Warriors' defensive adjustment neutralizes Mr. First Team All-Defense

The Golden State Warriors regained their form Monday with a dominant 101-84 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 4 to even the series at 2-2.

Stephen Curry grabbed headlines by bouncing back after two rough outings in Games 3 and 4 to drop 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting from the field.

However, it wasn't Curry's offensive revival that spurred the Warriors to victory. No, the biggest change was an ingenious adjustment made by head coach Steve Kerr.

The switch was to shift center Andrew Bogut over to cover Grizzlies' first-team All-Defense pest Tony Allen, while doubling aggressively in the post. The move completely shut down the Grizzlies' offense and made it practically impossible to keep Allen on the floor.

The Warriors went to this strategy on their very first defensive possession of the game. The Grizzlies forced a touch for Zach Randolph against a smaller forward in Harrison Barnes. But the Warriors responded by fronting the post, while Bogut ditched Allen for a double.

The hard double ultimately forced Randolph to reset out to Marc Gasol, who missed a contested push-shot from 10 feet out over the outstretched arms of Draymond Green.

Bogut was able to freely leave Allen because he's a total non-factor from the perimeter. Allen shot just 24 percent from deep on less than one attempt per game over the last three seasons and has only hit one trey in the postseason thus far.

The Warriors' gamble paid off. Allen was baited into launching four jumpers in the first quarter alone and hit just one (a midrange pull-up, no less). Bogut paid no mind when Allen prepared to shoot. Instead of closing out, Bogut simply looked to get into position for the defensive rebound.

The Grizzlies tried to counter the effect by attacking through pick-and-rolls. But again, having Bogut roam free to check the paint was a constant deterrent. Allen's lack of ability to spread the floor led to a handful of situations like the one below, where the Grizzlies' guards had no room to drive, nor a viable target to hit in the paint.

The Grizzlies even tried high-lows, but again, they found it incredibly difficult to thread passes to the interior with Bogut lingering in the paint.

(courtesy: TNT)

Having Allen on the floor muddled the Grizzlies' already strained offense. Memphis posted a dreadful 70.7 offensive rating with Allen on the floor. And he didn't make up for it on defense, either, as evidenced by Allen's plus-minus of minus-11.

That's why Allen played just 16 minutes Monday after averaging 32.2 minutes over his other eight playoff games. Allen managed four points on 2-of-9 shooting, as the Grizzlies gave most of his minutes to Vince Carter and Jeff Green.

However, benching Allen also meant a downgrade on defense. It's no coincidence that Curry went off. With Allen sidelined, Klay Thompson and Curry got free for a combined 18 uncontested looks, per tracking data from NBA Stats.

The end result was a return to dominance for the Warriors. The onus now falls back upon the Grizzlies to find a viable adjustment.