Worries about Warriors' rim presence off the mark

INDIANAPOLIS - Now on his third franchise since his Warriors days, Monta Ellis’ skills have aged. His impact has lessoned. But that bolt of a first step remains in the tank. Late in the second quarter on Monday night, he used it, trying to make a pebble of a dent in the Warriors’ massive lead.

Ellis zipped by Steph Curry, drew two help defenders and laid off a beautiful pass to Glenn Robinson III for what looked to be an easy dunk. Robinson rose to drop in the easy two. But as he did, long-limbed Kevin Durant released from his perimeter-based assignment, soared into the paint and swatted away Robinson’s dunk before he could get it over the rim or even knew Durant was in the vicinity.

The Warriors smashed the Pacers 120-83 on Monday, capping an impressive 4-0 Eastern road trip. Indiana was missing Paul George and Myles Turner. The block, in a vacuum, was inconsequential in a predictable blowout.

But it was another example of a supposed Warriors issue that has, to this point of the season, proven to be overblown: This team is protecting the rim quite well.

“Our block shots sort of come in different ways now,” Steve Kerr said. “They used to come from (Andrew) Bogut and (Festus) Ezeli. Now they come from KD, Draymond (Green), Andre (Iguodala). It’s a long, active perimeter that ends up with a lot of the shot blocks. So it is different.”

But it’s been effective. The Warriors blocked 10 Pacers shots on Monday, upping the team’s per game average to 6.1, tied for the fourth most in the NBA and exactly equal to what the team averaged a season ago, when they finished third.

Bogut is gone and no traditional, soaring DeAndre Jordan, Hassan Whiteside type took his place. Zaza Pachulia has stumbled into only three blocks in 14 games.

But Golden State is protecting the rim with wing athletes other teams don’t possess.

Durant’s out-of-nowhere swat of Robinson was similar to the highlight transition block he had on Devin Booker a few weeks back. It was also reminiscent of that incredible double-jump block of a Shaun Livingston layup he had back in the West final in late May when he played for the Thunder.

It’s always been one of the most underrated parts of Durant’s game. He protects the rim in his own way. He has at least one block in 13 of the 14 games this season and 25 in total, which is top 20 in the league.

Harrison Barnes, the guy he replaced, only had 10 all of last year.

“It hasn’t really surprised me,” Kerr said. “We watched it up close for seven games last year in the playoffs. He did that to us a lot. When Kevin is engaged defensively, he’s an excellent defender and causes a lot of problems.”

But he doesn’t lead the team in blocks. Draymond Green does. The man who is loudly promoting himself for defensive player of the year is backing up his talk.

In the opening minutes Monday, Green rotated over perfectly on a Jeff Teague drive and volleyball spiked his layup into Pachulia’s hands. Later in the half, Teague, on the drive again, was swatted away by a rotating Green again.

The Pacers’ point guard, who finished with 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting the night before, was held to 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting on Monday night. Green’s two blocks and looming presence were a major factor.

Green is only 6-foot-7. So people tend not to categorize him as a rim protector in the traditional sense. But his 24 blocks are the seventh most in the league and his 1.7 per game average is a career-high.

“He’s been absolutely phenomenal,” Kerr said. “He’s in a great place. He’s backed up everything he said this summer when he said he needed to grow. There’s zero drama.”

JaVale McGee played 13 minutes on Monday and skied for three emphatic blocks. David West, using his ground-bound guile and strong hands, swatted one away, a fourth consecutive game he’s logged a block. Kevon Looney got two.

That pumped the team count to 10.

But rim protecting, of course, is not defined just by the blocks number. On the non-block plays, do you still create misses? A week back, opponents were shooting better than 54 percent against the Warriors at the rim, one of the league’s worst numbers.

But they cranked up the defensive effort and activity on this undefeated road trip. In the four wins over the Raptors, Celtics, Bucks and Pacers, the Warriors only gave up a 39.6 percent conversion rate at the rim, which is incredible.

Since the sample size remains small, the four-game stretch lowered opponent’s at the rim success against the Warriors to 49.8 percent this season, the eighth stingiest number in the league and better than Golden State’s 50.4 percent last year.

“It’s not quite the same as it was,” Green said. “But I still think we have a great defense, a lot of good defenders. We fly around and do what we can, try to cover for each other.”