Watched KD highlights vs us this year to see who he scored against. Well, first time on Christmas, he got a few in transition of course. Then about 4 or so buckets came when Liggins was guarding him. A couple against LBJ. A couple against Shump. A couple against TT on the switch. And a couple against RJ.
Liggins and Shump were just way too small to guard him. And he will just toast RJ. TT has the size, but I think is too slow. JR has more size and he will be available this time, but he can commit dumb fouls and KD is good at drawing fouls. But I think JR will have to guard him. If JR is at his best defensively and plays smart, sound defense, that will be huge for us. But I think LBJ will have to guard him more than usual. JR and LBJ are our best bet, and throw Shump at him once in awhile.
In the January game, literally almost all of KD's points came in transition. I think one came against Shump in the half court off of a screen.
Watched Steph vs us and Liggins guarded him too a lot actually, but the majority of his points also came from transition. And the rest basically off screens, whether pick and roll or off the ball for three.
So matching up in our starting lineup, I think we may have to defend straight up almost across the board initially with maybe switching our bigs and putting TT on Green and Love on Pachulia/McGee. But Kyrie will guard Steph. And I think JR will have to chase around Klay. Because JR isn't quick enough to guard Steph and Klay has a big size advantage on Kyrie. Which leaves LBJ on KD.
The other option is to put TT on KD, LBJ on Draymond, and Love on Pachulia/McGee/West. But I don't think TT can guard KD. He definitely has the size, but KD's crossover is too quick for him.
When Warriors go small, I think it is actually to our advantage because we can put Kyrie on McCaw or Clark. Or put LBJ on one of them or Iggy if we want to. But if they start McCaw instead of a big, I actually don't know what is best with our current starting lineup. TT may have to come off the bench. Because Love would have to guard KD or McCaw and I doubt we bench Love from the starting lineup. So Love would guard Green and Shump or Korver would start. Or even Deron.
On the other end of it, KD or Steph can't hide on Liggins anymore. And you can't sag off Love. So they also have problems to worry about. Steph is going to be tired and get killed if he has to guard Kyrie. Whoever is our 2 guard has to make shots or be a threat though if we want to succeed.
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