Did Jayson Tatum have the best 3-for-17 performance in postseason history? What adjustments can/should the Warriors make coming off a night when Boston could not miss from behind the three-point line?
The following transcript is an excerpt from the Open Floor podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Michael Pina: I want to talk about Tatum real quick. So Tatum finished 3-for-17. I feel like he has one dud scoring performance per series. And Boston usually doesn’t survive those games because they need his scoring. He is their best player by far. But he made up for it with 13 assists, two turnovers. And the thing about Tatum’s game was, it’s clear to me that Golden State’s defensive strategy … like when he was hunting the smalls, and even before he hunted the smalls, he would run a pick-and-roll with Rob Williams, and Draymond is in the paint. Draymond is not guarding Tatum, he’s not guarding Rob, he’s just in the paint. He was in the paint the whole game. And I wonder, when you watch the film, as I rewatched the game this morning, ’cause I’m going to be writing about Boston’s offense. I thought the most fascinating part of the game to me was how they were able to score so efficiently, beyond the blitz at the end of the game.
But if you’re Steve Kerr, and you’ve said this many times, do you kind of panic and do you change what you’re doing if you are the Warriors? And do you think Draymond needs to kind of lessen his aggression defensively? Particularly when he’s on … I know Smart hit four threes and Draymond wasn’t guarding him for all of those threes, but Draymond did help off Smart; Draymond helped off Horford dramatically. Should Draymond be a little bit more traditional with his help coverage? I know this is who Draymond is and he’s a genius player and he just is a free safety; that’s how he wreaks havoc, so uniquely, particularly when they’re small. But is that the adjustment that Steve Kerr makes or do you think they are just like, all right, we are still going to take everything at the paint away from Tatum and away from Jaylen. I mean, they only allowed, I think eight shots at the rim in the whole game.
Chris Herring: Wow.
