Warriors adjustments pay off in Game 2 Lakers Blast

SAN FRANCISCO — Before Game 2 of the Western Semifinal Series against the Los Angeles Lakers, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took the stage during his pregame press conference expressing confidence in his team.

After losing Game 1, Kerr said he believed in the Warriors’ ability to make the right adjustments needed and bounce back.

Golden State followed its coach’s words and overwhelmingly beat the Lakers 127-100 to tie the series at one game.

The Warriors’ major adjustment in Game 2 was small, removing Kevon Looney from the starting lineup and replacing him with JaMychal Green.

Green came on as a replacement for Looney as a surprise, but the Warriors accomplished what they set out to do — come up with transition and push speed.

“She’s using our power to our advantage,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “You have to give something up. As long as we’re firm and our floor spaced properly, we usually find a good shot, and then you just have to knock them down.”

The decision to start with the green was made for two reasons: one was to conserve floor spacing by having more shooters in the lineup. The other was to keep a somewhat larger body on the floor to fight the Lakers’ size, rather than another guard like Jordan Ball or Donte DiVincenzo—two players the Warriors often go for when starting small.

“With no color in the lineup, we knew we needed some dogs, and he stepped up for us in a big way,” said Warriors forward Draymond Green.

Lakers forward LeBron James added, “JaMychal gave them big time. Those 12 minutes felt like 24 minutes, 30 minutes. It was big time for their team in the starting role tonight, too.”

Draymond Green said the Warriors’ defense has fueled their offense—a pillar of Golden State’s mentality over the past decade.

And the Warriors relied heavily on Draymond Green as the “big guy” for much of this defense. After his performance in Game 1, which he described as “disgusting”, Green was given the daunting task of being the starting fullback in Anthony Davis. With Green as the starting fullback in Game 2, Davis went 4-of-8 from the floor and averaged 0.89 points per game. In Game 1, Davis shot 8 of 12 against Looney, who took the lead.

Draymond Green finished just two passes shy of a triple-double, as he scored 11 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the Warriors’ improvement in defense was the free throw line. In one game after Los Angeles attempted 29 free throws — 24 more than Golden State — the Lakers captured just 17, making 10 of them.

“We ran into the force with force,” said Draymond Green. “We missed a lot in the last game and we were on the free-throw line and it seemed like every game. It’s tough. They’re a great defensive team. You play against that defense every time down the floor and you’re waiting for them to come down, scoring is much more difficult. I think our defense has led to Better attack us.”

Golden State also went 21 of 42 from 3, compared to the Lakers shooting 10 of 34 from long range. The Warriors have 42 three-pointers so far this series — 26 more than the Lakers — the most over a two-game period in Warriors postseason history and tied for second over two games in NBA history.

The 26 other 3-pointers the Warriors have over the Lakers is tied for the third-best 3-point margin in a 2-game period in any playoff series.

Klay Thompson scored 30 points – 14 of which came in the third quarter – on 11 of 18 shooting, including 8 of 11 of 3. Thompson now leads the NBA in postseason games with at least seven three-pointers. with 12.

“These are moments to work for,” Thompson said. “Those brief moments of euphoria and that state of flow where you feel like you can’t miss it make all those tough days more than they’re worth. I was just trying to get the crowd excited, and it’s always fun when you hit the ball well.”

Meanwhile, as Curry ran past a foul issue, he took a back seat to scoring and instead assumed the traditional point guard role through playmaking.

He tallied eight assists after the season’s first half postseason before totaling 12 assists that night, his most in a playoff game since 2015.

As the Warriors ran 8-0 through the first three minutes of the second quarter—a stretch that spanned a lineup of Andrew Wiggins, Thompson, DiVincenzo, Curry, and Looney—all of Golden State’s buckets were assisted by Curry.

“I’m able to play a lot of different ways,” Carey said. “As long as we’re just creating open shots, no matter who’s shooting it—and obviously tonight I didn’t have a lot of open shots for some reason—make the right decision. The ball finds the right person, and good things happen.”

Curry was involved in 10 plays in Game 2. On those plays, the Warriors shot 6 of 9, including 4 of 6 touchdown passes from Curry.

This is also only the second time in Curry’s playoff career that he caught as many passes or more field goal attempts in a game, scoring 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting.

Spreading the floor and hitting Los Angeles with 3-point shooting and ball movement has always been part of Golden State’s game plan for this series. And after losing the Warriors’ Game 1, they knew they had to make the right adjustments to get them there.

It’s similar to how they navigated their first round series against the Sacramento Kings.

“They always try to solve the Rubik’s Cube in every game, and it starts in a different place,” Carey said. “And that’s the beauty of basketball and the way you see it. I love that part of the game.”

As the series heads to Los Angeles, Curry knows the Lakers, who claim they still have the best defense in the league, will make the adjustments they feel necessary to get the Warriors out of their groove.

“We’ve had some success there and then [the Kings] Curry said, “We tried to respond to that and we understood that. So I suppose that’s going to happen with L.A., same kind of vibe, but we’ll have an answer to all of that.”