The Warriors shocked the NBA’s world when they won the championship in 2014-15, launching three-point shots with unprecedented abandon while playing a stifling brand of defense. It was unstoppable. It felt like a revolution.
And now the revolution has been fully embraced, perhaps more dramatically than anyone thought possible. The league hasn’t put up such radical scoring numbers in nearly 50 years. But there’s a missing element from the Golden State blueprint, and that’s the defensive end.
Even the Warriors find themselves caught in the new-age trap. They gave up 81 first-half points to Utah recently, and another 71 against Washington. They won both games, but when you hear that this season’s rule changes have “legislated defense out of the league,” you have to agree. At least for now. By playoff time, it’s likely we’ll see another happy ending for the Warriors.
Some background: For years, the NBA allowed hand-checking by defensive players, free to use their hands or forearms to impede an opponent’s progress. Michael Jordan’s fans always claimed he’d have been even more dominant if left to roam around untouched.
Beginning with the 1994-95 season, the official NBA rules began to put limits on hand-checking. Prior to the 2004-05 season, the tactic was eliminated for good — at least on paper. Players still found ways to initiate contact without being overly aggressive, and it seemed a happy medium had been reached.
Prior to this season, however, the NBA installed a rule putting extra emphasis on “clear path” and “freedom of movement.” Officials are closely monitoring contact away from the ball, as well as any attempts to use physical means while defending someone attacking the basket. Combine that with an entire league copying the Warriors three-point obsession, and the numbers are stunning.
As a whole, heading into Friday night’s play, the league was averaging 112 points per game — the highest total since the 1969-70 season. New Orleans led the way at 132 points per game, the Warriors ranking fifth at 119. From the 1995-96 season through 2007-08, no team averaged as many as 100 points per game. Today, with one exception (Memphis, at 99.5), every team scores that many.
It goes on that way. Twenty teams were averaging more three-point shots per game than the Warriors (28.8, compared to Dallas’ 42.5). In terms of pace, as measured by nba.com, the Warriors were just seventh, behind Atlanta, New Orleans, the Lakers, Sacramento, Washington and Milwaukee.
Something to remember, though, as pointed out by ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy: “This new rule change is all about the Warriors. The NBA doesn’t necessarily favor a team, but they favor a style. They’re almost forcing your hand, roster-wise.”
And here’s when Golden State fans can relax. The Warriors don’t care who’s putting up more shots, or moving down the floor quicker. No roster can come close to owning Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, three of the greatest shooters in league history. Durant’s presence almost invites an emphasis on halfcourt sets, and if DeMarcus Cousins arrives in top form by playoff time, the Warriors will be even further ahead of the game, brandishing a center who can score almost at will in the low post.
And when it comes time to play defense — always at a premium at playoff time — the Warriors will play it as well as anyone. It’s an endless game of catch-up for the rest of the league, and the Warriors’ edge looks like Secretariat at the Belmont.
The old and the new
Trivia question: Until the Red Sox’ Edwin Nunez hit a three-run pinch-hit homer in Game 1, who was the last player to do so in the World Series? . . . As a number of baseball fans yearn for less complicated times, remember that analytics is not the dreaded enemy, merely a thorough, highly advanced set of information. Use it at your discretion, always remembering that it stands for yesterday, last week, three months ago — not right now. Use it well, while keeping an eye on the action right in front of you, and you’re ahead of the game . . . One stat I’ve never quite grasped is WAR, particularly because at least two different versions exist. And I guess I’m not alone. Tom Boswell, the revered columnist of the Washington Post, calls it “horse manure.” And Sports Illustrated’s esteemed Tom Verducci calls it “a semi-junk stat. Bill James has no use for it, yet some writers wield it incessantly. It is a measurement of nothing. It is an approximation, an attempt to roll everything about a player into one number. If you blindly believe in a stat that considers Bobby Abreu better than Yogi Berra, Lou Whitaker better than Reggie Jackson and Jeff Bagwell better than Joe DiMaggio, you’d better do some more homework.”
Answer to trivia question: The Giants’ Bill Bathe, in Game 3 of the 1989 Series at Candlestick . . . For those who miss the glory of World Series games in the afternoon, here’s a passage from James S. Hirsch in his excellent book, “Willie Mays,” noting that the 1954 Giants-Indians World Series opened on September 29: “In the coming decades, the World Series would begin almost a month later, in the frigid night air before fans huddled in parkas, ski caps and mittens. But in 1954 the games started in the hazy autumn sunshine, with men in sports coats and ties, women in dresses and pearls. (For Game 2) a gentle breeze drifted through the park, and the rays were moist with dew. The Polo Grounds was swept, scrubbed and decked in bunting, a dowager in finery.”
Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1
Be the first to comment