Warriors give young Rockets a taste of playoff basketball as they draw first blood

For the most part, Dubs were able to execute the plan — while the Rockets saw what that meant up close.

In the preview for this playoff battle, two key statistics stood out that may have portended how the Golden State Warriors were gearing to defend their first-round opponents.

The Houston Rockets aren’t particularly known for their three-point shooting, both in terms of volume and efficiency. They take the fourth-least number of attempts from beyond the arc in terms of three-point-attempt rate — and shot just 35.3% on those shots during the regular season, 21st in the league.

Many an instance has plagued the Warriors in terms of their defensive choices — e.g., a notorious non-shooter garnering favor from the variance gods and hitting a shot the Warriors were more than comfortable letting them take; even worse, that same player drilling another shot when left open. Most teams bank on this common philosophy of “letting players other than *insert star player/s* beat us” — and if they do, then cap tips are warranted. For the Warriors, there seemed to be too many instances of them tipping their caps.

However, that wasn’t about to budge them off of their chosen ledge — apparent in Game 1, where the Rockets shot 6-of-28 (20.7%) from beyond the arc. One possession comes to mind in the first half; take note of how many Warriors defenders commit to defending this drive from Fred VanVleet:

Four defenders pinch in to crash and pack the paint — the only defender choosing to stay put being Jimmy Butler, who correctly doesn’t help from the strong-side corner, one pass away from arguably the Rockets’ only dangerous spot-up threat in Jabari Smith Jr.

Even so, the Warriors defense operated like they were unmoved by the Rockets’ passing as much as they were unmoved by their shooting. The regular-season Rockets possess the designation of having the fewest passes made per game (262.3), having the fewest assists tallied per 100 possessions (23.6), and having the lowest assist rate in the league (54.9%). Those numbers are indicative of a team that lacks both the initiation and the connective passing to budge opponents in a conventional half-court setting — which, in a way, makes them vulnerable to specific defensive game plans.

Back to the possession above: the cutting Amen Thompson tries to make himself available but VanVleet is met with bodies and limbs. Smith is out of the equation, while Dillon Brooks is open on the left slot but is unseen by VanVleet; Brandin Podziemski also is in position to close out or deflect, if VanVleet decides to kick out. The crowd comprising the paint traffic makes a cut from a standstill perimeter player unwise.

VanVleet makes a commendable effort trying to find an open man after getting Draymond Green up in the air, but his pass ends up in Butler’s hands:

Much has been said about the plethora of options the Rockets possess in terms of defensive personnel, one that allows them to play several coverages, fine tune them according to the situation and opposing player, and shuffle through all sorts of looks to keep opponents off balance. But the Warriors themselves possess optionality against this Rockets team, one that doesn’t have the creativity nor an abundance of perimeter ball handling to shuffle through multiple offensive looks.

If the Rockets can switch screens as easily as they could against the Warriors — especially 1-to-4 — what’s stopping the Warriors themselves from doing the same, against a crew that doesn’t possess the level of shotmaking a Steph Curry or Butler has?

That was the line of thought during the possession below, with Draymond starting the possession on Jalen Green — with the knowledge that the Rockets were about to set an “away” screen for him. Jalen’s reward: getting switched onto Gary Payton II.

Butler’s gap stunt discourages Jalen from driving, forcing him to have to pull up against a good Payton contest. Even so, it was still a shot that rattled in and out, but the process that preceded it was made tough by the Warriors and their switching, fueled by the appropriate personnel on the floor.

Butler’s presence, in combination with Draymond, proved to be a foil for Jalen and the Rockets in the half court. To put it plainly, Jalen doesn’t have much space to work with when he’s surrounded by the likes of Thompson, who — for all of his pedigree as a defender — does not instill a sense of fear from the perimeter.

