How the Warriors turned Kevin Love’s pick and roll defense into an Internet joke in 3 and a half seconds
Via TNT
First, watch this clip. That's Kevin Love falling out of the frame, then scrambling approximately 700 seconds too late to actually defend the pick and roll he's supposed to defend. By the time Love's racing to Stephen Curry, Draymond Green is already throwing a lob to Andrew Bogut. It's one of the worst defensive sequences of the season.
Now, let’s explain how this could possibly happen.
STEP 1: KEVIN LOVE TAKES A WILD GUESS
Love has seen many NBA teams run this kind of screening action. In many cases, the man that's screened -- Green, in this case -- will follow the pattern you see above. He'll curl hard off a guard screener (Klay Thompson) then slice into the elbow low block. Maybe the idea is for him to post up. Maybe he'll catch the ball in the high post. Sometimes, he'll even come all the way to the corner to set a screen for another wing to curl into the middle, though obviously not in this case.
For whatever reason, Love expected Green to do one of those three things. Thus, he went underneath Thompson’s screen with the thought of meeting Green near the lane. Except...
STEP 2: LOVE GUESSED WRONG
Green didn’t actually go to the high post. Instead, he jabbed his left foot in a step and immediately planted to go the exact opposite way to set a screen for Curry. This is known as screening for the screener, because Thompson is setting a pick to give Green a more direct path to himself set a pick. It’s another common NBA screening action, except clearly Love didn’t download it into his hard drive (or the cloud, if you’d prefer).
Because Love got himself stuck deep in the lane thinking Green would do something else, he’s 20 feet away from defending the pick and roll he’s supposed to defend.
STEP 3: LOVE TRIES TO MAKE UP FOR LOST GROUND
Green of course sets the perfect screen on an unsuspecting Kyrie Irving, who lets Curry get to the middle because he expects Love to be there to help. Love makes one last-ditch effort to join the play, going into a full sprint to contest a sure Curry three.
The problem is that Curry also sees this off-balanced maniac racing towards him. Thus, he dropped it off to Green rolling to the basket.
STEP 4: OH CRAP
As Green delivers the lob pass to Bogut, Love is just catching his breath 28 feet from the hoop. Oops. That is how you end up as the punchline on a Vine that’ll follow you forever.
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The six seconds we just myth-busted are about Kevin Love, first and foremost. He's known as a poor defender and he looked far sillier in this sequence. Cavaliers fans trying to build some sort of case that their team can somehow compete with the Warriors in the playoffs will have to contend with these six seconds. If the Warriors can make Love look this silly defending their offense, how can Cleveland possibly shut them down enough over a seven-game series?
At the same time, these six seconds are also about the Warriors and the terrifying speed at which they operate. In three and a half seconds, they turned Love from a normal player defending a cross-screen into an Internet joke. They operate with such ruthless pace and efficiency that defenders simply have no time to think. Before Love could even blink, the Warriors made him toast.
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Complete domination: The Warriors gutted the Cavaliers and Cleveland fans too
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