Golden State Warriors: 5 Lessons From WCFs Game 1

2. Small-Ball Lineups Could Be Huge

Finally, we get to the game-changing moment of Game 1: when Steve Kerr decided to roll with a small-ball lineup that had Draymond Green playing center.

For the old school, this unconventional lineup seemed like a perfect opportunity for Dwight Howard to dominate. But between D-12 being banged up and Green doing his thing as the guy who probably should have won the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Warriors went on a 21-4 run after going small.

Of course it helped that Stephen Curry turned into a human supernova as he often does. Of course it helped that Shaun Livingston picked the perfect moment to decide he wanted to be invincible on offense. But with Bogut in foul trouble and the Warriors in desperate need of some momentum heading into the half, they found all that and more with the small-ball lineup.

The active hands on defense flustered Howard, leading to turnovers and fast break opportunities. Not only did Green nearly finish with a triple-double (14 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists), but the Dubs’ small-ball lineups had a vast advantage in the second quarter and fourth quarter when Howard was on the bench:

With Houston scrambling to get back on defense and try to cut off Livingston’s drives to the basket, Curry had the opening, momentum and crowd support to do what he does best: make absurdly difficult shots look incredibly easy.

These small-ball lineups could change based on how Kevin McHale responds in Game 2, not to mention Dwight Howard’s availability moving forward. But anything that opens up the floor to Steph Curry to do things like this is exactly what Golden State needs to utilize as much as possible.

Next: No. 1