OAKLAND, Calif. — The Warriors continued goofing on the old-school box-and-one defense the Raptors employed in the final minutes of Game 2 Sunday in Toronto. The more Golden State made fun of it, the more it seems the Warriors don’t want to see it again.
The strategy — after Klay Thompson left in the fourth quarter with a hamstring strain — was simply to get the ball out of Stephen Curry’s hands at all costs. Toronto’s Fred VanVleet shadowed Curry everywhere. The Warriors went cold late until Andre Iguodala’s wide-open 3-pointer sealed the win with 5.9 seconds left. But that sequence almost backfired with Kawhi Leonard’s near interception of a Curry pass.
After the win, Curry called coach Nick Nurse’s defense “janky.’’ If Kevin Durant and Thompson are missing again Wednesday for Game 3, Golden State may see more janky.
“It is janky,’’ said the Warriors’ Shaun Livingston, who made a difficult reception off Curry’s desperation pass. “It’s eighth grade, back in junior high when it’s the tallest player on the team [you’re] trying to stop. We haven’t seen those defenses before, especially in the NBA. Everybody’s so good. It’s tough. Klay and Kevin are down. Teams are doing something in that moment. We have to be ready for everything.’’
Curry didn’t back down from “janky,’’ but admitted the Warriors should’ve taken advantage of the middle-school scheme. Curry said he last saw the box-and-one “when I had a [Davidson] Wildcat jersey on.’’
“That’s a little southern, North Carolina slang that I probably just pulled out of my back pocket,’’ Curry said of his “janky” description. “It was obviously innovative and unexpected in terms of defense you haven’t seen in a while. But there are things that we could have done differently to try to create better shots.’’
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Nurse’s defense was “effective’’ in changing their rhythm but couldn’t help himself from taking a dig.
“In ninth grade a team played one against me,’’ Kerr said. “Very proud to announce that. I had a box-and-one, just like Steph. So janky defenses have been going on for a long time. It’s probably something you see more often in high school, even college you’ll see it. But I don’t remember ever seeing it in the NBA.”
Nurse, the first-year Raptors coach who has turned into a hero in Canada, didn’t seem offended.
“Yeah, I know,” he said, “everybody’s making fun of me for it, right?”
Let them make fun. Nurse said it’s still just a type of zone and they played zone variations during the regular season when he didn’t like the game’s pace.
“We were having trouble getting our defense set up,’’ Nurse said. “It seemed to protect the rim better for us and stop some of their cutting. It was good.”
Leonard, arguably the game’s best defender, knows the Raptors can’t keep it up for long.
“Klay definitely wasn’t on the floor at that time,’’ Leonard said. “There’s no telling when KD’s going to come back either. So I don’t think it will work.”
