Golden State Warriors: 3 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Spurs

2. The new and the old Kerr

In Game 1, Steve Kerr started Iguodala and JaVale McGee in place of Quinn Cook and Zaza Pachulia. My first takeaway of the postseason focused on this, and I questioned whether this was a sign of a new Kerr or a new set of circumstances.

The new Kerr argument is that in the past, Kerr has only changed his lineup as a desperation move when his team was struggling. The new set of circumstances argument is that this year’s team left him desperate right away.

We do not have an answer to this question, but we have another case study. Fans and media members clamored for the Warriors to break out the Stephen Curry-Kevin Durant pick-and-roll throughout the 2016-17 regular season and playoffs, but Kerr used it sparingly. It was not until Game 5 of the Finals — the first Game 5 the Warriors had faced all postseason — that he unleashed it. He didn’t want his team going back to Cleveland, not after the previous year’s events.

This year, Kerr went to his most basic, reliable action much earlier. We have not seen much Durant-Green pick-and-roll over their two years as teammates, but the set is not all that different from Curry-Durant or Curry-Green, the latter of which was a staple of the 2015 Finals.

Durant is not Curry coming off a ball screen, but he’s the closest thing. His ability to bury off-the-bounce 3s, attack a switch or dribble into a clean mid-ranger with his man trailing is uncanny. When trapped, he can find his roll man, and when his roll man is Green, that means that lobs and passes to the corner are not far off.

The play was extremely effective in Game 4. While Durant again struggled from deep (4-of-13), he went 8-of-15 from 2-point range and 6-of-7 from the line. Green had nine assists, and the pressure this two-man game put on San Antonio’s defense was the biggest reason for the Warriors’ 24 offensive rebounds.

The offense still struggled. That will happen when Curry is out, Green and Klay Thompson combine to go 8-for-30 and turnovers are an issue. But Kerr showed us a new wrinkle, whether out of fearlessness or desperation, and we can expect to see more of it moving forward.