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@Golden State Warriors

We beat the Jazz 129-107 on Monday. On Thursday, we barely escaped with a win in a game where the final score was 140-137. I went back to compare lineups used in both games. Tldr: 3 of the 4 most successful lineups on Monday never saw the court Thursday.



Lineups from Monday’s game are on the left, with the lineups outlined in red being the non-garbage time lineups that were in the positive +/- (P/M column) to the tune of a cumulative +21 on Monday, but then weren’t played at all on Thursday. 🙃

by taygads

13 Comments

  1. It’s hard to read to much into this. Monday game had a lot of garbage time. The Jazz also fielded different line ups out there. Klay wasn’t on a heater. Steph wasn’t ice cold.

    Not to say I loved line ups yesterday (heavy Klay + Looney mins in the 4th was not great), but the game felt very different.

    EDIT: To go further, Thursday was a weird night overall. Segababa. Both teams were blazing red hot from 3. 44/91 three pointer went down. Dray was our best all round player. He had -6 on the night.

  2. System_Lower

    My guy. Don’t you know Kerr MUST troll when he expects to win or has the lead? lol 😂

  3. FallacyFrank

    Analyzing lineup stats over a 2 game sample size has to be one of the silliest uses of statistics I’ve ever seen

  4. DrHydrate

    Isn’t the real answer that it’s hard to beat a team twice in a row in a week? They will make adjustments. That we did beat them twice despite having a similar record shows that we really are a better team.

  5. Spirited-Cap-9779

    I think it’s unfair to compare lineups in this way. They’re human, and it’s not like all the players were in the same states of rest and mind before the two games. There were different circumstances. In the second game, the players were on the second end of a back to back on the road, you could tell they were tired. Steph wasn’t his usual self, and obviously the defense was much worse.

    And I don’t blame them, they were gassed as hell. High altitude, quick turnaround on the road after a gut punch loss vs LAC, 4th game in 6 nights, last game before ASB, etc. Steve even said so postgame, the guys flew in at 330 am in the morning….it’s amazing that Klay managed to have his best game of the season under such circumstances.

    Moreover, Will Hardy is a good coach. He knows how to make adjustments. The same lineups that worked before might not work the same twice against this guy.

  6. Aangslefthandarrow

    So you wanted more minutes for Lester and Moody and less mins for the starters in a close game?? It’s crazy but it’s almost like a 1 game sample size has essentially no relevance or meaning at all and shouldn’t be used to judge coaching game to game 🤔🤔

  7. AlmondJoyAdvocate

    What you need to realize is that teams don’t game plan against one another on a night to night basis in the NBA like they would in other sports like the NFL. There are simply too many games, too much travel, and not enough practice time.

    During the first 1/2 – 2/3 of the season, most coaches will have a pre set plan of rotations, lineups, and minutes that they will only broadly adjust to accommodate injury, fatigue, or to correct a major skid. This is because the value of having a large dataset of lineups and combinations against a large number of opponents is significantly more valuable than trying to scheme for individual opponents and replicate your success.

    Just think about it. We won that last game with those lineups. What would running them back against the same opponent tell Kerr about our players and teams that he doesn’t know? Running all new lineups is much more helpful. (This is ignoring the additional context that this game was the 9th game in 15 days, the second night of a back to back, on the road, at altitude).

    As we near the home stretch of this season and start getting into playoff mode, Kerr and the coaching staff will use this mountain of data to start tightening the rotation and lineups, focusing on what they think we will need to win in the playoffs.

    This is how almost every team treats the regular season. If you watch us carefully over the years, you’ll see this exact pattern play out every time as well. It may seem confusing to us just casually watching the games, but there is a reason why they’re doing what they’re doing.

  8. 30vanquish

    2 of the lineups have Moody. The first Utah game Kerr was out. What stood out to me was Moody getting a bit more playing time. Kerr really doesn’t like young players that can’t handle the ball.

  9. dating_derp

    How dare you suggest Kerr play Moody and Trayce more. /s

  10. Creepy-Present-2562

    Perhaps should also show lineups for other team. Perhaps we were adjusting to their adjustments

  11. 70PctDarkChoco

    Kenny Atkinson was the head coach on Monday too

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