Golden State Warriors: Three takeaways from round two of the playoffs
Starting the Hampton Five
Last season, the Warriors possessed the most lethal five man lineup in the NBA, but did not use it often. This lineup consists of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguoldala and Draymond Green. The group is commonly referred to as the “Death Lineup”, or the name that the NBA community is trying to make catch on, the “Hampton Five”.
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The Hampton Five lineup’s name originates after a bay area columnist, Tim Kawakami, coined the phrase based on the fact that the four players from the 2016 team traveled together to he Hampton’s to recruit Kevin Durant to join the team.
We all know how effective they were in their sales pitch.
Before this series, the team saved this lineup for the most important situations. If the team was struggling in a game, they would put out this lineup and usually destroy whatever poor team was on the opposing end. We saw the lineup most heavily in last season’s playoffs.
After losing game three of the series against the Pelicans, Steve Kerr felt the team needed to shake things up. He then made the decision to start the Hampton Five lineup for the first time ever.
What was previously the team’s ace in the hole for when they needed it most, is now something far more visible, but remains equally unstoppable. The team elected to make the lineup a more blatant, in your face show of muscle.
While this may seem like it would cause a reduction of effectiveness due to the enhanced ability of the opposing team to gameplan for it, this was not the case against the Pelicans. The team started the lineup in games four and five of the series, and it was effective in both instances.
It will be interesting to see if the team elects to continue starting this lineup against Houston, and how a more talented team with more time to prepare fares against it.