10 Reasons The Spurs Would Beat The Warriors In A Series

2. Getting Creative

There are a ton of different approaches that Popovich will come up with to give the Spurs the best possible chance of advancing past the Warriors. Those approaches have a lot to do with how the Spurs will match up defensively.

One possible way to slow down the Warriors offensive attack is sticking Tony Parker on a Andre Iguodala or Harrison Barnes, whichever one is playing small forward at the time. That leaves Leonard sticking Curry, Danny Green guarding Thompson, Aldridge on Draymond Green, and Duncan on Bogut.

Of course, you could swap whoever is guarding Green if they go small by putting Boris Diaw in the game, but the matchup that could work in the Spurs’ favor would be Parker on Barnes/Iguodala.

At first glance, you may think it would be an idiotic move because Barnes or Iguodala has significant size advantage over Parker, but if the Warriors decide to take advantage of his size and dump it to him in the post, it means the offensive flow would slow a bit.

Another alarming matchup comes with Aldridge guarding Green. Nine times out of 10, Green would take advantage of Aldridge guarding him by forcing him to defend on the perimeter in pick-and-pops, but if Leonard is limiting Curry, Aldridge could let Green have his from three. That’s not what’s going to beat the Spurs.

Popovich could very well choose a different plan of attack that would work more effective then what was presented in this slide, but it’s something to think about and speaks for the versatility of what the Spurs can do defensively.

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