SAN FRANCISCO — Were the Golden State Warriors throwing up “The U” in the second half? Not exactly. However, the Warriors defense across the final 30 minutes might have reminded some of a hurricane.
On virtually every possession, Golden State used a U hand signal to initiate a box-and-one defense. The goal of this hybrid zone is to shut down a specific player. The Warriors became aware of it during the 2019 NBA Finals when the Toronto Raptors employed it against Stephen Curry. Without a secondary threat, it forces the ball out of the primary option’s hands. In Tuesday night’s 123-105 victory, the victim of it was Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers.
“We all know too well what Dame can do when he gets rolling,” said Steve Kerr after the game. “So that was the plan from the beginning.”
Yet, the plan did not work from the beginning. Lillard erupted for 19 first-half points, helping Portland grab a 17-point lead at the break. The Trail Blazers led by as many as 23 in the second quarter.
After halftime is when the Warriors' commitment to the box-and-one kicked in. Golden State went on a 14-0 run from the 9:25 to 3:42 mark of the third quarter, forcing the ball consistently out of Lillard’s hands.
“Typically, teams are aggressive in pick-and-roll coverages or you know in spots in the half court, but they just committed to it,” explained Lillard postgame. “A lot of times we were wide open on the wing… they were leaving guys in the corner. At that point, you have to accept it and get rid of the ball. They completely sold out in that coverage.”
Later, Lillard admitted he’d never faced a box-and-one coverage that aggressive. He hinted that he’d never seen a defense like that since high school. To be fair, Lillard had recently been scoring like it was high school. Over his past 12 games, Lillard averaged 41.0 points per game, most recently exploding for a career-high 71 points on Sunday.
Golden State found a way to suppress that, trying to prevent easy looks.
“He shot 16 free throws last time [we played] and that was the difference,” said Kerr. “So tonight, he had five early and we didn’t foul him at all in the second half.”
When Golden State got stops, they turned it into good shots. Made baskets got the Chase Center crowd engaged. The arena felt like it was about to pop at multiple points in the third quarter. It felt like old-school Warriors basketball. Not a matter of if they’d come back, but when.
A major force in tonight’s turnaround was Draymond Green, whose presence was felt after missing two games with right knee soreness. He played center field in the zone for much of the second half, an essential piece to the box-and-one. Often a three-on-two or four-on-three situation is created when the focus of the box-and-one (in this case, Lillard) gets blitzed beyond the three-point line. It’s no coincidence that Green was a game-high plus-26.
Green’s in-the-moment thinking was also important, even if the Warriors weathered Houston and Minnesota without him. He connects the coaching staff to the floor in ways seldom seen.
“When they lock in and put a specific gameplan together, we want to guard guys this way, we want to make this guy score and not let this guy, when they do that, it works,” said Green after the win over Portland. “Coach [Kerr] told us before the game like, hey, we’re going to try this gameplan, and his is more like a playoff gameplan for us.”
That’s the ideal next step: Transfer a stretch of high-level defense into the postseason. Most of the Warriors opponents will have more than just one elite-level threat – worth noting that Portland’s second-leading scorer, Anfernee Simons, was out on Tuesday. Can Golden State use different looks to befuddle better offenses? The Warriors are still a bottom-10 team in defensive rating this season. One game cannot change that. However, the come-from-behind win over Portland does bolster confidence in Golden State being able to summon that defensive intensity. Against the NBA's hottest scorer, the Warriors turned up the pressure.
For now, this win moves the Warriors out of the play-in tournament and into the No. 5 seed. That should not be overlooked. Neither should Golden State’s defense on Lillard in the second half. Whether it becomes a trend or not, the Warriors believe momentum is building. They have now won three in a row, just their third winning streak. There are two more games left on the homestand, against playoff (Los Angeles Clippers) or play-in (New Orleans Pelicans) teams. By this weekend, we’ll find out if Tuesday’s defensive adjustment is something or nothing.
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