Game 3 of the NBA Finals felt like an entirely different game than the first two. While there hasn’t been a consistent rhythm in this series and a general feel for how the overall series will play out, the health of the Warriors in this game made them look like an entirely different team last night. During the broadcast, Jeff Van Gundy even said something alluding to this. He mentioned that this current roaster “wouldn’t even make the playoffs in the Western Conference”.
And while I don’t entirely agree with that premise, I do think he has a point that this roster alone (without KD, Klay and Looney) would not make the NBA Finals, let alone the Western Conference Finals. So the fact that this team was even competitive last night against a clearly superior, and healthy, Raptors team, is a testament to the greatness of Steph Curry.
Unfortunately for Steph, pretty much no one else showed up last night both on offense and defense. You knew after the first quarter that the Warriors weren’t going to win that game barring some miracle run. The Raptors finished with nearly 45% shooting from three and made just about every run-ending shot to kill any Warriors momentum. If you compare the Warriors’ role players shooting numbers to the Raptors’ from last night, it’s night and day.
Danny Green hit 10 threes. Fred VanVleet was 3 of 6 from deep including the most unreal shot-clock buzzer beating three to break the hearts of the Warriors’ fans in Oracle Arena.
If you compare that to the Warriors, Steph made 6 of the teams’ 12 threes and basically everyone else on the offensive end was a no-show for them. On top of that, most of the Warriors’ players didn’t even have the confidence (besides Quinn Cook) to shoot the open threes they were given because they aren’t normally in the position of taking those shots. Then when some players stepped up to take them, they air balled them.
The Warriors also didn’t do themselves any favors on the defensive end of the floor as they surrendered 36 points in the first quarter along with 14 points in the paint. This game demonstrated just how important Klay is to the dynamics of the team not only on the offensive end, but also the defensive end. Without a third viable option (Iguodala plus Draymond and Klay) to guard Kawhi Leonard, he eventually wore down their defense and scored 13 of his 30 points in the 3rd quarter.
This video is basically the epitome of the Warriors' 1st Quarter defense
Without Klay, the Warriors also couldn’t make Lowry word hard on defense and chase Klay around screens which allowed him to have a big-time game on the offensive end.
DeMarcus Cousins also looked like he hadn’t recovered from Game 2 as he had basically no lift on his jumper or rebounds and he was incredibly slow every time he defended the Raptors’ pick n roll. Andrew Bogut was the only saving grace for the Warriors at the center position, but he ended up playing 22 minutes which is about 10 more than he should be playing in a Finals game at this point in his career.
Jerebko was a negative on both ends of the floor as he was torched by Siakam when he defended him and went 1-6 from the field on pretty good looks for the most part. The Warriors were desperate for shooting and Steve Kerr was trying to find anyone to score for him.
Despite all of the problems with the Warriors last night, we still need to give the Raptors’ credit for playing with confidence and shutting down the Warriors. They played hard on defense and let the Warriors’ role players try to beat.
In fact, I don’t think the Raptors even sold out as much on defense to try to shut down Curry as much as they could have. They gave him a ton of open looks, especially from mid-range…which the Raptors were also happy to live with.
They didn’t run a box-and-one at all which makes me think that the box-and-one itself wasn’t the problem with the Warriors lack of scoring down the stretch in Game 2. What I mean by that is any defense would have worked against the Warriors because they just had too few playmakers on the court at that time.
The Raptors two best players last night were Kawhi and Lowry, but their most impactful players - in terms of momentum swings – were Danny Green and Serge Ibaka.
Danny Green’s three threes in the third quarter, especially his buzzer beating one to put the Raptors up by 16 (their largest lead at that point) and essentially sealed the Warriors’ fate (even though they made a few good efforts to come back in the 4th).
Serge Ibaka had a throwback to his Iblocka days with the Thunder! He had 6 total blocks including 4 in the 4th quarter, all at crucial moments in the game! He had a massive block on Quinn Cook (who had been blocked by Danny Green the possession before) and he had a massive block (goal tend) on Draymond in transition. His huge block on a Jerebko layup was a classic Ibaka block where he seemed to come out of nowhere to send by Jerebko’s soft layup.
I don’t want to discredit Toronto’s win, but Golden State had no chance of winning Game 3. That being said, the Raptors handled their business and won a game on the road. Now there are only four games left and with the questionable health of both KD and Klay going into Game 4, the Raptors may have a chance to steal another game on the road. They almost have the reigning champs’ backs against the wall which is something no team has done since 2016.
I do believe that at least Klay will play in Game 4 which will help the Warriors immensely in that game. I also think the Raptors wont shoot as well as they did last night. They shot about 44% from three which is almost 11% higher than their post-season average. I expect that number to return back down to Earth and with it, the Warriors’ shooting to improve (33% from three in Game 3).
Takeaways and Things to Look Forward to
So the biggest takeaway from the Warriors this game is to get healthier. If they can do that they’ll be okay. However, I think there are also some Xs and Os moves they can make to help themselves.
First, don’t leave Curry out of the game for so long. He sat for over three minutes to start the second quarter. He needs to be in the game to start the second quarter sooner because that second unit is getting killed by the Raptors. The Warriors’ bench is only averaging 6.7 points per game in the second quarter on 29% shooting. Compare that to the Raptors’ 10 points on 61% shooting and that adds up quickly. The Warriors could help themselves out on offense by bringing Curry back into the game sooner.
Next. While Cousins can’t move well because of his injury and fatigue, that doesn’t mean he’s useless out on the court. He can still do damage - especially on offense. In the first quarter, Cousins set a screen to get Curry open for three and I think they should run stuff like that more often. Cousins, besides Gasol is the biggest player on the court. Use his size to free up Curry more. He’s like a bigger Draymond when it comes to setting screens. Take advantage of that!
I also want to give Nick Nurse credit for coaching a really good game tonight. He took advantage of mismatches from the jump (Siakam attacked Jerebko every time he was on him) and he called a great timeout at the 4:20 mark in the 3rd quarter to stop the Warriors momentum at just the right time.
Other Things To Address
Finally, I feel like I need to address two big issues people also had with this game. The refs and the Warriors part-owner, Mark Stevens. The Stevens shove on Lowry is easier to make a point about so I’ll start with him.
What he did was completely wrong and, just because you sit courtside, doesn’t mean you have the right to say terrible things to players (looking at you Utah guy) or to push them because you’re frustrated with your team play. Physicality should never be an option in an interaction outside of the boundaries of a field or court. Richard Jefferson and LeBron both said everything about it perfectly already today, so I’ll just let them be the main advocates in this push against Stevens.
The Warriors did just announce a one-year ban and a $500,000 fine for Stevens as well. I don’t know if that’s enough or not. A lot of fans are out for blood and I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt and believe that he just had a bad moment and he shouldn’t be banned for life because of it. I’m sure other news will come out later and maybe that will shape my opinion more. Until then, I think the punishment the Warriors gave him is appropriate and what he did to Kyle Lowry was clearly wrong. I just think we need to wait for more information to come out.
Okay…now the refs! Objectively the refs were bad this game for both sides. They missed a few bad travel calls, two goal tends, and some obvious foul calls.
So it feels like everyone got screwed over a little bit in this game by the officials. The Warriors though did lose straight up four points out of it (off the two goal-tends), so I declare their fans are allowed to have more of a gripe with the refs than Raptors fans are. The foul called on Gasol in the first quarter when Boogie jumped into him on the three was bad too.
*all images, stats, and info are taken from NBA.com