The surprise of the NBA’s Christmas Day was the Golden State Warriors coming out of nowhere to beat the Houston Rockets, 116-104.
The Warriors entered the game 7-24, in the midst of what appeared to be a full on tank job. The Rockets came in 21-10, with one of the most fearsome offenses in the league, and James Harden running away with the MVP race, averaging nearly 40 points a game.
The Warriors stopped him. Or, stopped him as well as any team can hope to stop James Harden. They held him to 24 points on 9 of 18 shooting, and — pivotally — only let him take one free throw.
I was way wrong about this, as everyone’s favorite internet cop was quick to point out. I thought the Warriors wouldn’t be able to hang with the Rockets in any capacity, and I thought Harden would do what he does, which is score freely and get to the line a ton. Neither happened, and you have to credit the Warriors game plan.
Steve Kerr and assistant Jarron Collins had a flawless game plan for the Rockets — they trapped Harden like crazy, throwing multiple bodies at him, and then clogged the paint with guys who refused to foul.
The Warriors had their stroke of genius by often choosing to leave open one key Rockets shooter — Russell Westbrook.
The Warriors had interesting wrinkles in their defensive game plan, brought secondary pressure from multiple angles, mixed things up with Harden with how they defended him off screens … but the simple fact was, for much of the game, they dared Russell Westbrook to beat them with his shooting.
This is … smart. This is smart because Russell Westbrook is a confident player and also, well, not that good a shooter.
It’s risky, too. If Westbrook got into rhythm, the Rockets probably would have killed the Warriors. But he didn’t. He never got into rhythm, and he also never stopped shooting. He finished 11-32 from the floor, and 0-8 from the 3-point line.
For Westbrook, after the game, he dismissed the Warriors’ game plan.
“It’s nothing we ain’t used to,” Westbrook said, via ESPN. “It happens. Tonight we missed shots, so it worked. You know, move on to the next one. Good luck though trying to do that.”
Harden similarly was dismissive. Again, via ESPN:
“That was their scheme, that was the game plan,” Harden said. “Looks like it worked. [We had] a lot of opportunities, a lot of great opportunities that we just didn’t convert on. It’s pretty simple.”
For the Rockets, they almost have to chalk this loss up. The Warriors threw everyone at Harden, he found open shooters, the shots didn’t fall.
Still, there has to be some concern there for Houston. Other teams will watch this game. If Westbrook can’t make the open three consistently, teams will give it to him. If he gets aggressive and tries to get in the paint, well, defenses are already there, set up to stop Harden.
Again, there’s no good answer here. If Westbrook even goes 2-4 to start the game from deep, there’s a chance the Warriors don’t commit so fully to the game plan. He’s not a great deep shooter, but he’s shown he can make them, and if he does, the game plan goes up in smoke.
Still, it’s an interesting wrinkle the Warriors found here, and one that other teams will certainly study and try out going forward.
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