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Kyle Anderson starts Game 3 vs. Warriors, as Spurs go small from start

dan devine
Senior NBA writer
Kyle Anderson will get the nod in a pivotal Game 3. (AP)
Kyle Anderson will get the nod in a pivotal Game 3. (AP)

With Kawhi Leonard still sidelined by the ankle injury he suffered in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference finals, Gregg Popovich has elected to slide third-year swingman Kyle Anderson into the San Antonio Spurs’ starting lineup for a Game 3 that the Spurs desperately need to win to have any hope of coming back on the heavily favored Golden State Warriors.

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In a change of course, Popovich’s insertion of Anderson comes at the expense of center Pau Gasol, who will move to the bench. LaMarcus Aldridge will bump up a spot to the five, joined by Anderson, Jonathon Simmons (the Spurs’ lone Game 2 bright spot) and Danny Green on the wing, with Patty Mills at the point.

The shift to a small-ball look from the opening tip could be aimed at jumpstarting a Spurs offense that has looked dead on arrival with starting point guard Tony Parker lost for the season and without Leonard on the floor to run the show in his absence. San Antonio has averaged just 93.3 points per 100 possessions in 72 no-Kawhi minutes through two games against the Warriors, a mark that would’ve ranked about 10 sub-basements below the Philadelphia 76ers (100.7 points-per-100) for the worst offense in the NBA this season.

Anderson, a third-year man whom the Spurs selected out of UCLA with the 30th pick in the 2014 NBA draft, is by no means a big-time scorer. He cracked double digits only four times in 72 appearances during the regular season, and has done so just once in 23 career playoff games. But the 6-foot-9 forward provides a more capable and versatile ball-handling and playmaking option than Gasol, who has chipped in just 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting through two games.

Plus, going small from the jump forces Golden State to at least consider shuffling its own rotation. With Zaza Pachulia officially ruled out for Saturday’s Game 3 with a right heel contusion, the Warriors were leaning toward slotting surprising key reserve JaVale McGee into the starting lineup:

That makes plenty of sense. After all, McGee alongside the Warriors’ star-studded core four of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson has decimated the NBA this year, outscoring opponents by a whopping 32.1 points per 100 possessions during the regular season — tops among five-man units to log at least 100 total minutes.

The Spurs going small from the start, however, could influence acting head coach Mike Brown to downshift, too, putting Green at center and going like-for-like by calling another wing off his bench. Like, for example …

Then again, given how successful the Warriors have been through two games by guarding Aldridge with a big center and allowing Green to wreak havoc away from the ball, Brown could choose to stay big off the top and give McGee the chance to sink or swim in the early going, knowing he’s got viable wing options (Iguodala, Matt Barnes, rookie Patrick McCaw) to go smaller for longer if needed later on.

When you’ve got a 2-0 lead and three of the most incendiary individual scoring threats in recent NBA history on the roster, you can afford to roll the dice a little bit. What better way to roll the dice than with your man JaVale?

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!