On Steph Curry hunting Luka Dončić with a ‘Quick Touch’

Warriors notch a huge win over the Lakers.

On a random January 5, 2024 matchup against the Detroit Pistons — down one and needing a huge bucket — the Golden State Warriors concocted a play for Steph Curry to get the ball, receive a quick handoff after passing the ball (“Get” or “Touch” action), and create a range of good offensive outcomes, whether that was Curry getting open on a pull-up look, getting downhill, or creating an advantage to get the Pistons in rotation, with the hope that the latter creates a good shot for one or several of Curry’s teammates.

On Curry was Jaden Ivey, while Bojan Bogdanović was marking Jonathan Kuminga. Jalen Duren was the roll-man defender tasked with ultimately deciding the coverage to be played against Curry around the ball screen. With Curry bringing the ball down, Trayce Jackson-Davis sets an away screen for Kuminga to come up and receive the pass from Curry, before quickly handing the ball back to Curry to run ball-screen action with Jackson-Davis:

The handoff action forces Bogdanović to have to switch onto Curry and navigate over the ball screen — less equipped to do so than Ivey. Thus, the Warriors create an inherent advantage with the initial action, and while Bogdanović is able to get over on time to prevent Curry from getting downhill, it is but a stopgap measure for Curry isolating against a slow-footed defender, who is unable to close the space created by Curry’s stepback:

This half-court action — coined as “Quick Touch” by Steve Kerr — has been a staple Warriors set for several years. While the team is, by large, still largely non-dependent on the pick-and-roll as a bread-and-butter pillar of their offense (28th in pick-and-roll frequency, per Synergy tracking), that doesn’t prevent them from including pick-and-roll and pick-and-roll-adjacent package in their playbook, especially as the playoffs draw closer and playoff gameplans are being unveiled.

The slow crawl of a playoff-level matchup entails the necessity of picking at weak spots and identifying pressure points. That includes zeroing in on an opposing defense’s weakest link — weak in the sense that, out of five defenders, the person who is least equipped to defend one-on-one; the opposing team’s main offensive fulcrum who may suffer in his ability to run the offense through constantly having to actively guard, or a combination of both.

In the Warriors’ win against the Los Angeles Lakers, they quickly ascertained that Luka Dončić would be the object of their matchup-hunting exploits, and thus, subject him to constant bring-ups toward the on-ball action. In what was perhaps something they wouldn’t typically unholster in a non-playoff setting (although it had huge postseason implications), they did not waste time getting Dončić in the action against Curry over and over.

As such, “Quick Touch” made a return to the spotlight. With Gui Santos being guarded by Dončić, Santos occupied the role Kuminga played in the instance above. Santos receives the away screen from Draymond Green to get him into “Touch” action with Curry. The Lakers are all too willing to switch Dončić onto Curry —eliminating the need for Green to set the ball screen and letting Curry dance against Dončić in isolation.

Suffice to say, while Dončić is a better player than Anthony Davis, it was Davis’ rim-protecting exploits and ability to moonlight as a switch big on the perimeter that gave Curry and the Warriors tons of trouble in past Laker matchups. Without Davis, the paint opens up expeditiously, especially with point-of-attack defense being a weak spot for Dončić and the Lakers bereft of someone they can funnel drives toward.

When the Warriors run “Quick Touch” again in the possession below, the Lakers make a quick adjustment: pre-switching Dončić off of Santos and putting the lengthy Jared Vanderbilt on Santos as Santos saunters up top to link up with Curry:

Vanderbilt opts to drop back against the “Touch” action, confident in Dorian Finney-Smith’s chops as a screen navigator. But Santos sets a screen that makes effective contact, delaying Finney-Smith’s chase toward Curry. Vanderbilt still elects to drop back — all while Green blocks Dončić off like a tackle creating a gap for a running back to dart through. Green’s “Gortat” screen creates room for Curry at the rim:

Being the designated “come over here” guy can be mentally taxing. Continuously having to step up and decide whether to commit to the switch or do something different is arguably the most difficult maneuver to pull off in the NBA — even more so when you’re caught in-between coverages in what often is an ill-fated moment of hesitation.

When Dončić is once again brought up to coax a switch onto Curry, he flashes reticence with having to switch out onto Curry again. Coupled with Moody’s screen, this gives Curry two things the Lakers have tried not to acquiesce: space and time.

Even when Curry is denied space and time, he makes sure to create them. On another “Quick Touch” possession, Dončić is brought up anew. In this instance, he jumps out to switch — but falls victim to a Curry blow-by. Jaxson Hayes is forced to step up, opening the pass to Green in the dunker spot:

Even on possessions that weren’t “Quick Touch” — such as the possession below, where Curry receives a cross screen underneath the rim followed by a pindown, the latter taken away by LeBron James switching onto Curry — the Warriors defaulted to having whoever Dončić was guarding (Jimmy Butler in this case) screening for Curry. On the Lakers’ part, they coughed up the switch all too easily, while providing little-to-no help against Curry’s isolation forays.

With Curry and the Warriors being in their Dončić-hunting bag all night long, they unholstered another staple set (“Dive Roll.” more on that here) to not only get Dončić on an island against Curry — they made sure to make Dončić defend against a screen by having Green link up with Curry on one of their patented two-man tangoes:

The frequency of the Warriors pushing this particular button resulted in a regular-season matchup that had a playoff atmosphere, along with jaw-dropping shotmaking and defensive playmaking from Green, now the presumptive favorite to win only his second Defensive Player of the Year award. This makes a potential seven-game series between the Warriors and the Lakers an enticing prospect. No doubt that JJ Redick and his staff will have answers and counters to this matchup-hunting dance, while Kerr and his staff will respond in kind. Along with the weapons at their disposal — Curry, Butler, and Green on one end; James, Dončić, and Austin Reaves on the other — this makes for a potent recipe for an explosive clash.