Golden State Warriors Challenging Old, Tired Assumptions About 3-Ball Chucking

OAKLAND — Time to update that old aphorism, “Live by the three, die by the three.”

Let’s be clear: No team is going to win a championship strictly shooting from long range, and no team is going to win a championship with a one-dimensional offense of any kind.
But save your insults; three-point shooting is no longer a mere offensive gimmick. Not in the hands—and supple fingertips and wrists—of the Golden State Warriors.
If the Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies proved anything in their second-round NBA playoff series opener, it's that big men who own the paint don't have an obvious advantage over littler men who own the arc.
Let’s be clear about this, too: The Warriors were not anywhere near their best against the Grizzlies on Sunday. Blame it on a full week off since sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans, or the atypical 12:30 p.m. start or the Grizzlies’ vaunted defense.
But a Golden State offense that absolutely purrs at times hacked up a fair share of hairballs in the form of one-man dribbling forays to nowhere and passes into oblivion.
“You can’t just make careless plays and I thought we made too many of those, especially early,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Normally, that’s what you hear from a coach who has lost a playoff game. Kerr won by 15 and the game was never really in doubt. Superfan Jimmy Goldstein actually termed it “boring” afterward. It’s a big reason the bookmakers in Las Vegas have the Warriors as the odds-on favorite to win it all—even when they don’t play particularly well, they have a not-so-secret weapon that trumps all: The Three Ball.
The Grizzlies’ Tony Allen tried to suggest otherwise.
“If we take care of the ball and boards, it’s a different game,” he said.
Then he scanned the box score, seeking confirmation. Only he couldn’t find it. The teams were dead even in steals (13), offensive rebounds (seven) and turnovers (15), and Memphis actually outscored the Warriors 17-10 in free throws.
Someone mentioned a disparity in three-pointers and Allen began to shake his head, then stopped. The Warriors made 13 of 28. The Grizzlies made 3 of 12, with makes No. 1 and No. 3 spaced so far apart they were nearly meaningless in the context of the game: They were the first and last points.
“Some of those offensive rebounds and turnovers led to those threes,” Allen said.
Some. Not all. The Warriors have too many quality three-point shooters for anyone to think they can be stopped from taking and making them. They also have too many of those self-same shooters who can attack off the dribble—Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green—that if you close out on them at the three-point line, they’re headed for the rim.
“It makes them tough to guard,” admitted the Grizzlies’ Courtney Lee.
The Warriors, of course, have been making a case for The Power of the Three all season. Sunday’s 101-86 win for a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series was simply their latest exhibit.
It’s perfectly understandable that Allen wants to believe turnovers and offensive rebounds decided the outcome. Those are elements Memphis can control or at least improve on if point guard Mike Conley recovers from the broken bones in his face to take part in the series. What Conley won’t make an appreciable impact on is the wide disparity in three-point proficiency.