At a critical juncture of the NBA Finals, TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott and David Thorpe spend an hour on what matters:
What’s with the Warriors’ Cuisinart offense? David thinks it’s been unplugged by Ime Udoka.
Why has Draymond Green been so ineffective? There’s a lot of story to that one.
And what is going on with Kevon Looney in this chart?
On BRING IT IN, David Thorpe explains:
We're seeing a lot of frantic possessions. When I say a lot, I don't mean 55 percent, but more than three percent, more than five percent. None of the Boston Celtics guys have been here. A good portion of the Warriors that are playing have not been in the Finals before. But Looney is part of that core four, he's the fourth guy. He's the Fourth Musketeer in a sense.
And, an example of how he's not being changed by the pressure of the moment, and the defense, was late in Game 4, in the final three minutes. I think Draymond was in the game, I think they blitz Curry up top, he hits Draymond a short roll, which is a very common thing. Green throws at beautiful bounce pass, kind of a high-low pass, in the paint to Looney. And Looney just patiently fakes and pauses, and then has a great left-hand finish.
It's not the hardest thing in the world. But he didn't rush it. And we've seen these guys rushed, so many plays.
Tatum rushed a very important slip screen in the fourth quarter. And instead of landing on two feet, and strongly going up over helping Klay Thompson, he kind of threw up what I call a hope shot, hoping it would go in.
Looney did nothing like that. He just settled in, used his fakes, and finished. And I think that's very symbolic or representative of what we're seeing from him. A two-way player who values setting screens, because he's not thinking about popping! That may change one day. But he is setting real screens like Draymond is. He's making simple plays on both ends. He's their best low-post defender right now. As a helper, he's got size and had a big blocked shot in the fourth quarter.
So all that adds up to, I think, a guy that Boston's not really been able to solve.
RECENT BRING IT IN EPISODES:
June 10, 2022 Forcing your opponent to do what you want
June 6, 2022 We have a series
June 3, 2022 Celtics take Game 1 with excellent 4th
May 27, 2022 Coach and NBA player trainer Charlie Torres
May 23, 2022 Warriors inevitability and trading blows with the Celtics and Heat
Win two games, win a title