On the eve of their first warm-up match of the World Cup, India suffered an injury scare with allrounder Vijay Shankar leaving the training session midway after being hit on his right hand. Vijay was hit on the forearm while attempting a pull against left-arm fast bowler Khaleel Ahmed, who is among the four quicks travelling with the Indian squad as net bowlers.

Vijay, who was part of the second group of batsmen alongside MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya, immediately walked back to the dressing room carrying two bats in his left hand. There is no official word yet from the BCCI on whether Vijay would need any scans and whether he would be available for the warm-up fixture against New Zealand on Saturday.

ALSO WATCH: 'Vijay Shankar has changed the dynamics' - chief selector MSK Prasad

India would hope Vijay's injury is not serious considering Kedar Jadhav is yet to hit full tilt in the training. Jadhav, who picked up a left shoulder injury during the IPL on May 5, was retained in the 15-man squad by the selectors based on a positive assessment by team physiotherapist Patrick Farhart.

India trained at the Oval on Thursday and Friday, and on both days Jadhav started with light drills with Farhart following him like a shadow. On Thursday, Jadhav took some throwdowns without batting in the main nets. However, on Friday, he did the complete drill, including some fielding practice, before wrapping it by batting in the nets.

Jadhav, though, is likely to sit out of the warm-up game against New Zealand. If Vijay recovers, he is set to bat at No.4, the position MSK Prasad, Indian chairman of selectors, had said the allrounder was ideal for while announcing the World Cup squad.

In case Vijay does not play, then it is likely that KL Rahul would replace him. Rahul, who was part of the last batch of batsmen in India's second training session, was included in the squad mainly as the cover for the openers, but Prasad said he was equally capable of batting in the middle order.

An optimist, they say, views the glass as half full. A pessimist, they say, views it as half empty. And a regular supporter of England at World Cups expects the glass to explode at any moment, killing all present with fragments of glass. It is an expectation conditioned by years of grim experience.

So there wasn't a great sense of surprise when news of Eoin Morgan's injury began to filter around the Ageas Bowl (or the Hampshire Bowl as the ICC, always mindful not to allow 'ambush marketing' would have us call it; they've spent the last few days putting masking tape over any tradename or logo across all World Cup venues). It was more a sense of 'here we go again, then'.

And then the relief. News a few hours later that Morgan had sustained "a small flake fracture" provided hope that he might - should, even - be fit for England opening World Cup match. Suddenly that glass was looking half full again.

In some ways, England are quite well covered should Morgan suffer injury. The team, generally, know their roles inside-out, Jos Buttler has shown himself to be an astute captain and James Vince looks in decent form with the bat. Morgan's withdrawal wouldn't necessarily prove a fatal blow.

But so important is Morgan to this team - so talismanic his presence, so unblinkingly positive his leadership and such good form is he in with the bat (he is averaging 94.50 at a strike-rate of 105.73 in his last 16 ODIs) - that his absence would surely weaken this side that has been created, in many ways, in his image. Nobody has played more ODIs for England (the opening match of the tournament should be his 200th) or scored more runs. He is probably as close to irreplaceable as anyone in the squad.

While the England management insist Morgan will make a "full recovery" and be available for their opening match, against South Africa at the Kia Oval (it's hard to resist teasing the ICC just a little) on May 30, there must be some doubt as to his fragility. While he should be fine while batting - protective equipment is excellent these days - there may be more concern about how he would fare in the field if he sustained another blow to the same area. He generally fields in the ring so is likely to encounter plenty of balls hit with great power.

ALSO READ: Eoin Morgan sustains 'flake fracture' in fielding incident

Did the use of the words "small" and "flake" in the ECB media release suggest they were protesting a little too much? Maybe only to those of us who have watched England in recent World Cups - and not so recent, really - and seen them beaten like a snare drum. But this is a different England and maybe we shouldn't allow bad memories to dim our enthusiasm.

England would have been put in a tricky position had the x-ray showed a full break. While that might have put Morgan out of action for anywhere between three and five weeks, they would have been loath to call a new player into the squad. Under tournament regulations, a replaced player cannot subsequently be recalled and England might well have been prepared to carry Morgan for the first half-dozen or so group games in the hope he could make an impact in the final half of the event. There will be great relief in the camp that they have not been forced into such a dilemma.

