Chris Paul tried with two different teams to beat the all-powerful Golden State Warriors and he never did it. When he was close to reaching his goal, he went down with an injury and the Warriors came back from a 3-2 deficit against the Houston Rockets in 2018. CP3 is now part of the Phoenix Suns after leaving Houston last year and playing a season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He recently talked with JJ Redick on his ‘The Old Man and the Three’ podcast, revealing what he believed what the key to beat the Warriors that won two NBA titles in three trips to the Finals.
“We played the entire season when I was in Houston one way, basically defensively, and it was basically to get ready for Golden State,” Paul said. “We played the whole season learning how to switch screens. The iso-ball that everybody hated, we played that way because we knew we were gonna have to do that in order to beat Golden State.”
On those amazing Rockets/Warriors series. @cp3 @jj_redick @talter pic.twitter.com/5h8ktVKwAD
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) December 9, 2020
Redditor “MITWestbrook” compelled some of the most interesting things that Paul said about the Warriors, noting that he was 0-11 against them at some point, making the case for ISO-ball to beat Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and co.
They talk in-depth about drop coverage. There is some criticism on Milwaukee that they need to adjust their coverage against different match-ups.
He also talks about how he went 0/11 against the Warriors despite their offense killing other teams. The key issue was the GSW switch everything defense. They would end up in an iso-situation with 6-7 seconds left on the shot clock against GSW while he was on the Clippers.
Fast forward to Houston and they ran switch everything defense and iso-ball to prepare for Golden State. He credits both the offense and defense to try to beat Golden State.
He also credits Houston this year for their switch everything despite being small. He noted that they still had top defense despite being small.
It’s a great listen, and it reminds me of Oklahoma City vs. GSW when they lost after being up 3-1.
KD and Russ just could not finish Golden State off with their iso-ball. Harden and Chris Paul ran their system all year in iso-ball to have a good shot at beating them.
LeBron and Kyrie ran iso-ball even better than KD and Russ and beat Golden State in 2016. So for all of the r/NBA folks, iso-ball was the way to beat Golden State. Stop complaining about not sharing the basketball.
CP3 was never able to beat the Dubs, even though he was really close in 2018. Now the league has changed and the teams have to worry about a different team, the Los Angeles Lakers. However, Paul recognized that playing against those Warriors was a complete nightmare.
