a cross-screen from Will Richard:
The purpose of this auxiliary action soon comes to light. With Richard setting the screen, Santos lifts up to set a ball screen for Curry. The screen has the distinct purpose of creating confusion below in order to create confusion up top. Naz Reid insists on fighting over the screen to stay on Santos. Reid also expects the cross-screen to be a maneuver intended to get Santos the ball on the right block; therefore, he stops just short of the right block. However, Santos does no such thing:
With Reid instead forced to guard the ball-screen action for Curry up top, the Wolves default into sending two on the ball against Curry, with the right corner unoccupied and whole side for Curry and Santos to work with. As expected, Curry dishes the ball to the rolling Santos, who sees only Anthony Edwards — the low man — in his path. Edwards steps up to help on the roll, but falls victim to a nifty up-fake by Santos, who gets an open layup for his effort:
By his standards, Curry had a subpar shooting game: 26 points on 7-of-18 shooting (3-of-10 on threes). He managed to add seven assists, tallied four steals, and still managed to put up a decent true shooting mark of 59.2 percent. The Warriors outscored the Wolves by 16 points in Curry’s 27 minutes and 38 seconds of time on the floor.
Curry did his job despite the less-than-gaudy shooting splits. But he was greatly helped by the supporting cast surrounding him. Santos made an impression on his roll during the possession above, but he had his greatest impact with Curry off the floor, along with a second-unit squad that rotated between the likes of De’Anthony Melton, Al Horford, Quinten Post, Buddy Hield, Brandin Podziemski, and Will Richard.
Amazingly, the different configurations of the non-Steph crew managed to generate sufficient offense to get them by without their sole remaining offensive fulcrum (and without their other offensive fulcrum, out for the season due to an unfortunate ACL tear).
Podziemski’s downhill momentum and paint touch, preceded by a Melton slot cut and a dribble handoff by Post, collapses the Wolves’ defense toward the drive. Reid helps off of the corner, with Bones Hyland being the remaining defender guarding the “two-side” (i.e., the side of the floor with two offensive players occupying the corner and the wing). Hield’s lift draws Hyland toward him, with Santos left open. Podziemski promptly kicks out to create the open corner look.
The flow that the non-Curry contingent was able to muster was a sight for sore eyes, even while the Warriors managed to blend complexity with simplicity. The Melton-Horford duo, in particular, stood out with regard to their tandem and chemistry in pick-and-roll action.
The initial Melton-Horford screening action doesn’t generate an overt advantage — but it does help in what happens down the line. Julius Randle is forced to switch onto Melton, who stays put in the right corner after giving up possession (and making Randle the “tag” man in a pick-and-roll situation). A Hield-Horford pick-and-roll lures Randle away from Melton in an attempt to tag the rolling Horford, who promptly kicks the ball out toward the open Melton for the three.
Other instances of the Melton-Horford pick-and-roll were more simpler outcomes born out of simple process:
Horford coaxes Donte DiVincenzo to switch onto him after the screen and promptly slips toward the rim to take advantage of DiVincenzo’s top-side position. Edwards attempts to bump DiVincenzo off of Horford via a “scram” switch, but Edwards is still considerably smaller than Horford. In the end, the switch does little to alleviate the predicament, with Melton finding Horford on the entry pass and Horford immediately going up for the layup without much trouble.
With a defense that was humming in almost every regard — they forced the Wolves into 25 turnovers (a turnover percentage of) with 25 points scored off of those turnovers — the Warriors headed into the game visibly prepared to execute the defensive gameplan, with the effort and tenacity to boot. Despite a Wolves squad that may have been affected by the tragic events that occurred the previous day, the Warriors were purely business-minded in their approach.
With Moses Moody unable to get through DiVincenzo’s screen, Draymond Green steps up to meet Edwards around the handoff. His sudden switch and jump toward Edwards forces the Wolves superstar to pass the ball immediately toward Rudy Gobert. But with Podziemski having switched onto Gobert, the pass is deflected and ultimately intercepted, with Gobert committing a foul to add insult to injury.
This, along with other crisp defensive possessions, contributed to a night in which the Warriors kept the Wolves to 83.3 points per 100 possessions — their worst offensive game of the season — while simultaneously notching their second-best defensive game of the season in terms of points allowed per 100 possessions. With Melton and Horford reportedly (and expectedly) being held out for the rematch tomorrow night — and Curry’s status also up in the air — it was paramount that the Warriors would at least come out of this unexpected back-to-back slate with at least one win. Mission accomplished, although a win tomorrow night would be a nifty bonus.
