Force Ja Morant to shoot
The star that everyone is talking about — Ja Morant has been posing an unprecedented threat to the Golden State Warriors.
It’s been nearly impossible for the Dubs to put the lightning back in the bottle when Ja starts his attack on the rim. With Gary Payton II on the sidelines, this task just got that much more difficult.
On one hand, the Warriors can take a blitz approach to swarm Morant in the paint. Yet, this opens an avenue for Desmond Bane, a lethal 3-point shooter, to get rolling. Thus far, Golden State has been content in limiting Bane’s attempts at the cost of protecting the paint.
There is another way for the Dubs to slow Morant, however. It just depends on something that is slightly out of their control — whether Ja can knock down key 3-pointers or not.
We’ve seen the strategy deployed already. The Warriors are allowing Morant to shoot on pick-and-rolls and they’ve sagged off quite a bit throughout the series. After all, Morant is a career 32% 3-point shooter.
The problem is, he’s been lights out to start the series. He has more than doubled his entire 3-point output from the first round and is bordering 40% on his deep attempts, some of which have come at crucial moments in the game.
The solution? Stick to the plan. The Warriors should not panic, at least, not yet. If Morant is still burying daggers from 25-feet in Game 4 then maybe they can reconsider.