Golden State Warriors: 5 Keys To Avoiding Elimination In Game 5

5. No More Free Safety

To be fair, most of this series has been about how great OKC has been. Donovan has put his team in a position to win, particularly when it comes to Kerr’s bold decision to essentially put a free safety on Andre Roberson.

We’ve seen this tactic from the Warriors in the past; against the Memphis Grizzlies in the playoffs last year, Kerr had Andrew Bogut “guard” Tony Allen since Allen couldn’t shoot, basically allowing the big Aussie to cheat down low and help Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes handle the Grizzlies’ bigs in the paint.

Unfortunately for the Dubs, that same strategy hasn’t worked on Roberson, especially with that roamer taking far more liberties defensively than the Warriors ever did with Allen. The Thunder also have so many more capable passers to feed the open man the ball.

There have been a combination of factors contributing here, but Roberson has suddenly become a thorn in Golden State’s side. In the two regular season meetings he participated in against the Dubs, Roberson averaged 7.0 points on 31.3 percent shooting.

Through the first four games of this series, however, that number has ballooned to 10.5 points per game on an absurd 58.6 percent shooting from the field and 54.5 percent shooting from three-point range.

In Game 3, Roberson contributed 13 points, six rebounds and stellar wing defense, shooting 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point range in the process.

In Game 4, he finished with a playoff career high of 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 12 rebounds, five steals and two blocks.

Kerr has been downright negligent with his game-to-game adjustments in this year’s playoffs, and underestimating Roberson has come back to hurt the Dubs. With the Thunder shooting guard knocking down open looks and making the defense pay with timely cuts to the basket, Kerr has to nix that roamer role and play him straight up in Game 5.

Next: No. 4