The Golden Run

"Stephen Curry (16640524995)" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Stephen Curry. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

It is over now. Ended by the Milwaukee Bucks. And while you may not have liked it, you have to admit that it was fun to think that they could have gone 34 games in a row to beat the Lakers record. However, the Warriors feat is still amazing considering that they blew out the past best start to the season which was the 15-0 as the Warriors made it to 24-0. Now, in this post, I'm going to look at how the Warriors made this run, and how to beat the Warriors.

How The Warriors Went 24-0
What did it take to win 24 games in a row? It took a combination of multiple factors. The fact is, Stephen Curry can't win 24 games in a row on his own. As great of a shooter he is, he just can't win by himself, and we saw that in the game against the Bucks. The first factor that I want to look at is offense. Let's take a look.

The Warriors lead in a lot of categories offensively, take a look at all of them

• 1st in PPG:                           115.3
• 1st in 3-point %:                   42.5%
• 1st in 3 pointers made:         13.1
• 1st in FG%                           48.7%
• 1st in FGs made:                  42.3
• 1st in Offensive Rating:       112.9
• 1st in APG:                           28.6
• 1st in Transition Points         577
• 1st in Off-ball screen points  312

So as you can see; they are very efficient offensively. They do this as you can see by shooting the ball really well from 3. They also just outscore you. There offense is really spread and is great in PnR. 176 of Stephen Curry's points have come from pick and roll.That is 7 points for Stephen Curry on PnR. In fact, Curry's 2 man game with Draymond is one of the best in the league. 30 of the passes that Curry receives are from Draymond. The next person is Bogut with 8.

What else you really need to look at is moving without the ball. Stephen Curry isn't a player that just plays isolation. He can also play off ball. Stephen Curry actually leads the league in points off of off-ball screens with 120. Guess who is second. That's right, Klay Thompson. He has 109 on the season. The Warriors offense is so great that everybody is coming off off-ball screens getting wide open shots. That is what you want in an offense; guys coming off screens getting the high percentage shot. That is another reason reason why Stephen Curry is so hard to guard. Not only is he deadly when he gets past half-court, not only can he take you off the dribble as well, but he also can score on you without the ball. 

The other big thing offensively, is the Warriors transition game. The Warriors lead the league in transition points. That is lead by Stephen Curry as he leads the league with Transition points. He also is second in the league in Effective FG% for player that takes more than 1 transition shots per game. Patty Mills is first. When your team runs the floor that well, you are going to get easy points.>
Defensively, the Warriors are great. They have the 5th best defensive rating in the league. They make every team earn every shot. They give up no easy shots. In fact, they give up the 3rd least amount of spot up jumpers with just 16.3 PPG against them off of spot-ups. That is why teams have to find other ways to score against this team because the Warriors won't give you that open jumper.
 
So how do you stop a team that plays offense near perfection, a defense that gives you nothing easy, an MVP player who can shoot from literally anywhere from the floor, and a lineup that somehow can't be beat? That is a great question. Let's take a look at the best way to take down the Warriors.



How To Beat The Warriors
The Warriors play fantastic offense. To really get it out of rhythm, you are going to have to take some chances with Stephen Curry. If can double him on cuts, deny the ball as hard as you can, and just double him as much as you can. The best thing to do is to let the ball get to the post. If you are playing the Warriors, you have to let the post get touches. The Warriors are not a post orientated team. They only shoot 39.2% from the post. That is 24th in the league. Never double in the post because Bogut and Draymond are great passers at the post. You really need to lets them get down there and play straight up defense.

If Stephen Curry starts to get going with 3 threes in a row, you have to foul Iguodala if he is on the floor. You need to take Curry out of his rhythm.

Offensively, your team needs to have guys that can post up. The Warriors allow a lot of post-up points. It is a big lapse in their defense. They allow the 4th most points from the post in the league. You need to have players who are willing to take it in the post because they don't defend the post that well.

Another big thing is just forcing turnovers. If you really press up on the Warriors, you will force lots of turnovers because of their up-beat tempo. You really have to take it to them in transition though. Warriors have one of the worst transition defense's in the league as they have given up 433 points in transition this season. The Warriors are 7th in the league in turnovers, so you just need to use lots of pressure.

Another thing to do is to get your guards in to isolation and pick and roll to start the game. Warriors have given up tons of points in isolation and aren't really that great in isolation on the defensive end. If you have a dynamic point or shooting guard, you need to take it at the Warriors. Also make sure that when Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are out of the game that you make a basket on almost every possession. The Warriors are know to have their offense and defense fall apart a little while these 2 players are out of the game, and with Harrison Barnes out right now, it's even worse.

So how did the Bucks and the Celtics almost beat them? Well, if you watched the video above, you would have seen that it had to do with Steph being out of the game. That isn't all though. What did they do when Curry was in the game?

Well, Greg Monroe really pounded down low in the post, a key to beating the Warriors as he had 28 points. The other thing was that they contested tons of shots. Also, a thing worst noting is they pressured Klay so much. They didn't give him an inch and really took him out of the game. Same thing with Draymond. They limited him to 5 assists and forced 6 turnovers out of him. 


They really took it to them in transition as well as they outscored the Warriors in the transition department. They also let the Warriors have there points in the paint. The Warriors had 56. What the Warriors did was let them get inside and finish, but the Milwaukee Buck outscored them from the inside, which if what you want to do if you are the Bucks and you don't shoot many 3-pointers.


They let Iguodala get the ball. They didn't let Steph get as many touches as he has been but they sure let Iggy get a lot of touches. Iggy of course just can't convert like Curry especially with a great defender like Giannis guarding him. Curry still had a great night, but the Buck did a great job letting the posts get their points and playing the wings where they couldn't score. Curry is going to score, there is nothing you can do about that. But you have to let the posts put up shots and you have to take away the wings, and that is what the Bucks did.

The Warriors are a great team and are going to be hard to stop. Doing all of this won't stop them from winning, but it will give you a much better chance in winning against them. The Warriors are going to win a lot of games this season, but they aren't going to have a cake walk if teams play them right.