Lethal Warriors hand Raptors dose of reality: Arthur
Alvin Gentry had to stop talking for a second because there was a big bag of popcorn in the middle of the locker room, and someone was going to knock the stuff everywhere. The assistant coach stashed it under a table, careful not to spill. When the Golden State Warriors come to town, you may need popcorn. It’s a show, most nights.
“When (new coach) Steve (Kerr) got us together, the big thing was we wanted to have ball movement,” said Gentry, who coached the Phoenix Suns from 2008 to 2013. “We wanted to move the ball, and not isolation stuff. So we got together and we incorporated stuff he did in Chicago when he played there, and from San Antonio, and some of the stuff we did in Phoenix, and some of the stuff we did in Phoenix when he was there. We looked at our personnel and thought, how can we best win? We really want ball movement.
“Miami won this way. San Antonio won. As a fan, I love watching Atlanta play. I love watching San Antonio still. They’re still a good team to watch from a pure basketball standpoint.”
Pure basketball is what Golden State going for, and the Warriors have the tools. Steph Curry is where it starts, because he manipulates the ball like few ever have, in ways that stretch the boundaries of possibility. Klay Thompson is a killer. Draymond Green is a Swiss Army knife with a cudgel attached. There is depth, speed, skill, and Andrew Bogut looming at the back.
And the connective tissue is defence at one end, and passing at the other. The ball skims from place to place, skipping, looping, slicing, and eventually finding a capable set of hands. On one possession in the first half of their 113-89 win over the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors passed the ball seven times in a matter of seconds, the ball never touching the floor, before Thompson drilled a three from the corner. It can be basketball ballet. The Warriors played fast, played free, played tough, had more assists after three quarters (26) than Toronto had field goals (19).
“That’s what we try to do, is give our guys a lot of leeway, and once in a while rein them in,” said Kerr, who was lured away from TV to become a coach again. “But the last thing I wanted to do coming in was put the reins on completely, and take these guys’ spirit away, take their swagger away. So it’s a constant balancing act, and for me as a new coach with a team that was already good, I’ve just tried to take my time and be really patient, and let these guys figure it out as they go.
“And the progress has been remarkable. Our turnovers are way down since early in the season, we lead the league in assists, our passes per game are way up since last year. So I’m really proud of our guys, and how far we’ve come. But we still have a ways to go.”
The defence has been a bear — Golden State leads the league in defensive efficiency, up two spots from last season, even while playing the fastest basketball in the NBA. But it’s the offensive improvement that’s propelled them to the best record in the league. The Warriors were 12th in offensive efficiency last season, a number Kerr can produce off the top of his head, and are up to second this year.
Why? Well, they are throwing over 68 more passes per game this season, up 28 per cent. They lead the league in assists, in assist chances, and in secondary assists — the quick pass that leads to the pass — by a wide margin.
“Ball movement, passing the basketball — I mean, that’s the way the game is meant to be played,” says Gentry.
On Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns teams they used to say the ball finds energy. While Raptors coach Dwane Casey compares Curry’s passing to Pistol Pete Maravich, Curry’s coaches say the closest overall comparable is Nash.
“He’s maybe a more offensive-minded Nash,” says Kerr. “But the skill set, the bravado, the fearlessness to go with the shooting and the ball handling was very Nash-like, and it’s one of the reasons I was excited to come here, was to coach him, and work with him.”
“I showed him a lot of stuff on Steve at the start of the season,” says Gentry.
Nash, for the record, lists Curry as one of his three favourite players to watch, along with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Gentry says Curry can’t quite see as far into the immediate basketball future as Nash — the pass that leads to the pass, the play after this play — but he’s getting there.
“The more playoff experience he gets, the more he’ll get it,” says Nash. “He’ll manipulate the game and fourth quarter even more than he does now.”
Sounds like fun. Friday night was an incredibly one-sided show, but it was a show. The Raptors, of course, usually score without passing the ball much — the Golden State scouting board read, “much of what they do reverts to 1-on-1” — which is a problem the Raptors manage to overcome most nights, and which still may be their fatal flaw.
Friday night, everything was fatal. But at least the killers were fun to watch.
