Golden State Warriors: 5 Adjustments For Game 2 vs. Cavaliers

3. Making Open Shots

We’ll talk about the Splash Brothers specifically in a minute, but this one applies to the whole Warriors team in general. In Game 1, the Dubs — the league’s best team at creating open shots and then knocking them down — missed an awful lot of good looks.

The problem extended beyond their 9-of-27 shooting from three-point range, even if that 33.3 percent efficiency marked an 8.3 percent drop from their regular season conversion rate. No, the problem was that the Warriors seemed to uncharacteristically miss most of their open looks.

In Game 1, the Warriors did make five of their 11 three-point attempts with the nearest defender being 6+ feet away (which NBA.com refers to as “wide open”), but on three-point shots that were just “open” (with the nearest defender being 4-6 feet away), they went 3-for-12, or 25 percent.

On those same “open” shots during the regular season, the Dubs shot 41.8 percent. Draymond Green saw a few wide open looks lip out. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson missed a lot of shots they normally knock down. Harrison Barnes missed a pair of wide open corner threes.

It was inconsequential in a game where the bench dominated against smaller defenders, but in Game 2 those same contested looks might not be as automatic. At that point, the Warriors will want to go back to knocking down the open looks they’ve been making all season long.

Next: No. 2