Morgan is not the only injury concern. Adil Rashid also misses Saturday's match with a view to managing his long-standing shoulder problem. He is not thought to be in doubt for the South Africa game, though it does provide a reminder of how many of these players are going to have to be nursed through the tournament. It is hard to imagine Mark Wood or Chris Woakes playing every game, either. Perhaps partly for that reason, England will utilise 12 players on Saturday to ensure the bowlers' workload is limited. These warm-up games do not carry List A or ODI status and can involve up to 15 players a side.

Rashid's absence provides an early opportunity for Liam Dawson to slip back into England duty. It is not ideal that Dawson has not featured in the England side this year but he has, at least, been in excellent form for Hampshire. He has played for England in all formats and is, by all accounts, a down-to-earth character. Indeed, in his press conference on Friday, he reacted to questions about his late call-up with all the apparent enthusiasm of a man taking delivery of a new filter for his Hoover-unbranded vacuum cleaner. For journalists hungry for a soundbite it wasn't ideal, but such an equable temperament may prove invaluable for England over the next few frenetic weeks.

It remains a shame that Dawson - and his Hampshire colleague, Vince - should be forced to miss Saturday's Royal London Cup final against Somerset at Lord's. The domestic Lord's final used to be one of the showcase events of the season; now it is not - arguably, anyway - even the biggest match of the day. Both games will be broadcast by Sky with the England game available on Sky Mix, which means it is free-to-air for some customers.

How such a clash of events has been allowed to happen remains unclear. The cynical might suggest the ECB are looking to undermine and overshadow their own 50-over competition ahead of its downgrading next year. The cynical are often right.

Warwickshire have confirmed the signing of Michael Burgess from Sussex. The 24-year-old wicketkeeper has signed a two-year contract and will move to his new county on loan from June 1.

As revealed by ESPNcricinfo earlier this week, new Warwickshire director of sport, Paul Farbrace, had identified Burgess as a potential recruit amid concern about the strength of the Edgbaston playing staff.

Burgess averaged 30.61 in the Championship in 2018, and played every game as Sussex reached the semi-finals of the Vitality Blast. He might be viewed as the long-term replacement for Tim Ambrose, who also joined Warwickshire from Sussex in 2006.

"In addition to being an excellent, young gloveman, Michael is a hard-hitting batsman who has experienced domestic cricket on the biggest stage, having played for Sussex in last year's Vitality Blast Finals Day," Farbrace said.

"He boasts a very impressive strike rate in the T20 game and his ability to clear the ropes could be game-changing. He is a great addition to bolster our middle order going into this year's Vitality Blast.

"Whilst we still have one of the best wicketkeepers in the country in Tim Ambrose, we believe that Michael can make an immediate impact in the white-ball game and, aged only 24, we have every confidence that he can enjoy a long and very successful career as a Bear."

Burgess had enjoyed a couple of good seasons on the south coast, having impressed on trial after being released by Leicestershire.

"It's a huge opportunity for me to become a Bear and to come to Edgbaston to play at one of the world's great grounds," Burgess said.

"There's so much history behind this club, but it's also tasted a lot of success in the last few years by winning every major trophy. The Warwickshire cricket management team were very clear with me about their ambitions to build a squad that can compete for more silverware and I'm very excited to have committed until at least the end of 2021.

"I would like to thank everyone at Sussex, including, the players, coaches and members for their great support over the last couple of years and I wish them all the very best for the future."

Art Briles, the former Baylor football coach who was fired three years ago amid a sexual assault scandal at the Baptist school, has been hired to lead an East Texas high school program.

Mount Vernon Independent School District Superintendent Jason McCullough announced Friday the board of trustees had approved a two-year contract with Briles, who was 65-37 in eight seasons with Baylor. Before coaching in college, Briles had a successful 20-year career as a high school coach in Texas.

"We believe we have hired an exceptional coach who comes with strong references from his previous employers," McCullough told ESPN-Central Texas AM Radio. "He has been forthright and honest with us and we believe that he will be able to use his life experiences to teach our young people how to deal with hardships, grow through adversity and develop strong character."

Briles had not been able to land a coaching job in the United States since being let go by Baylor. Southern Mississippi coach Jay Hopson wanted to hire Briles as offensive coordinator in February, but the school's athletic director quashed the idea. Briles was hired as an assistant by Hamilton in the Canadian Football League in 2017, but after public backlash the Tiger-Cats quickly rescinded the move.

