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Game 1 Round 1: Golden State Warriors (1-0) 121 - 104 Los Angeles Clippers (0-1)

First published April 14th 2019

Zubac is the kind of guy that Boogie has been inconsistent against, and today it started no different. The Clippers plan was trying to have Gallo matched up against Cousins or Curry, predictably. This is a great example of a quick off-ball switch the Warriors have perfected to protect Curry from these mismatches and Klay can hold up against almost anyone.
The Warriors were doing the usual shtick of searching a lot for Cousins early but the result was we wren't scoring at all. Team defense was locked in and the Warriors were willing to let Beverly shoot in order to protect the ball getting inside.
There's no one in that line up that can even pretend to guard KD. Either they're too small or they're Gallinari. And using Beverly is a questionable tactic, you'll force help and open up easy passes. He did shut down Lebron in the regular season but Durant can shoot way higher up than that.
Lou (2019 6MOTY) and Harrell (one of the most effective PnR duos in the league), despite the defensive shortcomings, make the offense incredibly dynamic. The moment came for Kerr to get switchable and smart defenders like Looney and Iguodala out there. This lineup had only Curry for spacing and they were trapping Steph almost the entire game but Dray was knocking down 3s! No defensive plan survives that. Curry already had a couple of sloppy turnovers but things would begin to flow really well to end the quarter with a 9 point lead.
For the second quarter, I was curious regarding how much Cook we'd see but he actually chose the guard instead of Jerebko with the second unit. But defensively that's a gamble. Lou Williams was feasting on attacking Cook/Cosuins with the PnR and brought the score back to even. While the idea of having Cousins as an extra outlet in this unit is awesome I'm still not convinced we should be feeding him in the post so much.
Bad defense and team not scoring, KD and Bogut would come in after the timeout. Bogut is still a really good defensive player - in that second play he both covers the passing lane for Harrell and strips Lou before he goes up. Harrell would return to finish the half with another dominat display but Curry would ramp up his involvement in the offense, had a 11 point run by himself, and took away any pretenses of a close game.
Third quarter started without much new to discuss, with exception of Klay not making any of his shots, which helped to keep the margin constant around 10 points. It got a bit worse when combined with DMC's complete lack of will to shoot from deep. If we're going to have a non shooting big with the starters, i'd rather have Looney who's been great around the rim and developed a great chemistry with the group's passing patterns. KD would take over most scoring duties in at this point.
The Clippers were really hurt at this stage by their deep shots not connecting and Steph was collecting a ton of rebounds from it. I felt that momentum was pretty had pretty much landed with the Dubs for good when i saw this. 30 points in 30 minutes for Steph.
Even less to say about the 4th... Cook and Cousins had a bad enough start that the Clippers actually cut the lead in half in just 4 minutes. Both defense and offense are worse with them in this match-up, especially if Williams and Harrell are out there too. Cousins fouling out helped the Warriors. Thank god Klay was still playing amazing defense.
It took bringing Steph and KD back in to get some extra shots and put this to bed and for Sky Fucker taking the number 1 spot for most career threes in the playoffs, with almost 80 games to spare from Ray Allen. That's fucking stupid. The Warriors would keep the best guys available to secure the game until the final 90 seconds.
When it's all said and done, the Warriors top talent should have no problems with these games as long as they're healthy and get their minutes. The Clippers second unit can absolutely destroy Golden State's but there's not enough time of that within the game. I'm interested to see what Doc can try to pull off, more in game 3 than game 2. He's been having a COTY contender of a season and might be able to pull a rabbit helped by some better luck with shooting at the right time.
Other notes:
Lou Williams is so good. Watching him is a pleasure.
I remember Curry being an underrated rebounding guard during his two MVP seasons and tonight we saw him bring those skills to the fullest. He was doing a great job defensively all game as well, staying close to the body of guys and even drew a textbook charge.
Zubac showed a few mistakes that display the lack of experience he still has over the years, particularly losing track of players in his back. Shamet is already one amazing shooter but he was kept out of the game by the defense.
Draymond Green's short rolls into a lob is still working after 4 years of this. I love it. Klay deserves consideration for a spot for all defense guard, he was amazing again today. Iguodala should be in the top 5 for 6MOTY for the season and he showed why today. I know i was very harsh on Cousins but this was an awful game by him. He was -17 in 21 minutes... Hopefully he can have a great game 2.
I stay away from refereeing issues when i write these, unless it's unavoidable (it wasn't). One non-call shouldn't make a team lose their marbles in a second quarter like this. Kevin walking out of the game like a hero was hilarious though.

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