Golden State Warriors: 5 Keys To Beating The Thunder

1. Death Lineup vs. Dual Bigs

Against a Thunder team that advanced on the strength of its dual center lineup, the Golden State Warriors’ small-ball magnificence may be put to its ultimate test. Can the Death Lineup continue to exploit OKC’s lack of positional versatility? Or will sheer size and strength win out over speed and skill?

In that comeback win against the Thunder, Kerr’s Death Lineup was the difference. In 17 minutes, the devastating Curry-Thompson-Iggy-Barnes-Green lineup posted a 162.9 offensive rating and outscored OKC by 45.8 points per 100 possessions.

That lineup, which outscored opponents by 166 points in 172 total minutes together this season, posted a +47.0 net rating, making it the best five-man lineup in the NBA. It’s Kerr’s cheat code in this series, and with Bogut banged up, he may need to resort to it more often than in the past…provided the Dubs can keep OKC’s bigs off the glass.

That’s the one area of weakness for the Death Lineup, which only collected 71.6 percent of all defensive rebounds this season — a rate that would rank dead last in the association.

That’s a potential issue against a team that can make them pay on the glass like the Thunder, who was the NBA’s top rebounding team and offensive rebounding team during the regular season.

With the 6’7″ Green playing center, that obviously becomes Golden State’s biggest area of weakness. The Dubs are the best remaining defense in the playoffs right now, but can they close out stops with a rebound, especially if that Adams-Kanter duo is crashing the boards every play?

Don’t forget, this team led the league in offensive rebounding rate (31.2 percent) during the regular season, and was even better with both centers on the floor (41.6 percent).

In their second round series against San Antonio, lineups with that Adams-Kanter combo collected 67.4 percent of all available rebounds, including 50 percent of offensive rebounds, while posting a +17.3 net rating.

Luckily for the Warriors, they’re constructed to deal with a dual-center lineup a lot better than the Spurs were. San Antonio was unable to make Kanter pay for his poor defense, but you can be guaranteed the Dubs will if they spread the floor with 4-5 perimeter shooters. They just have more skilled players at almost every position when they go small.

It’s concerning that in three regular season meetings, the Warriors were out-rebounded by a total of 46 rebounds and gave up an average of 13.0 offensive boards per game. But even in a game where they were out-rebounded by OKC by 35, the Warriors’ small-ball brilliance still won out.

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Bogut, Green, Ezeli, Barnes, Thompson, Iggy and Curry will all have to do their part on the glass, but even with OKC’s dual centers being so effective against a 67-win team, it’s hard to see that Thunder lineup enjoying that same success against a Death Lineup designed to destroy it.