What do you do when your team’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness?
Do you feed it the way the Golden State Warriors have in these three
spectacular, history-altering seasons? Or do you slow down the tape, study the
error of your ways, however slight, and correct them before they cost you …
again?
Loose isn’t a bad word for the Warriors, it’s a mantra.
It’s been a rallying cry during the Warriors’ rise for Stephen Curry, Draymond
Green and Klay Thompson and friends. It was the subliminal message plastered all
over the flag they carried into their free-agent recruitment of Kevin Durant
last summer.
The freedom they play with, the high-risk, high-reward fun they have playing the
game in a way no one else can, led them to a championship two years ago. Last
year that same freedom might have contributed to them squandering that 3-1 lead
in The Finals over Cleveland.
The Warriors get to ponder such things on the eve of their Finals trilogy with
the Cavaliers because they indulged their passions to the tune of a 12-0 march
through the Western Conference playoffs.
If that’s what freedom brings, it can’t be all bad. And the Warriors don’t have
to apologize to anyone for doing things their way and playing to their
strengths.
That said, the discipline that escaped the Warriors in that epic
collapse/comeback (depending on your perspective) last year has to be rattling
around in the back of their minds. Durant, too. (Don’t forget, his Oklahoma City
Thunder had the Warriors down 3-1 in the 2016 Western Conference finals and
couldn’t hold on.)
You don’t get over something like that in a season, or really ever.
The rest of us won’t let the Warriors forget the miscues that cost them in The
Finals last summer. Green’s dust up with LeBron James late in Game 4 resulted in
a suspension that forced him to watch a potential game-clinching Game 5 at
Oracle Arena from a luxury suite next door at the Oakland Coliseum.
And with the ultimate pressure on in Game 7, the Warriors’ penchant for playing
loose with the basketball caught up with Curry. He tossed a behind-the-back out
of bounds with the Warriors ahead by a point and five minutes away from securing
back-to-back titles.
Curry addressed that specific play, one that highlights the double-edged nature
of the Warriors’ way, earlier this week with ESPN.com’s Chris Haynes.
“Yeah, I still think about that [turnover],” Curry said. “[But] in thinking
about that game, it’s funny because I know the concept of making the right play,
making a simple play, understanding that there are deciding moments in games and
the difference between winning a championship or not could be one of those
plays. [With that said,] I came out in preseason this year and threw a
behind-the-back pass because I have confidence that I can do it and it won’t
change that.”
It’s easy to overlook careless turnovers, momentary mental lapses and the
occasional unnecessary emotional outburst when you are in total control of a
game or series.
But will there be moments of total control against a Cavaliers team that has
shown it won’t flinch in the face of the storm the Warriors can create when they
are playing at their free-flowing best?
The Cavaliers will rely on their own history in Game 7, and the work of LeBron
and Kyrie Irving in particular, when combating what the Warriors (with a
superstar of Durant’s caliber essentially replacing Harrison Barnes in a scheme
that hasn’t changed much, if at all) will bring to the floor when the series
tips off Thursday night at Oracle Arena (9 ET, ABC).
As crazy as it must sound, especially with the way the Warriors have managed
this postseason, a bit of caution might work in favor of the three-time Western
Conference champs.
There’s no need for a conservative overhaul to the entire operation. No one is
calling for anything that radical. You have to stick with what got you here.
However, pausing in that split second before throwing that behind-the-back pass
… or before reacting to a bad call … or a perceived slight from the
opposition … those would all serve the Warriors well in what has all the
ingredients of being an epic Finals.
Like Curry said, he knows the concept of making the right play, the simple play
and understands that there will be deciding moments in these games that are the
difference between winning another championship or not.
Now, if he and the Warriors can just curb their enthusiasm for all things that
don’t fall into the right, simple play …
Sekou Smith is a veteran NBA reporter and NBA TV analyst. You can e-mail him
here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its
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