At approximately the 5:30 mark of the third quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ victory over the San Antonio Spurs, Victor Wembanyama sat down for his customary rest. Up to that point, Wembanyama — whose exploits as a seemingly extraterrestrial being disguised as a human playing basketball have captivated the NBA world — had been somewhat tempered by Draymond Green’s individual defense (at least, as tempered as a superstar can be, considering Wembanyama finished the night with a triple double of 31-15-11 on 62.9% True Shooting). With Wembanyama on the bench, the geometry of the floor on both ends changes drastically for the Spurs. Defensively, mistakes become much harder to erase, especially on the backline, during which playing defense on a string becomes paramount. Offensively, everything stops running through their 7’4” (allegedly — some say he’s much taller) multifaceted fulcrum, and must instead flow through someone else (mainly, Stephon Castle).
It was during this period of Wembanyama sitting down where Steve Kerr (and, by virtue of being the Warriors’ de facto defensive coordinator, Jerry Stackhouse) chose a different look for the Spurs to figure out. Curiously, it was a look the Warriors hadn’t previously unleashed in the game, perhaps in an attempt to keep it in their back pocket and wait for an opportune moment to spring it upon their unsuspecting opponents. As most possessions of this configuration have started out, Gary Payton II picks up Castle full court and delays the Spurs’ stroll toward half court with his ball denial, while also putting pressure on the ball when it finds its way to Keldon Johnson — true to his nature as an on-ball pest.
After the ball crosses half court, the Warriors fall back into a “2-3” zone configuration. But it’s not just any 2-3 zone:
Upon initial inspection, it doesn’t look like a 2-3, but rather, a 1-3-1 zone. However, what differentiates this “tandem” 2-3 zone from 1-3-1 is, first and foremost, the goal. The former is a rather conservative zone that aims to take away three-point looks; the latter is an aggressive half-court zone that employs doubles and traps, while being actively trying to intercept passes by crowding the passing lanes.
Another thing to remember in trying to differentiate the two similar-looking alignments:
In a 1-3-1, the five-man is at the “nail” or free-throw area, in the middle of the 3-man alignment. If the ball is swung to the corner, the five man sinks toward the low post in order to act as backup behind the baseline defender, whose role is to slide along the baseline and cover any pass to either corner.
In a tandem 2-3, a guard occupies the nail, with the five being the baseline/backline defender. The wing defenders are tasked with stunting at any pass toward the wing in order to allow one of the top two defenders to recover.
Based on the categories above, Green — being the five-man in the lineup — is the baseline defender, while Brandin Podziemski is the nail defender in a “stacked guard” configuration with Payton, which makes this zone a tandem 2-3. The stacked configuration can morph into a traditional two-man alignment in a typical 2-3 zone, depending on where the ball is swung toward. Fluidity and adaptability are the name of the game, but the main objective is simple: prevent good looks from beyond the arc as much as possible.
(Take note of Moses Moody — one of the wing defenders in this configuration — lifting rather high to stunt at Julian Champagnie, before sprinting all the way to the corner to run Johnson off the line in order to take away a three, in the process giving up a paint floater to Johnson, a shot the Warriors would prefer to give up.)
This miss by Johnson would allow the Warriors to run in transition, with their response being a trademark Steph Curry step-back three over Champagnie (when, typically, it would be Castle matching up onto Curry, but matching up in transition isn’t a time to pick and choose matchups, to the Spurs’ chagrin on this instance):
This three from Curry was one of five made on 16 attempts — not exactly up to his standards in that regard. But Curry was 8-of-9 on two-point shots, including a couple of successful attacks at the rim and stepping just inside the line for the rare mid-range shot. His aggression also rewarded him with trips to the line, resulting in a 15-of-16 free-throw clip. He finished with 46 points on 71.8% True Shooting.
Alongside him was Jimmy Butler, who — a full day after being scrutinized for his three-field-goal-attempt performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder — responded with a 28-6-8 line on 81% True Shooting, including a 5-of-7 clip on threes. Butler was as effective independent of Curry as he was in tandem with Curry. The former was best exemplified through the various Butler drives that resulted in trips to the line, or advantage situations that placed the Spurs’ defense in the proverbial blender, made effective by the mixture of personnel Butler was surrounded with (i.e., shooters/spacers):
While the latter was represented by a possession in the fourth quarter that was representative of how advantage creation is important to this team, through the Warriors’ two main advantage creators linking up to create chaos and confusion for the Spurs’ defense.
(Note the initial screen by Podziemski for Butler, followed by his screen for Curry. The Spurs’ three-man corps of point-of-attack/ball-screen defense goes awry with confusion: Harrison Barnes chases Butler around the Podziemski screen, then falls behind on Butler’s slip of the screen; Curry draws two to the ball, while Butler’s slip lures Wembanyama away from the corner, opening the pass to Al Horford.)
But arguably the main story of the night — in tandem with the tandem zone that gave the Warriors a window to capture the game from the Spurs’ clutches — was Green, his defense on Wembanyama, and how the Warriors could not have survived without his defense on the floor.
NBA matchup data can be tricky to sort through and therefore must be taken with a grain of salt. Having said that, Wembanyama was a cool 2-of-10 with Green as his primary defender, despite Green giving up virtually a full foot in height. That discrepancy wasn’t about to deter the ever-defiant Green, who pulled every trick in the defensive book to make Wembanyama’s time on the floor less comfortable than what the French phenom would’ve preferred — among them, placing pressure on Wembanyama’s lower body while using every bit of his 7’1” wingspan to contest his jumpshot:
In tandem with Will Richard, playing the middle ground in pick-and-roll coverage expertly, blowing up a pass that would’ve otherwise reached Wembanyama:
Foiling a Wembanyama jump shot by making use of his long arms — enough to make Wembanyama change his mind mid-shot and create a turnover:
Crowding Wembanyama’s space and forcing him to use his weaker left hand in what was an awkward, off-beat layup attempt:
And forcefully selling out on a Wembanyama three-point attempt, enough to force him to rush and overshoot his target:
The Warriors outscored the Spurs by 15 points in Green’s 26 minutes of playing time, one that was cut short due to him fouling out. In what was a microcosm of Green’s importance for the Warriors as an all-time defensive anchor, the Warriors sported a 105 defensive rating with Green on the floor and a 123.9 defensive rating with him off the floor.
Meanwhile, Green’s defense was supplemented by the Warriors continuing their sudden influx of tandem 2-3 zone against the Spurs, who scored a total of nine points in 14 zone possessions from the Warriors — 0.643 points per zone possession. Per Synergy tracking, among 12 teams that have recorded a minimum 50 zone possessions this season, the Warriors’ 0.828 points allowed per zone possession is the second stingiest mark, behind only the Miami Heat (who also play a highly similar form of tandem 2-3 zone).
The tandem 2-3 zone — in tandem with Green’s individual defensive brilliance and the Curry-Butler tandem that was brilliant, both independent of and in combination with each other — all added up to a unit that recovered from the disaster in Oklahoma City, in time to salvage (if at the very least, momentarily) a team that was in disarray.