Golden State Needs Organized Chaos on the Court
The Golden State Warriors have their backs to the wall, which is a far cry from leading the league in wins during the regular season with 67. The Warriors find themselves down 2-1 in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers with Game 4 Thursday night in Cleveland.
If the Warriors are to win the NBA Finals that is quickly slipping from their grasp, they must let go of a few things first.
Through the first three games in the Finals, the Warriors and Stephen Curry the league MVP have been collectively holding on too tight.
Golden State has not pushed the pace, has not moved the ball around rapidly, and has not executed its offense with the confidence and swagger that made the team nearly un-guardable all season.
Critics could point out and rightly so that such play that is very undisciplined contributed to the biggest flaws of Golden State then and again now. Turnovers and a diet of long distant, off balance shots considered bad for the majority of shooters were but commonplace in their 67-win regular season.
However, the product that ultimately emerged helped to drag opponents into the swirling dervish and destroy them with steals, transition attacks, and early shots on the shot clock over and over again.
The shots that were bad in the eyes of many were what Golden State wanted when the ball was in the hands of Curry and Klay Thompson.
However, those two have not shown that flare for excitement, the confidence, swagger and killer instinct they often was displayed by both all season.
Now the Warriors produce more structured plays that have been driven by the principled, rigid, tough Cleveland defense that wants to succeed in replacing controlled bedlam with plodding, boring predictability.
The Cleveland plan is working and the Warriors are in a hole that is getting dangerous close to being too deep to get out of.
Alvin Gentry an assistant coach for Golden State said the team needs organized chaos. He said the team’s record is 80-20, shows the style has been very successful and the team only needs to return to that.
The Cavaliers head coach David Blatt has been criticized much of this season but he has proved in the three games of the NBA Finals that he knows what he is doing on defense.
Of course, have LeBron James averaging over 41 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists per game does not hurt.
Regardless, if Curry cannot stop making turnovers and start hitting some of his outside bombs then the Warriors hugely successful season will end in disappointment and eventually finger pointing.
The change has to start with Curry so his teammates will have the confidence to follow suit. Let’s see if that happens on Thursday and the Warriors can tie the series before returning home for Game 5.
