Steve Kerr's Death Five shocked the entire world.
Although the Grizzlies had become the first to try it during the regular season this year—and the term "Death Five" had been coined by Link—the two teams used small-ball lineups in vastly different ways.
When the Grizzlies went small back then, it had been more of a desperate measure.
At the time, both members of Grit and Grind had been injured, leaving the Grizzlies incredibly thin in the paint. With no other choice, they had resorted to such an extreme approach.
And in that game, the Grizzlies' Death Five had only appeared briefly. In other words, the Grizzlies had not treated that lineup as their primary unit.
But the Warriors were different. Bogut and David Lee were both still healthy. Kerr had not chosen the Death Five out of desperation; it had been entirely deliberate.
Furthermore, the Warriors had used small-ball for nearly all forty-eight minutes of the game. Even when they put in their backup center, Speights, they were still technically a small lineup. After all, Speights was only 2.08 meters tall in shoes.
Kerr had introduced the concept of the five-man small lineup to the entire world. This more extreme small-ball unit, even more radical than the Suns' old run-and-gun storm or the Heat's one-big, four-small lineup, had completely changed the landscape of basketball.
In the previous game, the Grizzlies had grabbed a full sixteen offensive rebounds over the Warriors, yet that still had not stopped Golden State from winning in the end.
The Warriors' victory had become more than just a victory. If they could truly take down the Grizzlies with a five-man small lineup, they would change the direction of the entire sport of basketball!
The Warriors and Kerr became the subjects everyone was discussing, to the point