With their backs against the wall, the Golden State Warriors came out with a renewed sense of urgency and blew out the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 2.
It was never going to be easy for the Lakers to steal two games on the road, and so Game 2 played out like how most people expected it would. Despite an impressive game from LeBron James, Golden State was firing on all cylinders that forced a 1-1 series tie heading back to Los Angeles.
After losing Game 1, Golden State did well to change some things up and Rui Hachimura pointed out a couple of them.
“I think they made a small — changed the starters. Offensively they were there, opened up the floor,” Hachimura said. “It was hard for us to guard four shooters. Defensively they were more aggressive I feel like. They had all the loose balls and the rebounds and everything. Yeah, that was the game.”
The Warriors opted to start JaMychal Green in place of Kevon Looney to optimize their spacing, a tactical move that Hachimura said the Lakers will need to figure out an answer for. “Yeah, there were the four shooters on the court at the same time. First game I think there was maybe two or three shooters at the same time. They made adjustment.
We just got to figure out the way to guard them. They open up the floor now. Yeah, we just got to play together, watch film, get back on the Game 3, yeah.”
As he has almost the entire playoffs, Hachimura provided L.A. with some much-needed scoring and admitted that almost all his shots came off great looks set up by his teammates. “I was just being ready. It was all good looks. They’re my teammates, made good passes. Yeah, I was just ready to shoot. It was like a practice for me, yeah.”
Game 3 back home in L.A. is far from a given, so Hachimura and the coaching staff will have their work cut out for them if they hope to retake control of the series.
Rui Hachimura breaks down how Warriors defended Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis looked far different from the dominant force in Game 1, and Hachimura explained that the Wariors did a better job of having more bodies in the paint. “Yeah, they were for sure crowding the paint tonight. I think they made a good adjustment, for sure. It’s our time to make adjustment. Next game is going to be very important for us. They might going to do same thing. Maybe they’ll change it. We don’t know.
We got to figure it out tomorrow. We’re going to watch film. Yeah, we just got to figure it out.”
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