Briles was hired in 2018 to coach a team in Florence, Italy.

"High school football is a Texas institution. As a coach, it's my first love. You'll make no bigger impact in this world than when you shape the lives of young people -- one practice, one game, and one life at a time. I am excited to be coaching at Mount Vernon this fall,'' Briles said in a statement.

Briles won four state championships at Stephenville in the 1990s, the last in 1999 before joining Mike Leach at Texas Tech. Briles was head coach at the University of Houston from 2003 to 2007, going 34-28 before taking over at Baylor.

Mount Vernon High has never appeared in a state championship game, according to Texas Football magazine.

The 63-year-old Briles, who led the Bears to consecutive Big 12 titles in 2013 and 2014, was fired after an external investigation revealed in May 2016 that Baylor had for years mishandled numerous sexual assault allegations by students, including some against football players.

The Pepper Hamilton firm's investigation found at least 17 women who reported being sexually assaulted by 19 football players.

Briles has insisted he did not cover up reports of assaults by players. Baylor is still waiting for the outcome of an NCAA investigation into the school's conduct.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The title of fastest player in the NFL will be on the line as part of a new competition slated for next month.

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara and receiver Ted Ginn Jr. are among a host of NFL players slated to compete in the inaugural 40 Yards of Gold, a tournament-style speed contest set for June 29. The event is not affiliated with the NFL.

Twelve offensive players and 12 defensive players will compete head-to-head; the winner of each division will face off in the final with the title of fastest player at stake. Twenty-two players have been announced for the event, with two "mystery participants" also involved. The field includes:

Offense: Ginn, Kamara, Jeff Badet, Corey Coleman, Robby Anderson, Richie James, Damiere Byrd, Mark Ingram, Kevin Snead, Christian Blake, Jacoby Ford, mystery participant

Defense: Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Trae Waynes, John Franklin III, Kevin Byard, Quinton Dunbar, Rashard Robinson, Terrell Sinkfield, Jerome Baker, Jalen Myrick, Budda Baker, Donte Jackson, Charles James II, mystery participant

Fan voting will determine the seeding for the tournament. Voting will conclude Sunday, after which the matchups will begin to be announced.

Sportsbooks are facing their second straight Stanley Cup sweat.

Last year, as the expansion Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final, Nevada bookmakers found themselves rooting against the hometown squad to avoid a multi-seven-figure loss. This year, they're sweating the upstart St. Louis Blues, who have authored one of the greatest in-season turnarounds in recent memory, going from 300-1 longshots in January to Stanley Cup finalists in May.

"We're actually worse [on the Blues] than what the Knights would have been," Bill Sattler, director of specialty games for Caesars Entertainment, said, adding that a St. Louis victory over the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final would cost the sportsbook a net loss of "mid-six figures" on their odds to win the Stanley Cup.

Bookmakers escaped when the Knights lost to the Washington Capitals in last year's Stanley Cup Final and are hoping for another Boston title this year.

The Bruins are around -150 favorites to win their Stanley Cup Final series, which begins Monday. Halfway through the season, few people thought they'd be facing the Blues.

Entering the season, St. Louis was considered a second-tier Cup contender, with odds around 25-1. The Blues got off to a slow start, though, made an early coaching change and in December were listed among the biggest longshots on the board. On Dec. 17, only the Chicago Blackhawks, who were 10-19-6 at the time, had worse odds to win the Stanley Cup than St. Louis.

There were a few believers willing to stake a few dollars on the Blues at that point, but not many. The SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas said it took just one bet -- a $20 wager on Dec. 28 -- on the Blues at 300-1. New Jersey sportsbook PointsBet said it didn't take its first bet on St. Louis to win the Stanley Cup until Feb. 20.

The largest bet Caesars took on the Blues at 250-1 was $400, but Sattler said there were several more in the $100 range. With odds in the triple digits, it doesn't take much to build up some hefty liability.

"We had them at 250-to-1 halfway through the season," Sattler, a 40-year-plus Vegas veteran, said. "A few hundred-dollar bets here and there, and it gets up there."

Few teams have overcome such long odds midway through a season and gone on to win a championship in one of the four major U.S. leagues. One of the most recent examples also hails from St. Louis. The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals were listed at 999-1 in September when they were five games out of the wild card with 15 games to play. They rallied to make the playoffs and went on to beat the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

The 1999 St. Louis Rams began the season as 300-1 longshots, but behind quarterback Kurt Warner, they quickly showed they were legitimate championship contenders. The Blues, however, weren't even in the playoff picture midway through the season.

