The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

BACK-to-back, three games in four nights, long road trips and short home stands all are contributors to the way teams play on a night-to-night basis during the NBA’s regular season.

This is a common dynamic experienced by all NBA teams, but quality teams are often those that work around these circumstances and find ways to win.

On the way to 73 wins, the Warriors feasted on teams as result of the NBA schedule.

It’s normal for a team to ride the hot hand for a stretch, depend on defence for another and even, at times, drop an occasional game or two just to get by. It’s all a part of the rigours of an NBA season.

However, once the season closes and the playoffs begin, all those little tactics are suppose to take a backseat to systems that were fine tuned over the course of the year.

Defensive ‘x’s and ‘o’s are morphed into schemes that vary based on personnel. Coaches at this point enact plans to stop certain aspects of the opponents’ offence. Offences morph from screen and rolls to ball dominant plays that benefit team strengths. The guesswork is out and the definite answers are in.

This is where Golden State have struggled this post-season. The team’s playbook and approaches in games are still in flux. It is obvious to anyone watching that the team is still grasping for its identity on defence and pressing to locate the hot hand on offence.

Over the course of the Western Conference finals, the team that had many of us spellbound during the regular season has refused to to make the shift from a team dependent on outside shots and the mishaps of its opponents.

While their lacklustre performance has left me often bewildered and frustrated, I am more surprised by the team’s inability to diversify their style of play.

Diversification. There has been none better in the game at doing this than Andre Iguodala. The Golden State Warriors must move the standout forward into the starting line-up if they intend to stage a comeback in their series against Oklahoma.

Here is why:

Russell Westbrook

There aren’t many point guards in the league skilled enough to do the things done by Westbrook on a whim. There is a reason why some consider him the most athletic point guard in the game.

The Warriors haven’t had an answer to him because they have refused to admit to themselves that the duo of Curry-Thompson is unable to defensively stop the speed and athleticism of Westbrook. He is too quick, too strong, too skilled for either man to handle one-on-one, or together.

The Warriors have opted to play more of trap heavy scheme with the ball in the hand of Westbrook and more of a help scheme when he is working off the ball - a mistake the San Antonio Spurs made.

There needs to be a decision to move Harrison Barnes to the bench in favour of last year’s Finals MVP, Andre Iguodala. Iguodala has shown that he is the team’s best defender and can play man-to-man on Westbrook. Move Klay Thompson to Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry to whoever the Thunder rolls out at the two spot.

Offensive woes

The Warriors are lost. The three-point shots aren’t falling and the team has been unable to do much else. The impact of Andre Roberson’s defence on Thompson has limited the Warriors’ entire gameplan.

The idea has to be to find a tertiary cog on offence. This spot was often occupied by Draymond Green, but he had vanished.

This is why the injection of Iguodala can pay off on both sides. Iguodala has proven time after time that he can hit the three-pointer consistently and run the offence from the small-forward spot. His play in that role last season propelled the Warriors to a championship. This move simply makes sense.

While there is no excuse that can be made for the Golden State Warriors’ lack of intensity this series, there can be an argument made that there is still a potential for a second wind. Three consecutive wins in any series, against in team is tough. Three wins in the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder is mammoth.

Maybe, just maybe, ‘Iggy’ can make inroads into that sizeable task.

• Ricardo Wells writes every Thursday on the NBA. Comments to rwells@tribunemedia.net