On the Cavs placing a box on Steph Curry and the Warriors’ ailing offense

Warriors’ offense continues to be highly mediocre.

In a game against the team with the best record in the league in the Cleveland Cavaliers, any semblance of good news, no matter how trivial it may be, is something the Golden State Warriors would heartily take. That morsel of good news came at the half, where the Warriors limited the team that leads the league in points scored per 100 possessions to a mere 86.8 points per 100 possessions, which included forcing 11 turnovers.

With the Warriors this season, these morsels of good news almost always come with caveats — this one was no different. Despite limiting the Cavs to well below their league-leading mark in the first half, the Warriors themselves scored even fewer points per 100 possessions — 71.7. Despite a sharp defensive half, they were still outscored by a gargantuan 15.1 points per 100 possessions. Those 11 turnovers they forced out of the Cavs were translated into a grand total of... wait for it...

Zero points.

Entering the half with an eight-point deficit despite that fact seems rather perplexing — yet at the same time, they were fortunate the deficit wasn’t much bigger given their absolute ineptitude on offense, both in the half court and in their attempts to translate the Cavs’ turnovers into points. It was representative of a theme that has emerged this season: despite a defense that has been within the top 10, their inability to put the ball in the hoop consistently has put all the pressure on their defense to carry the load, an approach that is highly unsustainable.

It was quite telling, then, that out of the half — after Trayce Jackson-Davis scored on the first Warriors possession of the second half and Donovan Mitchell responded with a three — former Warriors assistant and Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson threw a wrench into Steve Kerr’s attempts to generate offense.

On this sideline out-of-bounds set, focus on Steph Curry and his defender (Darius Garland). Shift your focus afterward on the other Cavs players:

Adamant about staying attached to Curry, Garland makes sure Curry doesn’t spend a considerable amount of time with open space to receive the ball back. Garland’s teammates are forming a box around the paint and don’t seem all too concerned if a non-Curry Warrior takes a shot from the outside.

That non-Curry Warrior ended up being Andrew Wiggins. Despite shooting a career-high 41.4% on threes this season on 5.4 attempts per game, the Cavs were more than willing to let Wiggins take that shot. Their risk paid off, and Wiggins ended the night 1-of-5 on threes. To make matters worse, Mitchell drilled another pull-up three on the Warriors faces — a six-point swing.

The Warriors have Curry bring the ball down, with Garland still up high guarding him despite the other Cavs players remaining in a box formation around the paint, not actively guarding any player and letting the other Warriors move around:

Unlike the previous possession, the Cavs seem to be fluid about their coverage. What starts out initially as a 1-2-2 zone turns into a box-and-one, with Mitchell having to switch onto Curry when Wiggins comes over to screen for Curry. While continuing to faceguard Curry, the Cavs flow into a matchup zone — that is, with a defender actively guarding whoever has the ball while everyone else zones up. When Dennis Schröder gets in the paint, everyone else collapses, with the exception of Mitchell (still guarding Curry) and Dean Wade (guarding Wiggins) — both of whom are guarding the best shooters currently on the floor for the Warriors.

Schröder gets his layup attempt blocked in a crowded paint — and Mitchell once again pulls up for another three:

This hybrid box-and-one and matchup zone continues on the next Warriors offensive possession. Garland follows Curry around — with Mitchell nearby and no other Warrior in the vicinity:

The Cavs once again successfully deny Curry the ball, with the other Warriors attempting to create offense sans Curry. Draymond Green manages to draw a shooting foul despite the possession seemingly going nowhere:

Green, however, misses both free throws — and adds to the Warriors’ woes at the charity stripe: dead last in free throw percentage (71.2%) while ranking 29th in free throw attempt rate.

After a stretch of having trouble against the hybrid scheme, the Warriors tried something different: having Curry set a screen to free a teammate up. He sets the flare screen for Wiggins below, allowing Wiggins to drive inside, draw help, and dump to Jackson-Davis in the dunker spot for the easy rim score:

The Cavs respond with another three — this time from Wade. Curry runs an “Angle” pick-and-roll with Jackson-Davis with everyone else spread around. With the Cavs not concerned about the Warriors’ spacing, they put two on the ball against Curry, who releases the ball to Jackson-Davis in the short roll. Wanting to take advantage of no one guarding him on the perimeter, Green slot cuts to make himself available for Jackson-Davis.

But a packed paint — and a good contest from Evan Mobley — makes Green’s point-blank attempt a tough one:

On the next possession, Mitchell signals to the Cavs bench — asking via hand-signal if they’re still in a box-and-one on Curry:

The answer from the Cavs bench seemingly was a “no” — the Cavs match up and defend normally on this possession, one where Curry ends up drifting to the corner in an effort to open the floor for a Wiggins-led pick-and-roll with Jackson-Davis. However, Wiggins’ attempt to thread the pocket pass to the rolling Jackson-Davis is poor — and results in a turnover:

In four possessions of the Cavs implementing a hybrid junk defense against Curry — a box-and-one with matchup zone elements — the Warriors managed to score a measly two points, or half a point per possession. In that stretch, the Cavs grew what was an eight-point lead into twenty points, despite Curry’s presence on the floor. In an 18-point loss, the Warriors were outscored by only two points in Curry’s 29 minutes.

Such is a microcosm of an evergreen problem — one that seems even more pronounced on a roster that is unable to find someone who can shoulder the scoring and advantage-creation load to ease Curry’s burden in his age-37 season and battling bilateral knee tendinitis. Curry hasn’t had the best statistical season, but the on/off numbers still capture the necessity of his presence: the Warriors go from the equivalent of the fourth-best offense in the league (118.0 points per 100 possessions) with Curry on the floor to easily the worst offense in the league (99.5 points per 100 possessions) without Curry on the floor.

Yet despite those numbers, the fact that Curry has to expend additional energy in order to give the Warriors’ offense a fighting chance — or expend none in an effort to preserve whatever he has left in his reserves — is telling of several issues plaguing this team. That much-needed second scorer and advantage creator hasn’t been there (Schröder — brought in to fill that role — has struggled to do so). In 17 games since losing to the San Antonio Spurs on November 23, the Warriors have an effective field-goal percentage (eFG%) of 49.4%; only the Charlotte Hornets’ 49.1% has been worse over that stretch. The team is filled with offensive tweeners of all sorts: ball-handlers who can’t shoot and/or score; athletes who can’t handle the ball; bigs who don’t have the touch around the rim to complete layups or putbacks; and wings who can’t space the floor and open the lanes for cuts and drives toward the rim.

In several regards, this team has placed themselves in a box that is difficult to break out of — just like Curry and his difficulty in breaking out of the box that the Cavs put around him to start the second half.