Point-of-аttаck protection was especially important.

Clean The Glass keeps track of these efficiency measures for every game. They tell you everything you need to know about the game.

Steve Kerr chose to pull out his starters and wave the white flag at 1:47 in the fourth quarter. At that point, the Golden State Warriors were only scoring 106.3 points per 100 possessions. On the other hand, if you only look at half-court оffensive plays, they scored 83.5 points per 100 half-court possessions against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s easy to see how that would be the NBA’s worst half-court strategy.

The Cavs scored 115.5 points per 100 possessions on the other end of the court. They scored 102.5 points per 100 possessions in the half-court, which is the third-best half-court offense in the league.

The Warriors took a lot of damage on both ends of the court. Draymond Green tried to get them excited but got ejected because he had too many technical fouls. This led to a comeback by the Warriors in the third quarter, which cut a 17-point deficit to one by the end of the quarter. But they couldn’t keep it up in the fourth, mostly because of the same mistakes and problems that got them in the first place.

The Warriors defense couldn’t stop anyone at the point of аttаck, so the Cavs’ offense ran away with it. The Cavaliers’ powerful backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell (21 points) and Darius Garland (19 points) made layups after touching the ball in the paint over and over again, or they set up open shooters for easy shots.

Along with Mitchell and Garland, four other Cavaliers scored in double figures: Evan Mobley (19 points), Jarrett Allen (12 points), Max Strus (16 points), and Caris LeVert (22 points) off the bench.

The Cavaliers easily won the figҺt of points in the paint, 50–34. It may not look like it from the three-point line (11 of 30; 36.7%), but they made threes when the Warriors looked like they might come back, including two by Dean Wade to start the fourth quarter.

The theme that runs through these two Wade threes? Because the Warriors’ defense is changing, Wade can look for open shots in the corner twice in a row:

In the first case, the Warriors had to hustle because the 3-2 zone wasn’t done well. Dario Šarić, who isn’t the fastest close-out defender, was especially affected. The second game showed the paint-touch problem more clearly. LeVert got past Moses Moody at the аttаck point, touched the paint, and forced the low man to help off the weak-side corner. He then kicked out to Wade for another corner three.

This problem happened more than once, like when Steph Curry had to “tag” the roll and Garland scored three points. Trayce Jackson-Davis was in a dangerous spot in drop defense because Andrew Wiggins couldn’t keep Mitchell in front of him. This makes Curry tag Jackson-Davis.

In this case too, the failure to stop at the point of аttаck set off a chain of events:

Wiggins’ offense has been having trouble so far this season, and it looks like it’s spreading to his point-of-аttаck defense. The failure to hold Mitchell above was one example. Here’s another:

The Warriors made a perfect 9-of-9 at the rim, but that only translated to a 17% rim-attempt rate, which is in the fourth percentile. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, won that figҺt by sheer volume, making 13 of 21 shots at the rim.

Curry scored 30 points, but he had a hard time getting them. He made only 9 of 24 shots from the field (5 of 10 on twos, 4 of 14 on threes), which is 54.5% true shooting. This was his worst scoring game of the season so far.

Klay Thompson, who shot 5 of 16 from the field and scored 14 points, was the next best scorer for the Warriors. Wiggins scored 13 points by making 6 of 12 shots, which was a good line, but it wasn’t what the Warriors were expecting from him.

The Cavaliers have the right mix to defend the Warriors. There were some bad lineup choices and bad individual play, but it’s also possible that the Warriors are a bad matchup for this team’s long, athletic, quick, and tall players.

All of those things are true of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Their first of two home games in town starts tomorrow. On Tuesday, one of those games is an In-Season Tournament bаttle. Not only that, but their defense is the best in the league. They give up just 101.2 points per 100 possessions (after taking out garbage time) and 82.2 points per 100 half-court plays, which is 6.7 points more than the next best defense.

Since the Warriors have to play another tough team soon, they will need to act quickly to fix their current set of problems.