Mavs are probably a better defensive team now. They have been on the uptick for a while and it's made a huge difference.
GSW hasn't been the same defensively. They lost Draymond and they were fine for a few games and they lost their identity. I thought Draymond being back would help but they are far from their early season performance. May be Draymond becomes fully healthy in the playoffs (if he isn't now) and the playoffs ignite some fire for them.
I think Jazz need to execute against both teams but if they find their automatic offense of last year, they would be better equipped against GSW as they help a ton and that was pretty much how Jazz kept killing teams. They would punish almost every help. I miss that.
The main weakness of the Warriors is that their bigs are pretty small and are both non-shooters/scorers. Offensively, they're an entirely perimeter-oriented team, and Draymond and Looney can be virtually ignored for entire possessions. When their guards dive-bomb to the rim, they'll run into Rudy and Hassan. Earlier this year, Hassan had a game where he had 17 rebounds and 7 blocks against guards trying to challenge him in the paint.
They've tried to experiment a bit with Kuminga at the 5, but it hasn't worked that well. Bjelica is a player that can play 15 mins or so, but he's really soft defensively.
If House guards Klay well, it would go a long way. Royce had a bad game against the Ws a week ago.
Last edited: