Chris Mullin thinks the Golden State Warriors need to do something different in Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Warriors are up against it in the series because star player Stephen Curry is out with a hamstring injury suffered in Game 1.
The Timberwolves cruised to victory in Game 2, 117-93, but Game 3 was a different story as Jimmy Butler (33) and Jonathan Kuminga (30) scored 63 points combined.
Unfortunately, the pair received little help from their teammates, and they ultimately lost 102-97 to go down 2-1.
Former Warriors forward Mullin believes head coach Steve Kerr must “investigate” the impact Rudy Gobert is having on his team.
Gobert is one of the NBA’s most controversial players because his ability rarely shows up in the box score.
The four-time Defensive Player of the Year doesn’t offer much offensively, yet he can win games by nullifying his opponent’s scoring at the rim.
Mullin thinks the Warriors should stop meeting Gobert at the basket and, instead, shoot mid-range jump shots, which he expects to be uncontested.
“They shot as well from three as they did from two,” he said on NBC Sports Bay Area and California. “There’s a whole lot of area between the three-point shot and the rim.
“Now, if you get all the way to the rim, Rudy Gobert, if nothing else, he does contest shots. He doesn’t always block them, but he makes them tough.
“So, the fact that they’re shooting similar percentages from three, the Warriors should maybe investigate that pull-up jumper, that mid-range.
“With Podz, he goes 1-10; you’d have to look at the tape, but I’m going to assume there are not a lot of shots in that mid-range. I’d rather take an open 13-footer than a contested layup.”
Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga are the Warriors’ two wildcard players, who need to step up significantly in Curry’s absence.
Well, Kuminga held up his end of the bargain with a 30-point performance off the bench in Game 3, while Podziemski did not.
The shooting guard provided just five points in 39 minutes against the Timberwolves, making one of 10 shots from the field.
Having scored almost 12 points per game in the regular season on 44.5 percent efficiency, he needs to at least provide those numbers in the remainder of the series.
