The generation that did not know Steph: The NBA has already managed to forget the uniqueness of the Warriors

Golden State is taking full advantage of the encounter with the new teams that have not yet learned how to deal with its unconventional weapons.

Miami uses its relative depth advantage.

Ravitz with an interim summary of the regional finals, including Donchich's lesson and the Celtics' chance

Assaf Ravitz

23/05/2022

Monday, May 23, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

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Stephen Kerry celebrates Golden State's victory in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals (from the official NBA Twitter account)

Miami - Boston

An attempt to sum up the first three games at a glance: for the first game Boston came exhausted from the series with Milwaukee, without two top five players, and in the second half came a mental fall that decided the game;

In the second game Boston got back its full five and grabbed one of those shooting days that it is capable of catching, combined with its excellent defense there is really no way to deal with it on a day like this;

In the third game Miami got Kyle Laurie, the top five player she was missing in the first two games, came in very sharp, opened an early gap and managed to scratch a win even though Jimmy Butler was absent in the second half.

A recurring theme here is that any absence of one of the top five players from one of the teams creates an advantage for the opponent.

These are two determined and smart teams that know how to take advantage of every little advantage they have, attacking every Miss Match, every player who is less than excellent defensively.

Smart and Kyle Laurie are especially important to their teams and we saw that in the rematch of both.

They are a combination of heart, mind and rich playoff experience.

With Boston's attacking move moving like a well-oiled machine, with Laurie Miami suddenly has a passing game she would not have had at all without it (that was the standout factor in the first minutes of Game 3).

Both also allow for fives that can make substitutions on five positions.

Both coaches do not use automatic substitutions regularly but as part of an arsenal of options, both like to diversify and surprise the offense, but weak invertebrates in defense, who can switch five positions, make it very difficult to attack on both sides.

So far we have not seen both teams in full force, all the time there are small injuries that limit.

But there is no serious injury and it is to be hoped that in the crucial moments of the series there will be full staffs on both sides.

Comes to both teams, deserves us, comes to this series, which will be decided when both teams are at their peak.

In such a situation these are two very similar groups that can complicate each other in similar ways.

It may be that if we get to the name of the series it will be decided by the superiority of one of the stars over the other.

This is one of the series where it's hard to answer the question of who the best player in the series is, Jimmy Butler and Jason Taitum are in the midst of a wonderful playoff, if an unequivocal answer is received later it may well be the deciding factor.

The battle of sub-players between Jaylen Brown and Bam Adbaio can also be very significant.

Bam was barely felt in the first two games, but arrived at the third game in a completely different mood.

He was determined to take control of the game, moving to the ring with his face to the basket,

More on Walla!

Boston, too, admits: Miami "came up like a wounded animal," why are we not?

To the full article

Miami should get it in the mode of Game 3. Adbaio (Photo: GettyImages, Elsa)

More on Walla!

• Golden State won 100: 109 in Dallas and climbed to a 0: 3 lead in the Western Conference Finals

• With "Dominic Wilkins new," the Warriors declare: "Yes, we are championship favorites"

• Adbayo's double double swept Miami to 103: 109 in Boston

• Boston, too, admits: Miami "came up like a wounded animal," why are we not?

• Every Thursday: benefits and attractions for only 10 NIS - only in the Walla!

Beyond the ability of the stars and sub-stars, several advantages of each group can be marked with full staff.

Miami is the slightly deeper team, the one that has more jokers to pull out in case of injuries or when nothing goes.

We got a great example of this in the third game, when Victor Oladipo, who was not supposed to be in rotation at all in this game, became a key player in the second half when he replaced Butler and provided a rare defensive display.

Miami also forces the opponent to lose much better than Boston and takes advantage of that to run, in both wins it had a quarter of an escape based quite a bit on that, Boston can not afford to be even a little unfocused.

Miami is also the team with the most significant inside player, which could allow it to attack substitutions better than Boston.

If Bam continues to be as aggressive as in the third game, his N 'Roll production with Butler or Laurie may be the move that manages to tackle any type of defense, including substitutions, more than anything the Boston offense has to offer.

Boston, on the other hand, looks like the slightly better team.

She is big and athletic, all of her senior players are morals and good keepers and five different players have already had a game of at least 24 points in this playoff.

She is also the team whose outside shooting is the best and most stable, the one that can connect to two-three days of 20 threes at 50 percent in the series.

Miami is unable to put up a top-three threesome with good defense, Boston has a top-five threesome with excellent defense.

