Warriors went triangle-and-two on Nets with success

Oh, how the tables have turned. The Warriors experimented with both a box-and-one defense as well as a triangle-and-two defensive scheme to slow down Kevin Durant and James Harden. And it worked.

The Warriors had a marquee matchup versus the Nets on Nov. 16 where Stephen Curry would go up against his former teammate Durant. With the Nets having as much firepower as anyone else in the league, the Warriors knew they had to somehow switch it up on defense to slow down Durant.

But that’s Durant we’re talking about here, one of the best scorers the game has ever seen. Durant can roll out of his bed and drop 30 on you in his sleep. So how do you stop a player like that besides praying that he’ll miss?

Well, one answer is to run the triangle-and-two defense. A triangle-and-two defense is most effective against teams who focus on isolation basketball rather than ball movement. On the Nets, James Harden and Kevin Durant are most effective in the isolation, and the Warriors know that.

Applying a defense like the triangle-and-two is more effective than something like the box-and-one. The team’s two best defenders are assigned to the two superstars on offense, and the rest of the three will play a zone-like defense around the key. The other players would also have key assignments, as one player is responsible for not allowing the offensive player to get in the middle of the paint and the others watch the post players closely.

The Warriors recently tried a similar defensive scheme as well. Previously against the Hawks, the Warriors turned the table and played a box-and-one on Trae Young. Young struggled mightily and was limited to just seven points and did not score in the fourth.

During the game, Durant was forced to 19 points on 6/19 shooting and missed a lot of his midranges due to the unusual defensive matchup.

Harden was limited to 24 points on 6/13 shooting and went 2/6 from three. While Harden has been struggling in the early part of the season due to the emphasis on how fouls are being called, he was still expected to show up for a marquee matchup and was nowhere to be found.

The Warriors applied a man-to-man coverage on Harden and Durant, while the other three on the floor would cover the paint with a 1-2 zone.

Ironically enough, the Warriors have also thrown a box-and-one defense themselves when Patty Mills is running the second unit for the Nets. Mills is a lethal shooter and can get streaky at times, and the Warriors didn’t want to afford that chance.

The Warriors have strengthened their defensive versatility throughout the years. As teams continue to develop and learn from each other in this copycat league, Steve Kerr and the coaching staff would need to be more creative in coming up with plans to stop the league’s best scorers.

(Photo credit: Corey Sipkin)