The Golden State Warriors are Still Getting Away with Wildly Illegal Screens, Even in Crunch Time

The Golden State Warriors, up one point in the final seconds against San Antonio, needed a bucket. So they employed a tried and true strategy: put the ball in Stephen Curry’s hands, set an iffy screen, and hope for the best.

Check out the pick Shaun Livingston used on Danny Green to allow Curry space for his ultimately successful free-throw line jumper.

Now, to be fair, Green didn’t work very hard at extricating himself from the situation. On the other hand, it’s easy to wonder what a Warrior would have to do in order to get an offensive foul on a screen during crunch time.

Or anytime really. Here’s Zaza Pachulia reaching out and pushing/grabbing Patty Mills as Curry lined up a three-pointer earlier in the game.

Look, the Warriors are a great team. No one is arguing otherwise. And I’m not even suggesting they get the better whistle. But it’s just difficult to understand how NBA refs could be so oblivious to these illegal screens when Golden State has become famous for them.

A conspiracy theorist would point out the league is invested in another Warriors-Cavaliers rematch and ensuring that happens could mean looking the other way on some stuff. I’m not there yet. Instead, it seems like Golden State benefits from the old Bob Huggins aggressive defense strategy. If you foul on every play, the refs can’t call them all. If you set moving screens on every possession, the refs can’t call them all.

Brilliant.