Nursing a two-point lead at the 9:31 mark of the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Hornets, the Golden State Warriors were preparing to run a sideline out-of-bounds (SLOB) set that featured Steph Curry in a role that he has been willing to play throughout his Hall of Fame career, one that has featured both his willingness to create open shots for others as well as his awareness of the coverages he has faced from defenses in their (oft-futile) attempt to stop him in his tracks.
At first glance, the SLOB looks like one of the Warriors’ favorite set pieces called “C,” a screen-the-screener play they’ve used mostly in end-of-game situations but have occasionally unsheathed in the middle portion of games as a standard SLOB set. Featured in the last analysis piece by yours truly, “C” (also known as “Phoenix” due to its origins lying with the Seven-Seconds-or-Less Suns) involved a player clearing to the corner, followed by the aforementioned screen-the-screener action — someone screening for Green, who then comes off of the screen to screen for Curry, which should get Curry open for the three.
The Warriors run “C” for Curry in this instance, but take note of how Curry is being defended:
Curry, being “top-locked” by rookie Sion James, finds himself unable to come off of Green’s upcoming screen. As if anticipating such a scenario, the Warriors merely use the setup of “C” to flow into another action altogether, one that takes advantage of Curry being top-locked in the key with Green receiving the inbound:
Curry sets a rock-solid flat-angle screen on PJ Hall that clears the lane for Green — nullified due to being called for a questionable offensive foul, given that Curry was largely stationary in his attempt to set a screen. Regardless, it informed the approach the Warriors had when it came to unshackling Curry from the Hornets’ copious top-locking and physicality.
Among 145 guards who average at least 20 minutes per game, Curry’s 0.8 screen assists per game ranks fifth, with his 1.8 screen-assist points per game ranking eighth, per NBA’s hustle-stats data. No Warrior game is complete without the sight of Curry setting a screen — either on or off the ball — for a teammate, leveraging his gravity and his defender’s tendency to stay attached to him at all costs, even if coverages typically call for a switch:
Screen setting is but one manner through which Curry and the Warriors counter top-locking. Every manner of countering the top-lock was displayed against the Hornets, but the method that involves Curry starting in the painted area (i.e, the “key”) was especially highlighted as a point of emphasis.
On another faux “C” SLOB possession, Curry once again receives the top-lock treatment from James, with Green receiving the inbound instead of setting a screen. In lieu of attempting to screen for Green, Curry simply uses the backdoor lane he is given as a result of James positioning himself on his top side. (Also, take note of Curry nudging James toward the top of the key before cutting backdoor — a successful attempt to create more space for himself and a wider pocket for Green to pass through.)
Whether this was an on-the-fly improvisation or an intended twist to an otherwise widely scouted set remains to be seen without explicit confirmation from the coaching staff (a hard task to accomplish due to the secretive nature of NBA coaches, made nearly impossible from the even-more secretive Steve Kerr). But a couple of possessions prior to the one above makes me think it was an intended quirk as a response to the top-lock coverage.
With Jimmy Butler bringing the ball down in the possession below, he passes to the trailing Green. Curry, being top-locked by James, sneaks his way toward the paint and sets a “rip” screen (i.e., a back screen) on Butler’s defender. As expected, James opts to stay attached to Curry, resulting in Butler having a clear lane:
Much earlier than the possession above, Curry sets a “UCLA” screen at the right elbow for Gary Payton II during a second-quarter set, with Green handling the ball on the wing. With Curry being top-locked by Brandon Miller (but not on his top side), Curry sees an opportunity to come off of Green on a handoff, with Miller and Tidjane Salaün both attempting to stay home on their assigned man but failing to find an answer for Curry around the handoff:
On a similar possession in the third quarter, Curry starts the possession in the key, with Miller top-locking him. Again, Miller gives him an angle to come off of Green’s handoff, causing immediate panic. Two attach themselves to Curry around the handoff, with the read being to dish the ball to Green in the roll. This puts the Hornets defense in the blender, having to rotate to plug gaps created by the numbers disadvantage. Ultimately, a swing-swing-swing sequence creates an open three-point look for Brandin Podziemski:
On a crucial clutch possession, Curry once again starts in the key as a response to a James top-lock. Akin to a wide receiver trying to shake loose from his assigned cornerback, Curry uses every trick in the juke manual to create separation from James. He receives the pass, draws two defenders, and finds Green on the short roll, thus creating a 4-on-3 sequence. Green draws help away from the corner and sprays the pass to Will Richard for the three:
Green, in particular, finished the game with 12 assists, most of which were either to Curry on his cuts or to other Warriors players taking full advantage of Curry’s floor-warping nature. While Green does deserve credit for his pass deliveries, Curry’s still-underappreciated skill of setting up his defender off the ball (a wild thing to state given his extensive body of work) should be the featured takeaway from this game.
Even on a typical split-action possession, take note how Curry anticipates the top-lock by Collin Sexton and intentionally places himself between Sexton and the basket. This sets Sexton up to be the victim of a backdoor cut by Curry, and while most of us who have watched Curry ply his trade could see it coming, Sexton, apparently, did not:
(Also, I would be remiss not to credit the spacing in the possession above. Moses Moody in the weak side corner with Quinten Post on the wing next to him means weak-side defenders won’t be as willing to help off of their assignments to stop Curry’s cut.)
On a night where offense was the name of the game (amid a season where it has mostly been an afterthought) — the Warriors hanging 132 points per 100 possessions on the Hornets — the Warriors found consistent answers against the Hornets’ top-lock coverage. In a sense, they were able to “limit” Curry to 26 points, albeit on a true shooting mark of 75.1 percent. But in trying to lock Curry’s production down, the Hornets found themselves scrambling to contain an offense that was unleashed, due to the Warriors holding the “key” behind unlatching their top-lock coverage.