The Golden State Warriors knotted the NBA Finals at 1-1 in Sunday’s Game 2, using a third-quarter barrage to pull away from the Boston Celtics. How were they able to respond defensively?
Throughout their dynastic run, the Golden State Warriors – when healthy and whole – have never failed to respond after a surprising loss. Based on the nature of Boston’s fourth-quarter turnaround, Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals could even be considered the most shocking defeat of the Steve Kerr era. Nine times out of 10, they don’t squander a double-digit lead entering the final frame. Game 2 had to be played on the Warriors’ terms. If it wasn’t, they were facing an unprecedented situation. Having never trailed 2-0 in a playoff series, the pressure was on them from the jump. Combine it with homecourt advantage being stripped away and how repugnant their defensive effort looked down the stretch, there had to be an answer. Behind a dynamite third quarter and, according to Cleaning The Glass, the second-stingiest defensive performance of their season, the Warriors prevented a lot of Internet chaos in Game 2. They tied up the series 1-1 and responded to every mistake they made a few days earlier. Game 1 was undoubtedly a wake-up call for Golden State’s defense, which they take pride in just as much as their glorious motion offense and selfless identity. After ranking fifth in defensive rating in 2021 during an injury-riddled season, they elevated to second this year. Holding teams to 106.6 points per 100 possessions, Golden State actually posted the best relative defensive rating of the Curry-Green-Thompson era. It was 5.1 points per 100 below the league average — putting them second overall in franchise history, behind the 1963-64 San Francisco Warriors. Coincidentally, those Wilt Chamberlain-led Warriors lost on the Finals stage to. the Boston Celtics. Outside of 12 minutes in Game 1, the Dubs have buckled down all year and finished the job defensively. But the fourth quarter of Game 1 was just uncharacteristically awful. The players acknowledged it. Kerr didn’t let anyone forget about the level of “force” required in a Finals game. Everyone knew it. Still, the group needed to hear it from their vocal leader. Draymond Green, the Warriors’ future Hall-of-Fame mastermind, addressed the team regarding the lackluster defense.
“About five minutes after Game 1,” Curry said regarding Green’s spirited response. “That’s all I needed to see and hear from him, just in terms of what we needed to do.”
The Warriors’ tendency to respond in such emphatic ways is why they’ve lifted three championship trophies dating back to 2015. Any time they get embarrassed or silenced, there’s a guaranteed vengeance on the way. It’s never just a slight jab back to the opponent, either. You better be prepared for multiple haymakers, as that is Golden State’s personal way of regaining the momentum. Limiting Boston to just 14 points on 23 possessions in the third quarter, Golden State turned a two-point lead into a 23-point blowout heading into the fourth. They had a 60.9 defensive rating in the third quarter alone, following the recipe they created eight years ago when this operation started. With only 4:25 remaining in the third, it was still 68-62. The Warriors were hanging onto a six-point lead after Boston nailed back-to-back threes. From that point forward, it was a 19-2 hurricane to close the quarter. With a combination of elite defensive awareness, physicality, and simplifying their offensive approach, Golden State delivered blow after blow. Then, Jordan Poole’s 39-foot jumper at the buzzer likely set the Chase Center record for crowd volume. Looking back at how the Warriors set the tone in Game 2, what immediately sticks out on tape is how alert, aggressive, and on time their defensive rotations were. Although it was just a two-point lead at the half, the Warriors didn’t allow Boston to dictate the flow. From Kerr’s point of view, they didn’t require any major adjustments on the strategic side. The vast majority of their issues in Game 1 came down to poor effort, late or non-existent closeouts, and simply not respecting Boston’s role players from beyond the arc. To open the series, Al Horford, Derrick White, and Marcus Smart combined to shoot 15-of-23 from three. Out of those 23 attempts, 16 were deemed “wide-open” per Second Spectrum’s tracking data. That’s giving at least six feet of space for more-than-capable outside shooters (in Horford’s case, an outstanding playoff shooter). In Game 2, those three combined to shoot just 2-of-7 from downtown – Boston didn’t even generate a single three-point attempt for Horford after his career night in Game 1. After Sunday’s win, Curry mentioned the immediate difference he noticed in their defensive principles.
“The level of focus to start the game,” he said when asked about cooling off the Celtics.
