It didn’t take long for Kevin Durant to quickly and seamlessly integrate himself into the Golden State Warriors. And with the addition of Durant, Golden State is just cruising, defeating opponents with relative ease.
The Warriors have the NBA’s best record and the second-best offense and defense. Per game, Golden State also leads the league in points (117.0), assists (31.2), field goal percentage (49.7 percent), blocks (6.2) and steals (9.3). Things are definitely going swimmingly this season.
Yet when Golden State has lost (just five times this season), some of its weaknesses have been exposed. Like the crunch-time offense, which sputtered in a marquee Christmas Day matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Golden State’s offense became out of sync in the final minutes of the 109-108 loss, leading to turnovers and even a shot clock violation.
That loss prompted Stephen Curry to advocate for more pick-and-rolls in general but especially in crunch-time situations. And Curry isn’t the only one on the Warriors advocating for this. Kevin Durant echoed similar thoughts Friday and wants to be in more pick-and-roll situations with his two-time MVP teammate.
“I would love to, especially with how [Curry] shoots the ball and gets to the rim,” Durant said via the Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I know I could probably get to the rim as well. It’d be a tough assignment to stop. We’ve been working on it a lot in practice.”
Durant wanting to be in more pick-and-rolls with Curry isn’t surprising. They are two of the best scorers in the league and their games will only complement each other and thrive in pick-and-roll situations. It is quite tough for defenses to focus on either Durant or Curry in pick-and-rolls.
But as CBS Sports’ Matt Moore points out, while Durant and Curry would be an unstoppable tandem in pick-and-roll situations and although the two have been practicing it more and more, don’t expect it to become a staple in the Golden State offense just yet. The Warriors will likely save it for the playoffs so they can spring it on and surprise their opponents. And once they do, all that pick-and-roll practice Durant and Curry have been working on will likely pay off in a big way for the Warriors.
Courtesy: CBS Sports
