On Tuesday, LeBron James and Stephen Curry will renew one of the NBA’s great rivalries. But in the Warriors-Lakers second-round series, James vs. Curry will be a subplot to a compelling matchup. Sports Illustrated tapped a Western Conference assistant coach to break down the conference semifinals.
The Warriors are better. Significantly better. It’s going to be really interesting to see. First of all, I think they’re significantly better than the Lakers. Probably the biggest obstacle for them is overcoming the likely free throw disparity. The Lakers just kill teams going to the line a million times. Golden State’s rim protection isn’t great. The Lakers are going to take a ton of shots at the rim and when they shoot it well, they usually win. The Warriors are going to have to find a way to limit that. LeBron, every time he’s had success against the Warriors has found a way to really, really muck up the game just by controlling the pace and things of that nature against them. He’s going to have to do that again.
I’m really interested to see how the Lakers will try to guard Curry. Can they throw Jarred Vanderbilt on him? I think he’s a key. His length, his energy, and his size, it's not the same as Paul George. But George used to be able to navigate screens so well at 6'7" with really great length. Vanderbilt plays a little bit like that. Ben Simmons, same thing. In Philadelphia, he could move around screens at 6'10.” That's just tough. [Vanderbilt] is a good rebounder at times, a good weak-side guy. And it's allowed James to sit on the weak side and quarterback.
If I were the Lakers I would try to figure out how to get Davis some good opportunities to isolate in the post. And then I would have James trying to wear f- - - - - - Curry out, similar to what he’s done before. It’s not a new strategy but it can work. Steph is tough but you can wear him down. You have to make him guard a million pick-and-rolls. It gets really hard on him.
And can the Lakers get out in transition the way they have all year? Because they’ve been a very good transition team and Golden State will crash the offensive boards. So if you can, get out in transition. They’re also far more likely to foul if you’re on the break. And I think Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney are foul guys. They will f- - - - - - hack. So try to take advantage of that.
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Who James matches up with defensively for them is going to be the most intriguing. Because he's the one who tries to hide by far the most. If you try to play him on Green, you’re involved in everything the Warriors do. James looked f- - - - - - tired playing the minutes he had to play against Memphis. I mean he's still an all-time great, but he looked tired. And that to me is going to be interesting when these guys start moving and running and all the things that they do. How do you keep up? It goes back to mucking up the game, drawing fouls. In one of the early games that Sacramento won, they put Green in foul trouble. They put Looney in foul trouble. That changes who can be out there. Are they going JaMychal Green? It's a different deal when that's who you're going to, as opposed to those guys that you know you can count on.
I don’t know if Looney will have the same impact he had against Sacramento. Davis is a bigger body. It will depend on how they defend pick-and-rolls. The Lakers sat back in pick-and-rolls as a general rule here. They went under off-ball screens a ton. And you can't do that against these guys. You can't do that really against Curry or Klay Thompson. These are two dynamic shooters. They weren't a great trap team with Davis up there, but once you start getting into trapping or switching, now Looney becomes super impactful. I don't know how many better ‘star in their role’ guys. I mean he just f - - - - - - kills teams doing the things that he's capable of doing. So I think he can have some impact.
I mean I don’t see a ten-offensive rebound game type of thing, just killing them over and over. But once you get into having to be more aggressive or switching, then all of a sudden he starts killing you on the boards. He’s already tough, but he becomes an absolute monster to go against because he’s just f- - - - - - so big and strong, you can’t move him. And the later it goes into the series, the more physical he can be on those offensive boards.
