The Warriors beat the Clippers with the same play 4 times in a row

Smart people do smart things, and in the final two minutes Golden State’s 134-127 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, it became clear that the Warriors are very, very smart people. The Warriors are so smart, they ran the same exact play four times in a row with success on each attempt. The play call left Golden State players questioning their opponent and sent the Clippers searching for answers of their own.

Let’s rewind the tape.

There is 1:51 left in the fourth quarter and the Warriors have allowed the Clippers to hang around. They only lead by four points, and even though this Los Angeles team is playing inspired basketball behind Lou Williams, Tobias Harris and DeAndre Jordan, they shouldn’t be hanging in the same gym as NBA championship favorites.

So here comes Stephen Curry, the most feared three-point shooter in the history of basketball who has already made six threes at this point in the game. Curry takes a Kevin Durant-Draymond Green double screen, and when Jordan doesn’t show up top, he drills an uncontested three at the top of the key. (Pay close attention to Milos Teodosic and Austin Rivers’s reactions: That’s everyone’s mood when defending Curry.)

There’s one old adage everyone has heard at least once in their lifetime: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Warriors’ league-leading offense is far from broken, and this double screen is giving the Clippers fits, so let’s run it a second time in a row and see how it works.

Twice in a row Golden State ran the same play, twice in a row Jordan doesn’t show on the screen, and twice in a row Golden State got the same result. It was at this point in the game Curry and Andre Iguodala began questioning the Clippers defense, and the point where Mike Woodson pulled Jordan aside.

He has to get a hand in Curry’s face.

Eventually, the Clippers made the switch. Instead of sagging off of Curry, Jordan showed after the screen. That didn’t work out very well, either. First, Curry gives the ball up, and it eventually ends up in Kevin Durant’s hands. He does what the second-best player in the world would do and hits the cutter.

After running the double screen three straight times, the Warriors disrespectfully added one more for good measure. Guess whose hands the ball ends up in this time?

Oh, hi Kevin Durant. You feel like shooting corner threes today?

The Clippers were all mixed up on defense for a reason: Jordan isn’t anywhere close to being able to check Curry off the dribble; not even in NBA 2K18 with the game sliders all the way up. That’s no knock against him, it’s just the way things go when teams set their defensive game plans to switch bigs onto guards.

So instead of coming out and getting embarrassed on the perimeter, The Athletic’s Dylan Murphy noted teams have started living with Curry’s over-the-screen three-point shot with hopes that the defending guard will fight over the screen in time to lightly contest the shot.

Here are multiple teams doing it, with relative success, I might add.

For some teams, this kind of defense works. For the Clippers, it did not.

Golden State legitimately ran the same play four times in a row to beat L.A. Thursday night, and the Clippers legitimately had no answers. It just might be time to pass the sticks, Los Angeles. It just might be that time.