Steven Adams isn’t the best player on the floor in the Western Conference Finals between his Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors.
He might be the most important player, however.
Monday night in Game 1, Adams picked up where he left off. The work he did to change and define the West semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs carried into the West Finals against the reigning NBA champions.
Adams’s work primarily consists of his interior defense — specifically his rim protection — and his rebounding. Enes Kanter got torched on defense in the third quarter, finding himself in a number of situations which highlighted the Warriors’ combination of physical agility and mental acuity. However, when Adams re-entered the game, the Warriors’ dives to the rim and other actions in and around the paint ceased to remain unbothered.
Adams is nothing if not a player who bothers opponents. His strength and length are powerful deterrents near the tin, but in order for his physical attributes to matter, Adams has to be in the right spot and make the right read.
He did so with unerring accuracy in the San Antonio series — he thwarted the 3-on-1 break by the Spurs at the end of Game 2, remember — and he didn’t make a misstep at the end of Game 1 against Golden State.
VIDEO: Turnovers, sloppy possessions & rushed shooting put @warriors in uncharted territory https://t.co/4Szycft04v pic.twitter.com/drZ14D0nnI
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) May 17, 2016
The Warriors will say that they just didn’t play the way they’re supposed to play in the fourth quarter of Game 1. They’d be right to make such a claim. Some of those turnovers were the products of pure panic, an unsettled state which stood in marked contrast to the champions’ 60-point first half. To an extent, a number of the Warriors’ mistakes were unforced. They were not the immediate or direct results of anything the Thunder did.
However, one must just as quickly realize that in the first half, Oklahoma City did not get to spots before the Warriors did. Golden State discovered readily available driving lanes and got to the tin with impunity. Even in the third quarter, the Warriors scored 28 points; Golden State began the fourth quarter on pace to score 117 points in Game 1.
That the champions finished with only 102 was Adams’s handiwork more than anyone else’s.
Steph Curry passed up a 12-foot floater to feed Andre Iguodala for a corner three… and Iguodala left his spot. Curry committed a head-scratching mistake late in the game, when the Warriors felt the combined squeeze of game pressure and OKC’s defense.
Curry tried to drive the baseline at times in the fourth quarter. Guess who was there?
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Inside the final two minutes, Draymond Green made an effective jab-dribble move to his left, getting half a step on Adams. However, the New Zealander stayed with the play and managed to avoid bumping Draymond for a two-shot foul. His length affected the trajectory of Green’s shot, which missed. Oklahoma City naturally grabbed the rebound and made the Warriors pay an appropriate price for missing too many shots.
Adams defended guards. He defended forwards. He put a stop to any Warrior cuts or drives. He locked down the glass. He is covering so much of the court in this series and is being asked to hold together the integrity of the Thunder’s defense as the safety valve when the Warriors get past the first line of defense on the perimeter.
Adams is doing it all, and he’s doing it all with distinction.
Oh, by the way: Adams merely walked to the free throw line late in Game 1 and hit a pair of free throws to bring home this win. He made six straight pressure free throws in the second half. He added a half hook to give OKC an eight-point cushion, which came in handy after the Warriors scored five straight points on their next two possessions.
How did the Thunder win with Durant and Westbrook going 17 of 51, people are saying?
Many valid answers exist after Game 1, but Steven Adams is the best one.
