Big, big night tonight for you Dubs fans. The Golden State Warriors may be up 3–2 in their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, but things got a little rocky in Game 5, so Game Six tonight might be “interesting,” as they say. The Dubs took a hard 131–116 loss on Wednesday night, and now they’re heading back home for Game 6 with everything on the line.
You’d think a team with Steph Curry wouldn’t be stressing over offense, but during the series, Golden State’s only putting up 103.6 points per game. Not bad—but not exactly Splash Bros territory either. On the defensive side, they rank ninth with a rating of 112.7. Translation: they’re scraping by, but not exactly dominating.
So naturally, Shaquille O’Neal had some thoughts.
On NBA on TNT, the Big Aristotle laid into what he called the NBA’s “copycat” style of offense—namely, the overuse of pick-and-rolls. According to Shaq, the league has become too obsessed with running the same high screens and not letting stars go to work one-on-one.
“This is the problem we have with the copycat league,” Shaq said. “Every time [Harden] comes off a pick and roll, they’re doubling him. He can’t get around two people.”
Same goes for Steph Curry. While his numbers are still solid—he’s averaging 23.4 points per game on 48.8% shooting and 39.6% from three in the series—Shaq thinks the constant trapping off the catch is limiting Curry’s ability to create.
“When he drifts off the ball and gets doubled on the catch, he loses that burst to re-engage,” Shaq said. His solution? Ditch the over-complicated playbook and just let the stars go one-on-one.
“Run more ISO. Run a one-four flat. Let them cook!” he added.
Let’s not forget: this is Shaquille O’Neal we’re talking about. A guy who spent his career bulldozing through defenders in the post. If there’s anyone who believes in clearing out space and letting superstars dominate their matchup, it’s Shaq.
Curry’s regular season averages—24.5 points, 6.0 assists, 4.4 rebounds—are just slightly higher than what he’s doing now. But when you’re Steph Curry, even a slight drop-off could mean the difference between an easy bucket and a missed opportunity.
And over on the other side, James Harden is dealing with the same issue. Swarmed with defenders, Harden’s not exactly free to work his magic either. Shaq’s advice? “Give them space. Stop crowding the playbook. Sometimes you gotta go old-school.”
As always, Shaq kept it blunt. No advanced analytics, no long-winded breakdowns. Just the eye test—and a little common sense.
Golden State gets another chance to close things out at home in Game 6 on Friday. Whether they listen to Shaq or not remains to be seen. But if they don’t? You can bet he’ll have something to say about it on the next episode of Inside the NBA.