Inside The Film Room With Dustin Dobbs: Golden State Warriors Ball Screen Action Set By Guard

On the eve of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, we take a closer look at a quick hitter a few teams like the Warriors go to often as a secondary action. It is tough to guard when you have shooters like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson setting screens and popping, and even tougher to guard when you have bigs who can act as perimeter players, stretch the floor and shoot, such as Draymond Green.

But watch for Golden State to get their looks and the Cavs to have their hands full trying to defend.

In this action, the shooter will set a ball screen on the big man’s defender and look to jam him. Typically, the big’s defender will be a few feet off his man, so there is an opportunity for a shot during the screen. The guard who is setting it, will almost instantly pop back out to an open area, causing confusion between the two defenders on whether of not to switch. Often times, the big’s defender will try to fight over, under, or through the screen to get back to his defender, which can leave the shooter wide open, if the guard’s defender is expecting a switch.

 With arguably two of the best shooters in the NBA, and a “small ball” oriented team, the Warriors excel in this action due to the number of guys able to shoot. In “Pick & Pop” scenarios during the regular season, Curry and Thompson were two of the top three guards in the entire NBA in points per possession. In the same scenarios, Curry was 5th among NBA guards in percentage of time scored with 33.3%, and Thompson was 8th in all NBA guards scoring 28.6% of the time.

Look for this action a lot from the Warriors between Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green as the NBA Finals start tomorrow night.