Warriors vs Timberwolves

While the motion offense is their bread and butter, having one of the best pick-and-roll ballhandlers in the league in Steph Curry allows them to have the ...

All the Warriors had to do in this situation was to hold onto the ball, dribble it out, and burn as much clock as possible. Not to sound like a broken record, but the Warriors have lost several games due to turning the ball over too darn much. These are mistakes a team can’t afford with the playoffs looming and playoff positioning playing a crucial role. That goes for turnover percentage, as well — their 15.7 TOV% is worse than any other team in the league save for the Rockets’ 16.5 TOV%. The defense must then respond in one of two ways: either they give up the easy switch and therefore, the mismatch; or they scheme up a coverage quirk to prevent the potential mismatch. All things considered, Towns does a good job on Curry — but I felt like Curry could’ve done more to break Towns down. That’s a subtle example, but in many ways it spoke the loudest. But for some reason — bad decision making, bad process, or settling due to other factors (e.g., fatigue) — the Warriors just settled too much for my liking. The Warriors run two ballscreens (“Dive Roll”) to get Karl-Anthony Towns switched onto Curry. Such windows gave the Warriors chances to pick apart the small cracks and bust them wide open. But instead of Curry attacking Towns in isolation, he passes to Jordan Poole, who doesn’t generate anything against Taurean Prince. The Warriors have always done a great job mixing up their offense and giving opponents different looks.