Preview: Find out what works, and then stick with it

Time to crush the young Kings

"When you win in the playoffs, if you feel good about something, you just roll with it.” Coach Steve Kerr was talking about Draymond Green coming off the bench, but he may as well be talking in much broader strokes about what has made the Golden State Warriors so special for so long. After not looking great during most of the regular season, the Warriors’ dynasty has flipped the switch back to on for these playoffs after opening this series against the Sacramento Kings with two straight losses. With that last pivotal road win, the Warriors are coming back home to San Francisco with a chance to close it out and advance to the next round tonight.

If you feel good about something, you just roll with it.

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GAME DETAILS

Warriors lead series 3-2

WHO: Golden State Warriors vs Sacramento Kings

WHEN: Friday, April 28th, 2023 //5pm PST

WATCH: ESPN

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Find out what works, and then stick with it till it stops working

The Warriors run a pretty complex offensive system, but in the end, it’s not really all that complicated. Run around to the empty space, set screens, let Curry and Thompson create miracles over and over again. During the regular season, there was a lot of valid chatter wondering if the NBA at large had caught up, or even surpassed Kerr’s transformational offense. The players are getting older and slower, the motion-based offense has been studied, copied, and adapted all over the league.

Those first couple of games were close enough to qualify as random endings, but if the recent results are any indication, the Warriors have begun to figure out the Kings a bit. Or maybe it’s more that the Kings haven’t been able to figure out Golden State.

This is the stability that has given the Warriors’ front office and coaching staff so much glide path within the trajectory of the again core. Some marginal players hit, some don’t; but through it all, the Warriors remain steadfast in their focus. Run the system, give it to the Splash Brothers.

Of course, they don’t do it alone. We’ve seen so much history here. Draymond Green’s defensive excellence is jaw-dropping sometimes - and when he puts his head down and decides to score like he did last game, it serves as another paint point that pulls their opponents closer to submission - drawing them down like Kevon Looney treats his rebounds. It’s inevitable.

So now it’s Sacramento with their season on the line. Their star player is banged up, their big man reduced to a watered down version of David Lee, putting up decent enough numbers, but ultimately getting cooked. The Warriors have been there. Many times. Heck, down 0-2 to start this exact series after an extremely shaky regular season? The Warriors were maybe there as recently as last week.

Instead, the proverbial switch has been flipped. The Kings “highest ranked offense ever” has been stifled by the Warriors. De’Aaron Fox and his cohorts started out the last game well enough, but Golden State stood steady in the face of the storm and eventually pulled away at the end with a series of incredible plays on both ends of the court.

It’s working. Do it again.

Prediction

I’m pressed for time, so I guess I’ll just re-use the prediction from my preview of game one:

Happy Friday everyone!!

Music Friday

I’m banging this article out as quickly as I can on a Thursday night because one of my favorite bands will be at Bottom of the Hill tonight (last night by the time all of you wonderful people read this). Here’s a really catchy song that also happens to be a pretty hilarious story about the protagonist in Minecraft. Sit back and rock out, and marvel at what Steve can do: