Road to the Championship: Golden State Warriors Make Crucial Adjustments and Win Game 4

The NBA Finals changed in Game 4 as the Golden State Warriors evened the series with a 103-82 win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors were 2-1 down in the series, and were coming off back-to-back losses to the Cavaliers. Losing a third consecutive game would have effectively ended their title chances, and the Warriors needed to dig deep to find a way to win Game Four.

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The “thing” the Warriors were looking for came in the form of an adjustment. Coach Steve Kerr showed once again just why the Warriors’ front office made the right move to hire him as head coach when he made a major adjustment — a decision to go with Andre Iguodala in the starting lineup that paid dividends, as the Warriors offense got back on track.

Steve Kerr needed a spark and moving Draymond Green to center and benching Andrew Bogut paid off. This was an especially risky maneuver, as the Warriors went 67-15 with the same starting lineup, and changing the makeup this late into the season could end up hurting team morale and chemistry. Kerr initially said he wouldn’t make any changes to his lineup that worked well late in Game 3 when the Warriors trimmed a 20 point deficit to one.

But he did.

Shortly before tipoff even, Kerr told reported he wasn’t making any changes.

But after the game he admitted to his fib.

“I lied” he said. “ I don’t think they hand you the trophy based on morality. They give it to you if you win. Sorry about that.”

Kerr got the result he wanted: a win to even up the series.

The Warriors had far better ball movement. The shots that didn’t fall in Games 1, 2 and 3 fell and the Warriors headed home feeling good about themselves. Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala had 22 points apiece. Draymond Green had 17 points, 7 rebounds, and six assists. Harrison Barnes had 14 points and eight rebounds in his best showing of date. David Lee continued to make an impact with nine points in 15 minutes of play.

The change allowed the Warriors to play at a faster tempo – a significant change from the previous three games. Having Iguodala start also limited LeBron James‘ influence on the game – forcing the Cavs to rely on the other players to pick up the slack. James finished with a mere 20 points and tallied a -15 net rating.

The shift in the Warriors’ starting lineup also fooled the Cavaliers, as they changed their style of offense in the first quarter. They forced Timofey Mozgov in the paint, utilising the mismatch between him and Draymond Green to their advantage. Mozgov had 28 points and 10 rebounds but it came at the cost of forcing James out of his rhythm. As a result, the game was never really a contest after the Warriors overcame their slow start to defeat the Cavaliers.

After the game, Kerr admitted that the proposal to start Iguodala was brought up by one of his video guys, Nick U’Ren. U’Ren contacted assistant head coach Luke Walton with the idea, who then texted Kerr at 3AM after giving it some thought. Kerr brought the idea up to the rest of the staff later that day, and everyone was in agreement of the move. U’Ren’s attributed his idea to San Antonio Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich swapping Tiago Splitter for Boris Diaw in one of their games. It allowed the Spurs to add another playmaker on the court and spread the floor, which is just what Iguodala offered to the Warriors.

Not bad for a video guy, eh?

Next: Odds for Warriors' Repeating Justified?

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