Ghostriding Through The 6 For The Chip - Raps v Warriors Finals Thread

[MikelArteta]

Look, nobody is saying this is going to be easy pickings for the Warriors. I said Warriors in 6, not that they would get swept. Y'all gotta get outta your emotions. Yes, the Raptors have a tremendous defense and what they just did to Giannis and the Bucks was impressive. But, the Warriors are not as predictable as the Bucks are, on offense or defense. Not to mention, a possible Kawhi injury lingering that may only continue to bother him with the kind of pace that the Warriors play with. This is a top 3-5 team of ALL TIME we're talking about for a reason. A core that's won 73 games before for a reason. All of the cutting, screening, unselfishness, that shyt takes it's toll on any team, good defense or not. Your communication and instincts on D gotta be damn near perfect 4 damn times to dethrone these nikkas.

 

[Brandsdale]

Look, nobody is saying this is going to be easy pickings for the Warriors. I said Warriors in 6, not that they would get swept. Y'all gotta get outta your emotions. Yes, the Raptors have a tremendous defense and what they just did to Giannis and the Bucks was impressive. But, the Warriors are not as predictable as the Bucks are, on offense or defense. Not to mention, a possible Kawhi injury lingering that may only continue to bother him with the kind of pace that the Warriors play with. This is a top 3-5 team of ALL TIME we're talking about for a reason. A core that's won 73 games before for a reason. All of the cutting, screening, unselfishness, that shyt takes it's toll on any team, good defense or not. Your communication and instincts on D gotta be damn near perfect 4 damn times to dethrone these nikkas.

This is the west we talking about and 2 solid MVPs (one who is unanimous).....

You can’t say anything about this city right now. This was a long time coming and ain’t nobody tryna hear all that lol

 

[MVike28]

@Lord Scarf you going to game 1?

 

[FAH1223]

Gasol, Ibaka, Green are food for Steph right now. Kawhi too and you don't want him guarding Steph cause he'll get tired.

He’ll guard Steph in crunch

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

The Warriors bench is a lot weaker than it has been in the last 3 finals so the Raptors definitley have a good chance

We still going with that weak bench narrative?

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

He’ll guard Steph in crunch

 

[jebuz]

He’ll guard Steph in crunch

he made breh look like a child there

 

[Brandsdale]

I like how nikkaz turned Kawhi into King Arthur/ Goku/The Hulk/Thanos/96 Jordan/John Henry/Prime Mike Tyson.



Can’t wait to see this narrative destroyed after Durant/Steph soul clap da Raptors in 4

Thanos actually won the finals tho and Kawhi ain’t the mad titan

 

[Trav]

See this breakdown is what I respect

But the other nikkas on some straight Colin cowherd skip bayless dumb shyt

No doubt. I ain't no bball savant or no shyt like that but I try to look deeper into the game and not just surface level shyt on some Stephen A, "lemme just say the most obvious shyt that comes to mind". Whether that's following Bean's Detail joint, reading articles that actually have "analysis" with film to back it up, there's way too much material out there for us fans to be ignorant about some of the actual intricacies of the game. And even then, I still can't even do it proper justice. I read this article where Doc was talking about why it's so difficult to beat these nikkas.

Doc describes what makes Dubs' best play so tough to guard

Lowe: How Golden State reclaimed its juggernaut style

This is a classic Golden State action, though they prefer to do it with Durant posting up and Green in Looney's role here as screener.

"It is their single best play and the hardest one to guard," says Doc Rivers, whose Clippers took the "ignore role players" strategy to an extreme in the first round.

Enes Kanter is nominally on Looney, but he's 15 feet away from Looney so he can help on whatever more dangerous threat might appear.

But Kanter is not really helping on anyone. He's chilling near Green, even though there is no need to swarm Green on the block. Kanter doesn't bother swiping at Looney's entry pass. As Krusty the Clown once barked at another overmatched opponent, "JUST TAKE IT! TAKE THE BALL!"

From there, it's over. Curry rockets around Looney's pick, knowing Kanter has no chance to cover all that ground.

"You have to recognize the guy you are not guarding on purpose is now setting a screen, and run back up, and that is really hard," Rivers says. "You cannot get paralyzed."

It takes a rare combination of alertness, anticipation and speed to toggle in an instant from "ignore" to "pressure" -- as Harkless managed on Green here:

In convincing opponents they need to help so dramatically off every non-shooter -- that a threat could appear anywhere, that you need to be all places at once -- the Warriors mind-trick them into helping on ghosts.

