There was a loose ball late in the second quarter Monday night that had Draymond Green near the scrambled fray in the deep right corner. That left Nikola Jokic staring at a runway to the rim and only Andrew Wiggins in the way. Denver scooped it up, pitched it to Monte’ Morris and he fired an open 3.
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This sets up a nearly unstoppable offensive result for the Nuggets. Either Morris — a 40 percent shooter — makes the 3 or Jokic, you’d presume, bullies through Wiggins for the offensive rebound and putback. At best, three points. At worst, two.
But watch Wiggins alertly pounce into action. He leaves Jeff Green on the opposite wing before Morris even gathers the pass. He gets low and absorbs the Jokic body blow. He springs up for a well-timed tip to keep it out of Jokic’s grasp. He gives Green enough time to get back into the mix, gather the loose ball and transition into an immediate fast break.
The Warriors crushed the Nuggets again on Monday night: 126-106 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 first-round series lead. There were several spectacular individual performances, but it was that same collective five-man unit that broke the game open again.
Steve Kerr didn’t go to the Steph Curry, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, Wiggins, Green grouping until 6:02 remained in the second quarter. The Warriors hadn’t played well to that point. They were down eight. Within two minutes, using a 9-0 run, they were up one. Before halftime, they had pushed the lead to six.
That’s a plus-14 burst in five minutes. It flipped the result. The same lineup had gone plus-14 in five minutes during Game 1. It flipped that result. In total, they’ve outscored the Nuggets 47-18 in 11 minutes this series. Offensive rating: 204.3. Defensive rating: 75.0.
Both of those efficiency numbers are outrageous. But it’s the defensive metric that’s most consequential. That group is built to barbecue opposing defenses, especially ones that stick with a traditional center. But one end is always tied to the other. The overall effectiveness is reliant on the unit holding up reasonably well on defense.
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“What’s going to be that group’s identity on the defensive end?” Green said. “That will ultimately determine how good or great that group can be.”
And that ties back to the clip above. It isn’t anything spectacular. Wiggins doesn’t even get credit for the rebound on that defensive possession. But his attentive rotation and willingness to bang with Jokic not only kept two Denver points off the board, but also led to an advantageous fast break in the other direction. Within six seconds, Thompson had a layup.
“We need Wiggs to rebound,” Kerr said. “We can’t foul. If we don’t foul, we can get out and run. Even if the other team scores, we’re still pushing the ball rather than having to walk it up after a free throw. Then we’ve got to contain penetration. We’ve gotta be able to use our speed and quickness to keep people out of the paint and then rebound and go.”
Wiggins had eight rebounds in Game 2. He has 17 in the series. That’s a huge number for him. Wiggins averages only 4.4 rebounds per game in his career and 4.5 this season. In the weeks ahead, facing increasingly better teams and higher stakes, he will be playing power forward more often than ever in his career. It’s imperative he keeps that number juiced up higher than usual.
Then the interior burden falls on Green, as it always has in the biggest pressure points of the playoffs. A month ago, that appeared to be a frightening ask for the Warriors. Green had been inactive for 11 weeks, rehabbing a tricky back injury. He didn’t look like himself upon return. It felt fair to wonder if he’d regain form quickly enough to battle the league’s giants.
But there’s no bigger giant than Jokic, and Green has wrestled him better than just about anybody in the league the past couple of seasons. Jokic needed 25 shots for 25 points in Game 1. He needed 20 for 26 in Game 2. The Warriors are a plus-45 in Jokic’s minutes. They’ve held him to 10 total assists in two games. He averaged nearly eight per game in the regular season.
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That’s directly related to what the undersized Green has been able to do against him on an island, standing up Jokic and forcing tough shots without fouling often. Those stops often produce runouts the other way.
Here’s an example from that game-changing run with that game-breaking lineup. Green stays strong against Jokic on a post-up, spins him once and then strips him on the way up. Curry scoops up the loose ball and the Warriors are quickly racing the other way.
Jokic’s frustration boiled over in the fourth quarter after this Green stop on another attempted post-up. Jokic yelled at the referee, picked up his second technical and was ejected.
Poole has been shooting better than 42 percent from beyond the arc on a high volume for nearly two months. This volcanic streak doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon. It’s actually surging hotter. Poole has scored 59 points on 29 shots in the first two games of this series. So, in his current form, the Warriors now have three dead-eye, quick-trigger scorers with 30-foot range on the court at once.
“You have three players that can get it on their own,” Michael Malone said. “They do such a great job of passing, cutting, moving and making plays for each other. I learned back in the day — CYO basketball, St. Agnes — the most dangerous guy on the floor is the guy that just passed the ball. Steph Curry is the embodiment of that. He’s been doing that for years. He gives the ball up, you relax and he’s flying off another screen and he makes you pay. Jordan Poole, his understudy, has paid attention, has done his homework, and is playing the same way. Those three on the floor with a Wiggins and a Draymond Green is very, very, very effective.”
But it shifts into overdrive when they get stops and zoom it right at a backpedaling defense. It creates situations like the one below.
Curry grabs a defensive rebound and all five Warriors players quickly get out in transition. That forces Aaron Gordon onto Curry at the top of the key and Jokic onto Poole at the right wing. Curry breaks down Gordon off the dribble, Jokic is forced to collapse and a swing, swing leaves Poole open for a 3. He is 10 of 17 from deep in the series.
Perspective in the moment is needed. This group has played only 11 minutes together. It’s been a spectacular 11 minutes, but that’s still less than one NBA quarter. The sample size is minuscule.
The unit has also been going up against a playoff team perfectly built to be exploited by the group’s strengths. Denver can’t take Jokic off the floor, despite his inability to survive defensively against that type of speed and deep range. Other likely playoff opponents have centers better built to guard smaller lineups (the Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr., the Suns’ Deandre Ayton) and way better perimeter defenders than what the Nuggets are tossing out there.
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But this is quickly becoming the explosive lineup that’ll decide whether the Warriors can add another title to the mantle. Curry looked back in form on Monday night. He scored 34 points in 23 bench minutes. He’s returning to the starting lineup soon. But don’t expect Poole to stick on the bench. He’ll soon be a cemented starter on this team and, when it matters, expect Kerr to trot this Curry, Thompson, Poole, Wiggins, Green lineup to start and close both halves.
“Ultimately,” Green said, “Jordan is probably going to have to start, too. So that’s where, you know, we got to figure a bunch of stuff out. Good problem to have. Great problem to have. … The thing about the playoffs is every series takes on a life of its own. Every series requires different matchups, requires different adjustments. But at some point, I’m sure they are both going to be starting together. You know, but I won’t — I won’t be the one to cause myself that headache. Steve can figure that one out.”
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(Photo of Draymond Green, left, and Steph Curry: Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
