When Klay Thompson left the second half of Game 2 with a hamstring injury, the Raptors resorted to drastic measures in hopes of slowing down the Warriors.
Nick Nurse elected to go with a box-and-one defense, assigning a player to chase Steph Curry at all times while the rest of the team played a zone. The box-and-one is a sparingly used scheme at the college level, and it’s basically unheard of in the NBA — especially during the Finals.
But credit to Nurse because the bold call absolutely worked and held the Warriors scoreless for five-plus minutes (until Iggy happened).
And, of course, leave it to an overhead view to show us exactly how difficult the box-and-one made matters for Golden State.
Like, whoa.
Curry had no room to move at all.
Just don’t expect to see the Raptors roll out this unconventional defense again in Game 3.
Without Thompson on the floor, Toronto was able to focus solely on slowing down Curry. But the element of surprise is gone, and Thompson should be playing on Wednesday.