Just look at how far off Butler’s willing to help off of Thompson to park himself at the nail — which serves as an early warning sign for Jalen not to drive down the middle:

Jalen aborts his planned isolation and passes to Smith, guarded by Gui Santos, who then opts to drives inside. But Butler is already in position to both help and cover Thompson in the dunker spot, while Draymond — guarding another non-perimeter threat in Tari Eason on the strong-side corner — gets his hands in the driving lane, digs the ball out of Smith’s hands mid-drive, and forces a turnover in traffic:

The Rockets’ attempts to get Jalen going included setting high ball screens — near the half-court line — to create downhill momentum. But Draymond had those in check, opting to play drop coverage and stifling Jalen’s drives at the rim, with the confidence that Jalen only had a singular goal: go hard at the rim. The drop coverage didn’t allow Jalen many options in terms of passing (while allowing the Warriors to stay out of rotation), nor was he intending to give up the rock in the first place, to his and the Rockets’ detriment:

With that in mind, the Warriors kept their coverages conservative, for the most part. Whether it was drop coverage against Jalen, or drop coverage against VanVleet, the Warriors had confidence in their screen navigation up front, and little confidence in the Rockets’ screen-and-roll game generating any sort of consistent offense for them.

While Alperen Şengün was the Rockets’ only stream of consistent offense, he found himself stonewalled at times against Draymond, who plays drop coverage against VanVleet below, turns to defend Şengün in isolation, and is unfazed by Şengün’s attempt to power through and — when that doesn’t work — fish for a foul:

The Warriors provided the Rockets a lesson in scouting and preparation. Draymond, in particular, seemed unfazed, unbothered, and unrelenting in defending possessions in the half court, with him blowing up many a half-court possession simply by knowing what was coming.

His dig nullifies the high-post split by the Rockets below. Thompson counters the switch by slipping inside with top-side position against Podziemski, but Draymond gets his hands on the pass to force another turnover:

Instead of dependable half-court scoring, what kept the Rockets in the game was, as expected, their offensive rebounding. They tallied 22 in Game 1 and were able to score 22 points off of those second-chance opportunities. Overall, they were a plus-16 (52-36) in rebounding — which makes it all the more impressive that the Warriors were able to “eke” out a 10-point win despite being thoroughly lambasted on the boards. That may be a testament to how impaired every other offensive tenet of the Rockets has been.

On the contrary, the Warriors themselves weren’t impressive offensively in terms of points scored per possession, but Curry and Butler spelled the difference, with help from a defense that limited the Rockets to just 96.6 points per 100 possessions. Curry finished with 31 points on 78% True Shooting, while Butler chipped in 25 points on 57.8% True Shooting.

Shotmaking was the name of the game for Curry and Butler. While being hounded by physicality — holds, tugs, hugs, etc. — is nothing new for Curry, it can be quite annoying and mentally taxing. But Curry persevered despite it all, making shot after shot that Rockets fans do not take to kindly, considering Curry’s history of hitting them at their expense.

And for Curry to finally have a dependable second banana — or the “Robin” to his “Batman,” as Butler would put it — affords him a luxury not seen in nearly six years.

As I opined in the preview article, I wondered how often the Rockets — typically a disciplined defensive team, and who largely stayed disciplined during their April 6 win vs. the Warriors — would stay disciplined over the course of this seven-game series, and that it behooved the Warriors to test that discipline constantly. Cracks started to emerge in Game 1 — namely, when two defenders botch a switch involving Curry, who drills a deep three in the possession below:

And, in their efforts to prevent a Jalen switch onto Butler, allow Podziemski to slip his way to the rim, with weak-side help unable to rotate:

This is not to say the Warriors played a perfect game — far from it, considering their rebounding woes, the fact that they led by as much as 23 points before letting the Rockets come within a possession of tying the game, and how they barely were the better offensive team by virtue of having Curry and Butler make shots (with timely help from a Moses Moody three and a Podziemski offensive board that led to a Draymond layup). But playoff road wins are hard to come by — and the Warriors, decade-long experts in winning in hostile environments, took first blood in what will certainly be a bloody rock fight of a series.