Oh yeah, and Steph Curry was there to command a significant amount of defensive attention , opening up his teammates for plenty of looks.
Kind of dramatic, yes, because it was 22 threes, but that’s a lot! So, why did this happen? Well, as many people know, the Raptors rotate off the corners to stifle drives, they pinch and dig when they’re one pass away, and they attempt to trap and double more than most teams. Heavy, heavy pressure on ball – ideally to force turnovers – leaves them overexposed elsewhere.
It might seem unsatisfactory, and I’m not defending the scheme overall, but last night the Raptors achieved something close to the ideal process of their defense, but not the result.
Nurse thought they executed pretty well on both ends, was happy with how they limited Curry but says they made a few mistakes on their rotations/were slow getting out to Warriors’ other shooters.
Pascal Siakam’s return has really helped the halfcourt offense, which means the Raptors are less reliant on transition for offense.
Occasionally he would run a keeper play in the halfcourt and score, but most of what he was doing was seizing opportunity in broken plays – and he was phenomenal at it.
combined to shoot 12/45, the defense sagged off, and Siakam responded with counters in the fashion of mid-range jumpers, spot up 3’s, cuts, and drives to the bucket/post ups when the opportunity was there.
A lot of Banton’s possessions in the halfcourt as a handler result in basic handoffs that create little-to-no advantage, but the Raptors got him downhill somewhat in this game and he made great reads when doing so.
Curry makes the pass, Siakam shows off his nearly unparalleled court coverage to climb back into the play for the steal, and Barnes is off to the races.
Barnes has less viable lanes to the rim than he did earlier on in the season, so he has to hunt more opportunities as a cutter, screener, shooter, and he has to dominate his possessions in transition.