"They cause a lot of confusion," Meyers Leonard says days after the Warriors swept Portland. "It's incredibly difficult to be a help defender and then be up at the screen. It feels awkward. Help defense against the Warriors is totally different when they are playing that old Warriors style. It's not normal. You never know what's coming."

Rivers was watching that game and laughing in exasperation at that Curry 3-pointer, he says. Notice how both of Looney's screens direct Curry toward the coffin corner. Most pindowns spring shooters away from the boundaries. The Clippers blocked Curry and Thompson from using those picks -- "top-locking," in hoops parlance:


The inherent challenge of Golden State (with or without Durant) is that there is no one catch-all answer to defending them, or even to defending any one of their players over any single possession. Sometimes, you should switch. Sometimes, you should roam. Sometimes, you should trap. Sometimes, you should do all of those things in rapid succession.

A lot of those strategies are in direct conflict. Say you are a shot-blocker defending Green on one wing while Curry dribbles on the other. You should get ready to help at the rim on Curry's drive, right? But wait! Green is setting an off-ball screen for Thompson. Your job is to switch such actions. How can you switch outside onto Thompson and help inside on Curry?

You can't. If you're switching you can't help, and if you're helping you can't switch, and trying to figure out which to do depending on a dozen variables -- who has the ball, how much time is left on the shot clock, what other Warriors are on the floor, whether Joe Lacob is taunting you -- can plunge the smartest defenders into a haze.

"It's like you're in a boat with three holes in the bottom," Jeff Bzdelik, Houston's former defensive coordinator, told me last season, "and you only have two pegs to plug them. You just have to keep moving the pegs around."

Rivers resorted to telling his players to hack when they felt themselves falling behind. "That was the first time I had ever done that as a coach," he says.



The Warriors countered by redirecting their offense toward the corner. "They are so smart," Rivers says. He took particular note of the way Curry shoved his backpedaling brother into Looney's pick. Mean.

Golden State is preposterously good within tight confines. Their offense blooms in environments -- the corners -- where for most it withers.

How it look when a all time great coach has to tell his team to resort to hacking nikkas? And it's much more shyt like that in the article that goes on to detail what a defense has to do to even have a puncher's chance with these nikkas. Like I said before, individually, all of the Raptors can probably hold their own. But, as a collective, I'm not sure if they can put it all together against a team like this with a helluva lot more experience to boot too. All it takes is for one motherfukker to continuously get stuck or fukk up their assignment and that's a wrap. And then if KD and/or Boogie returns? Sheesh.

 

[twan83]

Kawhi is a great player.....but he ain’t Superman. The hero worship going overboard. KD still would drop a casual 30 on his head. Dudes acting like KD some average dude.

And Kawhi would drop 30 casually on his head too breh
They cancel each other out

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

and who won?


also remember raptors beating warriors by 20 at oracle, with durant, green, klay and curry all playing nd leonard not

So what who won Durant still dropped 51 on Leonard, nikkas in here saying Leonard will contain Durant which is laughable..

That second game in GS nikkas was just off and disinterested... you really going off ya wins in the regular season as some indicator y’all beating GS? You Raptor fans starting to sound like Rocket fans.. yappin all that wild shyt to look stupid when it matters

Keep talking.. it’s going to be door on neck season when the Dubs run you nikkas out of the building... you better be here too, you know for weaseling your way out of Ban bets

 

[twan83]

He doesn't??????

Come on breh u know they cancel each other out
Whether one gets the better of the other in one half than the other
To even say that says alot idk who else cancels out KD besides Kawhi except maybe bron but bron dont guard him straight up as much as Kawhi does
Anybody saying KD casually drops points on Kawhi but Kawhi cant is full of crap tho

 

[Robbo]

and who won?


also remember raptors beating warriors by 20 at oracle, with durant, green, klay and curry all playing nd leonard not

I know youre new to this, and youre excited.. but bringing up regular season matchups wont do shyt for your argument.

 

[Teko]

We still going with that weak bench narrative?

I said they have a good chance. They are still underdogs. The Warriors wins against the Cavs were directly attributable to the strong Warriors bench that had starter level players, allowing the superstars to rest without losing leads - they extended them in most instances

 

[NoMorePie]

I remember that game

I think he had 7 steals that game too