It will be a relevant tension point as long as basketball is played: good shot-bad shot.
What’s a good look at the basket, and what’s not?
The Golden State Warriors, now down 1-0 in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder, know they gave away too many possessions with turnovers (some of them of the live-ball variety, leading to points for OKC) on Monday night. The turnovers, especially Stephen Curry’s throwaway in the corner to Andre Iguodala, simply cannot recur. Those are the easily fixable deficiencies the Warriors must address. Curry has to take an open 12-footer if he has one. He needs to see the ball go through the basket and develop the scoring rhythm his team requires from him.
Whereas turnovers represent the kind of issue which is unambiguously concerning yet controllable, the thornier problem for the Warriors is their shot selection.
We all remember that Steph tossed in a game-winner in Oklahoma City two and a half months ago just after crossing halfcourt. He recalled that memory in Game 1 when he tossed in this long ball over Enes Kanter:
Steph Curry has infinite range! #NBAVine #WARRIORSvTHUNDER https://t.co/q22QS7xdoo
— NBA (@NBA) May 17, 2016
Herein lies the essential and exquisite tension for the Warriors: For them and especially for Steph, this kind of shot has been made all season long — often enough, at least, that the MVP can go to the well again and again when he feels like it. The Warriors have crushed souls the past two seasons by making especially tough and long shots look easy. Steph actually made an even tougher three later in the third quarter of Game 1, an off-balance shot (gliding to his left, away from the basket) which banked off the glass. The Warriors led, 81-69, at that point, with over three minutes left in the third quarter.
They scored only 21 points in the remaining 15-plus minutes of competition.
Some of the shots the Warriors missed in their 14-point fourth quarter were little different from the ones Steph had made in the third. Thompson took a quick three from the right corner on a fast break. His legs weren’t straight under him when he went up for the shot, but again, Thompson has made his share of off-balance threes in these playoffs, throughout the current season, and throughout the past two seasons.
For the rest of the league (save for a few players), these are indisputably bad shots.
For the Warriors, these kinds of shots have been made often enough that the shooters can’t be evaluated the same way, with the same stern disapproval.
When you show, time and again, that you can make the kind of shot 98 percent of your peers miss, you earn the right to have more leeway… but in Game 1, the Warriors stopped hitting the shots which had helped them through rough times on so many occasions this season.
The focus, as said above, rests with the turnovers more than anything else. The Warriors can’t make the shots they never get to take. If Golden State can transform a turnover possession into one which creates two foul shots, or a clean mid-range look against a non-Steven Adams defender, they should make minor, incremental gains.
Bigger gains, however? That’s the tougher pursuit for the Warriors.
Golden State depends on making the tough shot, even though its worst attributes emerge when it tries to make a complicated play on offense.
The Warriors do need to make the simple pass, the extra pass, and not overcomplicate their offense. Yet, part of their uncomplicated offensive approach is that they take open shots with free shooting hands whenever they emerge, even if they’re just a handful of seconds into the shot clock.
Will the Warriors cease to hit the kinds of shots they’ve hit all year, all while Oklahoma City gets tough three-point makes from Andre Roberson, Randy Foye, and Dion Waiters?
This was the scenario the Warriors thought they wouldn’t see after the Portland series, but the Thunder’s role players looked a lot like Al-Farouq Aminu and Allen Crabbe in Oracle Arena.
The Warriors might have to create better shots, but given the way OKC is defending, Golden State will surely have to hit some tough shots when the moment demands a few.
It will be fascinating to see how the NBA champions handle the challenge the Thunder have quickly shoved in their faces.
Good shot-bad shot has never been more compelling than it is in the Western Conference Finals.
