Warriors small ball helps secure Game 1 victory

All season long, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been able to go to his ace in the hole if he needed to swing momentum and make a charge: his small ball lineup.

The beauty of the Warriors is they can beat you in many ways. Golden State’s starting lineup features a more “traditional” two-big group with Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green, and that’s still not all THAT traditional because Green isn’t exactly a traditional power forward. However, things get real crazy when Kerr goes small and uses Green at center.

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Kerr turned to his small lineup with the Warriors struggling in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night. With Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Shaun Livingston, Harrison Barnes and Green on the floor, Golden State made a huge surge to erase a 16-point first-half deficit. Livingston played a key role in the charge, and he finished the game with 18 points in a 110-106 victory.

These smaller lineups consistently work on both sides of the ball despite not having a traditional big out there. Offensively, there are multiple shooters and multiple guys who can handle the ball. Defensively, where the real problems would seem to exist, there are a bunch of long, rangy athletes who can switch all screens and wreak havoc on opposing offenses.

It certainly helps that Green can effectively guard every position on the court, and it also helped in Game 1 that Dwight Howard suffered a knee injury early in the game. The Rockets had some success in the paint early on, but as the game went on, that success diminished. A healthy and engaged Howard should theoretically be able to take major advantage of those small lineups, but since he wasn’t healthy, that didn’t happen.

Howard is hoping to play in Game 2 on Thursday, although he remains questionable. Needless to say, the Rockets need Howard to get right and get right quick in order to have a chance in this series.

Houston is also hoping to do a better job containing the MVP in Game 2. Curry went off again to the tune of  34 points, knocking down six three-pointers in the process. MVP runner-up James Harden scored 28 points and nearly notched a tripled-double, but it wasn’t enough.

The Warriors have opened Game 2 as a 10-point favorite, and that line could get even bigger if Howard can’t go. It’s already a bit bigger at some sportsbooks.