Golden State Warriors eliminate New Orleans Pelicans, advance to Western Conference finals

With the Warriors devoting considerable attention and physicality to trying to stop Anthony Davis (34 points, 19 rebounds, 13/26 shooting), Holiday sliced through the middle of Golden State’s defense for layups and close-range shots. They needed to re-establish it, and they did in Game 4.

It might be a surprise, though, that the Warriors did not succeed with the lineup this season.

And right now, the Warriors are on another level defensively – posting the league’s best defensive rating in the first two rounds of the playoffs. Though Curry showed mixed progress with his shooting accuracy in his third game since nursing a left knee injury (8-of-17 shooting), the Death Lineup still created both open looks (23 points) and less pressure to do everything. Paul, in those games, shoots 48.8 percent and has averaged 26.8 points per game.

Paul needs to continue to be that offensive safety net for the Rockets in the conference finals. The Pelicans couldn’t get clean looks early in the game. Green went to screen for Curry, who is like a magnet on the offensive end, pulling defenders wherever goes. “There was absolutely a part of me that thought, ‘I don’t know if we can get our defense together.’ I knew we’d get our offense together, but defense requires a mentality and a spirit and a unity and a sense of goal from the five guys on the floor, and we were just a shell of ourselves that last week”.

Apparently, he deemed Game 4 a big moment. The Pelicans forward made one field goal in the game. The Warriors hit 15 of 18 free throws, held a 15-11 edge in fast break points and had 21 points off turnovers in the victory. Kerr’s deadly closers started the game on fire, setting a pace in the opening minutes of the game that opened a wide gap that the Pelicans would never close. “They took it to us, and the game was hard”.

Tonight, the Celtics take on the Sixers and the Cavs face the Raptors. But you play against that lineup the majority of the game anyway. And often times, that’s what makes him so great.

But the Warriors collectively have an enormous trove of postseason experience, and they know well the highs of winning and the woes of losing.

That has always been their go-to lineup in critical situations and in Game 4, it looked up for the task as it registered an offensive rating of 130.1 and a defensive rating of 66.5 for a net rating of 63.6 – a great sign for Golden State’s bid to repeat as champions. They have just too many weapons, and too many diverse ways to exploit you, that teams can’t try to defend them all.

This conference finals series will be no different. He doesn’t get the glory, but his ability to control pace and manage tempo amid the utter chaos that’s happening around him with the Warriors’ small-ball closing (and now starting) unit is critical to its prodigious success. The bet here is that they’ll fail.