Golden State Warriors: How Their Historic Season Slipped Away

3. A Failure To Adapt

Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was overconfidence. Maybe it was trusting the larger sample size to a fault. But whatever the case, Steve Kerr and the Warriors got caught putting their faith in the long game rather than react to what was happening in the moment.

They were going to beat this team. They were going to close out at home, where they were damn near unbeatable. Their open looks were going to fall, LeBron wasn’t going to keep making jumpers, the Warriors’ deep bench was going to start producing again, Ezeli was going to step up, Curry was going to start beating Tristan Thompson out of pick-and-rolls…the list goes on and on.

When those things didn’t happen, and when those things they knew to be fact based on the larger body of evidence, they tried to force those things to happen anyway. They were unable to adapt when the situation call for it, and as they stubbornly clung to what was supposed to happen, Tyronn Lue and the Cavs went out and made things happen.

Look at the minor adjustments Cleveland made. Those of us in the “David Blatt shouldn’t have been fired!” camp will have to hold our silence forever now, since Lue absolutely out-coached Kerr in this series.

When Matthew Dellavedova was a disaster, Lue gave his minutes to Iman Shumpert and even Mo Williams. When Kevin Love struggled, he yanked him. When it looked like the Cavs were running LeBron James and Kyrie Irving into the ground, Lue got more strategic with when he rested his stars in a dramatically shortened rotation.

Kerr, meanwhile, kept feeding minutes to Ezeli and Varejao in a do-or-die Game 7. He didn’t cut down on his rotation, he refused to unleash the Lineup of Death after a rough outing in Game 6, he didn’t ride his Big Three long enough and and he went with the struggling Barnes over the far more effective Shaun Livingston late in Game 7.

Kerr’s decision to reinsert Ezeli into the fourth quarter Sunday night was perhaps the decisive stretch that lost the Dubs Game 7. As soon as Ezeli checked in, LeBron James baited him into a three-shot foul with a pump fake, and then drilled another three over him on the following possession. A two-point lead quickly turned into an 89-89 tie.

Simply put, Kerr’s insistence on sticking with the strategy that got them there rubbed off on his team the wrong way. When all those little things weren’t breaking their way, the Warriors panicked and tried too hard to force those things to happen instead of taking what was given.

You could see it from the little, uncharacteristically dumb things the Warriors did down the stretch. On the memorable play where Kevin Love defended Curry on the perimeter like his life was depending on it, Curry settled for three when he could’ve easily blown by Love and attacked the lane.

The Warriors were down three at that point, but they didn’t need a three. They still had time. Instead, Curry forced up a bad look from three and rushed it because he knew the matchups dictated that was what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to drill a three over Love. Even Curry admitted he got tunnel vision and should’ve gone for two in his postgame presser.

Kerr and the Warriors’ system is the reason they won a league-record 73 wins, so it’s hard to fault them too much. If any team in NBA history had a reason to be stubborn and continue sticking with what worked over the larger sample size, it was these Warriors. Unfortunately, it’s also part of the reason their historic season ended in three straight defeats.

Next: No. 2