Why Anthony Davis factor, and refs, loom so large in Warriors ...

SAN FRANCISCO — If nothing else, the wheelchair that Anthony Davis was reportedly rolled out in late Wednesday night served as an unintentional reminder to the Warriors that he is, in fact, human.

As it turns out, it wasn’t Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain meeting them at the rim throughout this Western Conference semifinals against his Lakers after all. It was Davis at his best, to be sure, with the 30-year-old patrolling the paint as if it was his personal property and scaring these all-time greats all along the way. But then, after Davis took that left elbow from Kevon Looney midway through the fourth quarter of Game 5 and left the game for good with a head injury as the Warriors were finishing their 121-106 win at Chase Center, the optics alone were enough to make you wonder where this series might be going.

Can the Warriors pull off the improbable here, fighting their way back from the 3-1 deficit for the second time in this dynasty era to move on to the West finals? It all comes down to Davis — his playing status and the question of how they handle his dominant defense from here on out, assuming he plays in Game 6 in Los Angeles on Friday. For all the compelling subplots that come with this matchup, the ultimate outcome is really that simple.

According to TNT’s Chris Haynes, the early signs indicated that Davis avoided a concussion and, thus, would presumably be ready for the next tipoff at Crypto.com arena. Lakers coach Darvin Ham shared few specifics about his condition, but the mood from both him and sources close to Davis was optimistic in the immediate aftermath of it all.

“Yeah, obviously everyone saw he took a shot to the head, but we just checked in on him,” Ham said. “He seems to be doing really good already. That’s just where he’s at. That’s the status of it right now.”

Given how the first three games of this series went, no one can blame the Warriors for second-guessing every decision they made in the painted area. Davis had 11 blocks in all during that stretch, with his rebounding (14.5 per in the first four games) a massive factor in this matchup too. For all the discussion about his Jekyll-and-Hyde offense, he was in the process of putting together one of the more memorable defensive stretches we’ve seen in postseason basketball.

Still, it wasn’t hard to see that the Warriors were overcorrecting to combat Davis’ impact far too often. Draymond Green, more than anyone, was passing up wide open looks down low while forcing his teammates to fire off unexpected looks.

“When you go into the series, and you know what (Davis) has been doing throughout the playoffs, there’s a level of respect for him and his shotblocking at the rim,” Warriors guard Donte DiVincenzo told The Athletic. “But there’s always a balance of a level of respect and sometimes too much respect. You watch it, and you’ve still got to be aggressive and make them collapse in the paint, and then that’s when we get our kickouts. But if they’re not collapsing in the paint, you’ve got to take the layups to make them honor you at the rim first. And that was a couple of (their) adjustments for sure.”

Sure enough, Game 5 was different — from Green on down. Green hit the 20-point mark for just the second time all season, and Davis went without a block for the second consecutive game while finishing with a team-worst minus-22 mark. The Warriors ran more pick-and-rolls in Davis’ direction, forcing him into the kind of perimeter action that ensured he was nowhere near the rim for much of the night. The threat of his domineering presence, at least for now, was mostly nullified.

But does that mean the Warriors finally figured AD out on the defensive end? They’re not about to make a claim so bold, but this was the kind of marked improvement that could give them a legitimate chance at becoming just the 14th team in league history to recover from a 3-1 deficit. And in the interest of learning how the Warriors themselves saw this massive factor in the series, I polled their room, so to speak, afterward.

“He’s a great defensive player. He’s smart. He’s got size,” said Curry, who had 27 points, eight assists and was plus-12. “He can move his feet. They have a certain system that tries to funnel everything to the paint where he’s usually standing and disrupting a lot. After Game 1 … you just had to feel it for 48 minutes just to understand it was totally different than the Sacramento series (in the first round). (The Kings) didn’t have anybody with that type of presence. But there’s also counters to it, and you’ve got to trust that you can create a good shot even with his abilities out there.

“When we’re decisive and we’re organized — in terms of our spacing and understanding (that) you might not get all the way to the basket because he’s down there, but somebody’s going to be open and there’s going to be other options. When we’re locked in like that, good things happen. You look at the last three minutes of Game 4, we kind of abandoned the things that were helping us and you see the result. So it’s just a matter of just being mindful of what you’re trying to do at all times, knowing that he is a great enough defender that it requires it. … (The solution is) more of the same of what we’ve done through the good parts of Games 3 and 4. Mostly 4. So (we’ve) just got to continue — you have to make him work. Like, again, he’s going to make plays, whether it’s in the pick-and-roll or whether it’s off the ball. But when we’re organized, good things happen.”

“Yeah, (Davis) is so good that you have to try to move him around,” Kerr said. “They did some different things tonight. They started switching more on pick-and-rolls. But Davis is a guy that you’ve got to find the right balance. You have to respect his presence at the rim, but you also can’t shy away from it. So you’ve got to understand (that) if you have an angle to attack, you’ve got to take it. If he’s there waiting, that’s a great time to make a jump stop and swing the ball to the other side. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of navigating that tonight.”

“We just lean on Coach,” said Green, when asked by our Anthony Slater about the increased emphasis on pick-and-roll action that was effective against Davis. “He comes in with a game plan. His game plan has never failed, up and to this point. So if he comes in and says, ‘Hey, we’re going heavy pick-and-roll tonight,’ that’s what we’re doing. If he comes in and says, ‘We’re going more to our regular sets,’ that’s what we’re doing.

