When Gary Payton II was interviewed by TNT’s Dennis Scott just before the start of the second quarter of the Houston Rockets’ Game 5 shellacking of the Golden State Warriors, Payton was asked of the Warriors’ process against the Rockets’ vaunted double-big zone — the two bigs being Steven Adams and Alperen u015eengün — and how they could get more open looks against it.
“Hit the middle and spray out of there,” Payton said. “Once it hits the middle, (the defense) collapses, hit to our spot-up shooters and just make shots.”
That interview came not long after Payton himself practiced what he preached, on a first quarter possession where the Rockets dared the Curry-less five-man grouping to beat their somewhat funky zone — funky in terms of both personnel and alignment.