OAKLAND, Calif. _ Desperate times call for desperate measures, so with the Raptors trailing the Warriors with less than six minutes left in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday in Toronto, coach Nick Nurse called timeout and asked his players how they felt about playing a box-and-one zone defense designed to stop Steph Curry.
It made sense because the Warriors started the game without injured Kevin Durant and then lost Kevin Looney and Klay Thompson to injuries. "We played some zone during the regular season, and usually you do it when the game is funky and there's a bad rhythm and maybe you can change it just by slowing them down or stopping some of the cutting," Nurse explained before practice Tuesday at Oracle Arena. "It seemed to protect the rim better for us. I was just trying to come up with something to stop them."
The Warriors' lead from 12 points to two in the final seconds before Andre Iguodala hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left to give the Warriors a 109-104 win and a 1-1 series split heading to Game 3 Wednesday night. Still, it was an unconventional move in the NBA Finals, the Raptors never had practiced it.
"Your players have to have some faith in it," Nurse said. "I got a sense from them that they were good with it in the timeout ... Kyle (Lowry) was the one that said, 'Yeah, man. That will work. Let's go.' That kind of lets you share the responsibility a little bit."
Can it work in Game 3 now that the Warriors have had time to consider what adjustments they might make? Leonard credited Nurse for a clever strategy but expressed some doubt even though Durant won't play Game 3 and Thompson is questionable.
"Klay wasn't on the floor at that time, and there's no telling when KD is going to come back either," Leonard said. "So, I don't think it will work."
