LOOK At What The Lakers Did To Steph Curry

If this doesn’t reveal the Lakers strategy and how they won this game, I don’t know what will. 5 guys on Curry forcing anyone else but Steph to beat them. The Lakers survive and go to the playoffs on this Lebron James 3 from out of this world. But to really understand what happened and how the Lakers were able to get the win, let’s go deeper and break it down. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Look at this. 3 guys on Steph. Right from the start, the Lakers made it obvious that they didn’t want him to get hot. He was hounded all over the court and in order to get some shots off, look at where he needed to fire away from. He missed that one, but made a rainbow over Lebron and KCP, and this mind blowing shot with 3 guys chasing him at the buzzer. Despite having the entire focus on him, Steph finished with 37 points on 52% shooting. Amazing. However, to win a game as a team, you need a lot more points. This is what the Lakers were counting on. Frank Vogel’s defense was going so aggressively at Curry, at times leaving the other Warriors completely wide open like in this situation right here. And in the first half, the supporting cast was knocking down shots. Right here, everyone is chasing the main man, and on the rebound, the ball finds Bazemore, nobody around him, and hits the open shot. Again, multiple defenders up top, he gets rid of it, Green penetrates, finds Mulder who dunks it. So look at the numbers at the half. Curry had 15 and the rest of Golden State had 40 points. And Golden State had a surprising lead of 13 points at the break. However compare that to the second half numbers. Steph with 22 and all others 23. LA really kicked their defense up to a whole new level forcing a lot of turnovers by the Warriors. 15 in the second half to be exact. That’s more than teams sometimes have for an entire game. And in a situation like this where every possession matters, for a playoff spot, they are extremely costly. In the fourth quarter the Lakers also put Steph in some pick and roll situations, and as you can see that scramble opened up some nice looks, especially right here: Everyone is focused up top, and Lebron catches Bazemore watching, so he fires a bullet pass to Caruso, who has the angle for the drive. The help comes from Green, but a great pass to AD who finishes this wide a dunk capitalizing on this opportunity created by putting Curry in a position to defend the pick and roll. And all of that was capped off on the very last possession of the game when LA once again knew exactly who they need to guard for the final shot, and as you can see they get the turnover and seal the deal to go to the playoffs. At the end it was nothing but respect between the 2 superstars, as they provided us with great theater even before the official start of the postseason. For the sake of more drama and excitement, I do hope that Golden State can win their deciding matchup against Memphis, and sneak in at the 8 spot in the west. Stay tuned for that and much more breakdowns throughout the entire playoffs. And make sure to subscribe and not miss out. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.