Golden State Warriors: 5 Problems With The Super Team In Oakland

Physical Play

This isn’t a new problem for these Warriors–it’s been around since their title run in 2014-15, and probably before then too. Teams that get very physical with Golden State have found more success with them.

The most recent and easiest example of this is the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies don’t have the talent the Warriors do, but they’re 2-0 against Golden State this year.

The most recent Memphis win over the Warriors was a dramatic comeback victory in a game where the Warriors led until the fourth quarter.

So how did Memphis win? They grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and took 20 more shots than the Warriors did. Even though Golden State was slightly more effective from the field, the sheer volume of extra shots the Grizzlies took made the difference.

There’s no real stat for this, but Tony Allen, Zach Randolph and Mike Conley were massive for Memphis in this game.

Both of them went relentlessly at whoever was in front of them, and their covers for most of the game–Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry–combined to shoot six-for-21 from three-point distance.

Curry was a remarkable 10-for-14 from two-point range, but those are baskets the Grizzlies can live with. They can answer back with twos on the other end. By not letting Golden State get good looks from threes, the Grizzlies disrupted their offense late.

The crucial difference in this game, compared to previous matchups between these two teams, was that now Memphis can shoot too.

Between the emergence of Troy Daniels as a knock-down marksman and the addition of Chandler Parsons, the Grizzlies actually attempted and made more threes than the Warriors did.

More and more teams have their own outside weaponry now. That alone doesn’t matter to Golden State–nobody has better shooters than the Warriors.

However, now that teams like Memphis can throw Randolph at Kevin Durant down low and have open shooters outside the perimeter, that makes things tougher for Golden State.

Hounding Curry and Durant all night and making it tough for them to hit threes is going to be necessary to anyone hoping to contain these Warriors.

Making their lives harder on defense is a good way to help slow down Golden State, and that’s what the Grizzlies did by going through Z-Bo and Marc Gasol often in their win over the Warriors.