“We trust his adjustments. He’s one of the best ever at making playoff adjustments. So for us, it’s all about taking what the defense gives you and what’s working. We found some success there, so you don’t want to necessarily go away from it. Just keep on using the things that we’ve been using until they’re able to stop it.”

Not long after Game 5 began, the familiar Too Short song began to play on the arena loudspeakers: “Blow the whistle … tweet, tweet!” And make no mistake, it’s the unofficial anthem of this series.

As I wrote after Game 2, it didn’t take long for the officiating to become a focal point for both sides. Yet while the discontent had remained mostly behind-the-scenes early on, the back-and-forth has only grown more public in recent days. After Kerr complained in the wake of the Warriors’ Game 4 loss that the Lakers “took some flops and were rewarded,” and that they “are a team that plays with a lot of gamesmanship,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham had plenty to say in response after Game 5.

“We play a physical brand of basketball,” Ham said when asked about Kerr’s comments. “We don’t teach flopping. We don’t teach head snaps. You see Bron (LeBron James), (and) he’s got a thousand scratches on his arms, same with AD, same with Austin Reaves, same with Lonnie Walker. It’s unfortunate that it comes to that, but we hadn’t (focused on flopping) all year, and we’re damn sure not going to start now, looking for a third party to dive in and help us. We’re just going to coach our team, just going to play the way we play — a physical, forceful brand of basketball and just let the chips fall where they may.”

Hit the rewind button for a brief moment there, and focus on this part of what Ham had to say: “…we’re damn sure not going to start now, looking for a third party to dive in and help us.”

As a Lakers source with knowledge of the situation explains it, they were irritated by the Warriors’ decision after Game 1 to submit several plays for review by the NBA. While this is normal fare for this time of year, the league’s choice to be fully transparent when it comes to communication about postseason calls being questioned means each team can, in essence, see how much the other side is complaining.

In terms of the process, teams have a ‘Team Inquiry website’ where they can indicate which plays they wish to be reviewed after each game. That information is shared with their opponent, as is any email, text or phone call in which a dispute of any specific call is communicated.

For context relating to these sorts of postseason mind games between teams, consider this much: league sources say the Kings made a concerted effort not to highlight too many clips with the NBA during their first-round series against the Warriors for fear of these sorts of optics. Ironically, it seems the Warriors now find themselves fighting the perception that they’re counting on the league to aid their cause when it comes to the referees.

As it relates to this series, the Lakers were clearly annoyed with the Warriors on the officiating front even before Kerr’s comments and became even more agitated after he accused them of embellishing for the sake of the whistle. But as our Law Murray chronicled so well on Sunday, we’ve never seen a playoff series where the team with the best differential of free throws (the Lakers) meets the team with the worst differential of free throws (the Warriors). It’s a safe bet, in other words, that this topic will remain relevant until a victor is decided.

As it stands, the Lakers are averaging 23.6 free throws to the Warriors’ 13.2. That margin of 10.4 is significantly more than the regular season difference of 6.4 between these two teams (26.6 for the Lakers; 20.2 for the Warriors). In terms of overall free throw attempts in this round of the playoffs, the Lakers’ 118 is tied with Miami for second among the eight remaining teams (trailing New York’s 136). The Warriors are eighth with just 66 free throws, and the seventh-place Suns are a distant second-to-last with 93.

“When the physicality is there, and they let you play and it’s even on both sides, it’s a fun game to be a part of,” DiVincenzo explained. “I think when the game kind of stops, and a lot of free throws are being had, there’s a rhythm to the game. And when there’s that many free throws, that’s when the rhythm of the game feels messed up. And then that’s when you nitpick the refs, and coaches on both sides are nitpicking, and the whistle stops four times for them in a row. Then it goes back and forth. But I think tonight, there was a good flow, a good rhythm to the game. They let us play, and it was super fun to be out there.”

So is this war of words escalating?

“I’ve seen it way worse,” Curry said when asked that very question. “But the more you play a team, the more stuff comes out — and the power of this microphone and the gamesmanship back and forth. It’s all a part of it. Nothing that is surprising. Even from game to game. So I mean, there’s respect, but there’s competition. And everything is catered to just trying to win four games. That’s what you expect.”

Before the Warriors managed to extend their season, there were all sorts of questions looming about what this night might mean. Was it Bob Myers’ last as the head of their front office? What might Draymond Green do with his player option for next season, and are the Warriors prepared to extend their complicated-but-wildly-successful partnership? What about a possible Klay Thompson extension? Was Andre Iguodala’s celebrated career finally over? How was Warriors owner Joe Lacob feeling about the league’s revised luxury tax rules that are so punitive to teams such as his?

With all of that in mind, you half expected someone in the Warriors locker room to make the kind of pregame speech that Curry so famously delivered heading into their Game 7 win against Sacramento. But DiVincenzo, who pushed back hard against the notion that this team is battling internal issues that might preclude them from pulling off this challenging feat, said there was no need for special messaging before this do-or-die affair.

“Everybody knew that although we didn’t come out with the outcome that we wanted a couple of games, we’re right there and we feel confident in how we’re playing against this team,” he said. “And that’s the thing. It’s things that we can adjust, and I think tonight we did so.

“There wasn’t a Steph Game 7 speech. Not tonight. But everybody knew what was at stake. Everybody knew and understood what we needed to do.”

Kawakami: Inside the Warriors’ Game 5 plan to run the Lakers and keep running
Slater: How the Warriors targeted Anthony Davis in switching action
Buha: Davis and his status now the main concern for Lakers

(Photo of Draymond Green and Anthony Davis: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)