Put on your armchair coach’s hat for a brief moment and place yourself in the shoes of the Golden State Warriors in this possession.. If you particularly chose Bazemore’s shoes to be in, then good luck to you, unfortunate reader, because your job is to make Lillard – one of the most clutch performers in recent history, if not all time – miss a long-range dagger three.
Maybe Green didn’t go over to double because that would leave a hapless backline defense outnumbered without the presence of one of the best help defenders in the league. Curry didn’t go over, because maybe that would’ve been an easy pass to Gary Trent Jr, a 40.8% three-point shooter. Andrew Wiggins may have been too far away to come over and put pressure in a timely manner.“We came up with a stop and I was pushing the ball in transition,” Lillard said after the game.
It’s quite important to note that Lillard was not having one of his best games prior to his late 4th quarter explosion. Devoid of context, Lillard’s statline against the Warriors was, to put it mildly, subpar according to his lofty standards: 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists on 6-of-17 shooting from the field and 3-of-10 on threes .
The defensive strategy on Lillard was simple: get the ball out of Lillard’s hands and dare his other teammates to step up and make shots: Green’s ability to be that reliable backline defender – especially when guarding non-shooting threats, allowing him the freedom to act as basketball’s version of a free safety – is what makes trapping someone like Lillard a more feasible strategy.
Robert Covington chipped in 15 points and buried crucial shots that kept the Blazers in the game amid stretches where the Warriors were in danger of pulling away. Trent Jr scored 15 points of his own.
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