Despite Robert Williams' advantages in assisting on defense, rebounds and a color extension, Boston's top five in the playoffs are by Smart, Brown, Taitum, Grant Williams and Al Horford.

The space that this quintet creates, along with great ball movement, two good isolation players and a post player who has not miraculously gone (Horford), is able to make it difficult for even Miami's best defensive quintets.

When Boston is healthy, it still looks better.

Horford and Smart (Photo: GettyImages, Eric Espada)

Golden State - Dallas

The first three games in the series were very different from each other, but their important bottom line was the same: The Dallas defense does not know how to handle the Golden State offense.

Steve Kerr's team is unlike anything else in the NBA, even after nearly a decade of its existence no one comes close to recreating what it does.

While teams like Houston and Cleveland have learned over time how to make it difficult for her occasionally (Cleveland before the trade for Kevin Durant, Houston also after him), in this playoff she meets a new generation of teams that did not know her, did not experience a playoff series against her.

It all takes about half a series just to figure out who's up against whom, to start formulating a direction of how to prevent the threesomes who keep moving the threes and at the same time not to leave the point too exposed to penetration, other ball-free movement and Kwon Lonnie's offensive rebounding. Of real.

Sometimes after half a series the story is over.

As the game progresses and the defense gets tired it becomes harder to keep this team.

Jason Kidd's players fell off their feet in the third quarter of the first game, in the fourth quarter of the second game and throughout the second half of the third game in front of Steve Kerr's machine dance.

Surprising time and time again how much this team actually does not depend on threes to come in, only in the second game did it have a good shooting day, in the other two mediocre, and yet its attack was unstoppable.

It's the three-pointer threat that activates all the other elements that Dallas remains helpless against.

A few minutes in which the threes do come in are enough to produce an escape that is crucial in a game, because even the rest of the time the Warriors' attack gets points at a high enough pace.

On the other side of the parquet a more standard struggle develops.

For the first game the Warriors defense came very prepared.

Luca Doncic kept looking for a block from player Steph Kerry or Jordan Paul, Golden State usually avoided a substitution and responded with a hedge - a quick exit to interrupt Luca and back to the blocker.

The level of performance was very high and in most cases the defense was tidy before Luca had time to respond.

The rest of the players made substitutions on Luca in blocks, Kwon Lonnie is getting along with him better than expected so far, as the players in the assist positions managed to crowd the color without exaggerating, letting the right players throw and the right players initiate.

Golden State enjoyed Dallas' mental fatigue after Game 7 against Phoenix, but also mentioned that with Drymond Green, and in its high lineup, it was the best defensive team in the league in the first half of the season.

He too has not yet found the formula.

Doncic (Photo: GettyImages, Tom Pennington)

For the second game Dallas came in the mood for Game 7 against Phoenix, with the intention of dismantling the opponent quickly.

Luca was very sharp, the threes around him scored in excellent percentages, they learned the Golden State defense and won a few small fights against the Hedge and the color help.

Golden State was scattered, especially Green who has too many days like this in the playoffs, but a good day of Steph shooting and machine dancing helped her stay in things until Dallas cooled down and got tired.

The feeling at the end of the second game was that it was a game that Dallas had to win, that there was a limit to how many such successful shooting days could be caught, and the bad shooting day in the third game proved that this was indeed the case.

Unless the biggest comeback in history happens here, it can be declared that there is a limit to how many times you can come back from behind in a series in one playoff.

Even when the Mavericks' attack was effective it was very ballooning, based almost exclusively on blocks from Steph or Paul's players, relying almost entirely on threes and rarely getting to the color.

It's hard to surprise a defense that knows what the opponent will almost always do.

But the method of Luca and his gang has already dismantled other defenses, so big credit goes to the Warriors defense.

The biggest news in terms of this defense, and in fact in general, is Andrew Wiggins.

The infamous player has dedicated himself to the role of the stopwatch who is excellently dealing with the most dominant attacking player in the league right now.

He is very accurate in personal guarding, very agile in passing blocks (which is especially important in hedge defense) and forces Luca to work on every shot in front of him.

On offense Wiggins enjoys being nourished by the leftovers, the need for the defense to focus on others, to score quite a few points in color and score threes in good percentages.

There may be a lie in this series earning Wiggins as an important quintet player for many years to come.

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Tags

• Golden State Warriors

• Dallas Mavericks

• Miami Heat

• Boston Celtics