Bolstered by the emergence of goalie Jordan Binnington, the Blues began to improve during the second half of the season, and a few more bets began to trickle in on St. Louis. A customer at the FanDuel sportsbook at the Meadowlands put $2,700 on the Blues at 21-1, and William Hill's books reported taking four $2,000 bets on St. Louis to win the Cup in mid-February.

However, entering the playoffs, 10 of the 16 teams alive in the postseason had attracted more bets to win the Stanley Cup than the Blues at William Hill. Caesars Sportsbook went into the postseason with a liability on only four teams to win the Stanley Cup. The Blues were the only ones who made the playoffs.

"You want people to bet the 250-to-1 longshots," Sattler said. "You just don't want those teams to go from last place to the Stanley Cup."

Free agent defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who visited with the Cleveland Browns on Friday, told ESPN's Josina Anderson that no matter where he lands, the team "is going to be a contender."

"I want to win," the six-time Pro Bowler said. "I'm not worried about where I'm living. Wherever I got to go to win. ... Everybody's open."

McCoy was released Monday by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a move that was financially motivated. The sides could not reach an agreement over his $13 million salary, none of which was guaranteed. McCoy had three years remaining on his deal, which would have kept him with the team through 2021.

Browns general manager John Dorsey said Thursday that the meeting with McCoy would be an opportunity for both sides to see if they fit together.

Several other teams are said to be interested in McCoy, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2010 draft. McCoy is scheduled to visit the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday, a source confirmed to ESPN's Jamison Hensley. He has a strong relationship with Ravens defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who coached McCoy in Tampa in 2014-15.

Though McCoy's numbers were down in 2018, Dorsey said he doesn't believe the player is close to being finished.

"With regards to his ability to play the game of football, he can still play the game of football,'' Dorsey said.

McCoy, 31, had six sacks and a team-leading 21 quarterback pressures in 2018, when the Bucs went 5-11 and missed the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season. He has 54 ½ sacks in 123 career games, was an All-Pro in 2013 and was a Pro Bowl selection every year from 2012-17.

The Browns' offensive coordinator, Todd Monken, spent three seasons in Tampa running the Bucs' offense.

"I think a lot of Gerald," Monken said earlier this week. "Gerald has had a tremendous career and was an outstanding football player for us. He's a great person."

After tensions between referees and players led to a huge volume of technical fouls and a record for ejections in the first round of the NBA playoffs, tempers have cooled dramatically on both sides and the league has seen 11 consecutive playoff games without a player technical foul.

There hasn't been a technical called in any of the nine conference finals games and none at all since May 10. In the first round alone, there were 12 ejections and dozens of technical fouls called as officials responded to an uptick in player complaining.

Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks was suspended for entering the officials' dressing room to protest a call. San Antonio Spurs star DeMar DeRozan was fined for throwing a ball at an official. The Houston Rockets leaked an internal memo they had prepared to media outlets, complaining about calls from last season's Western Conference finals, saying the Golden State Warriors got favorable calls.

Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, meanwhile, were fined a total of $75,000 for criticizing and "[impugning] the integrity of NBA officiating" after an overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves late in the regular season.

The height may have been the uproar when veteran official Scott Foster was assigned to officiate Game 2 of the Rockets-Warriors Western Conference semifinals series. Rockets star James Harden had been fined for calling Foster "rude and arrogant" during the regular season. Harden said Foster had a personal issue with him.

That night, however, Foster and the Rockets kept matters totally professional. The rest of the series was played without officiating incidents and it's started a trend, as both players and referees have appeared to give each other space.

"I think both teams just realized what the hell was going on last two days. ... Everyone was aware of all the talks about officiating, foul calls," Green said after that game. "Come out and play the game. I think both teams did a great job of that. They weren't complaining about many calls, we weren't complaining about many calls. It's kind of embarrassing for the game of basketball, how much it's been talked about, fouls and officiating."

Green's sentiments have seemed to prevail across both conferences and he's led the way. Green leads the NBA with four technical fouls in these playoffs (he had five but one was rescinded) and was on pace to get suspended for a game, which happens on the seventh technical. But Green hasn't been whistled in weeks and the only other player still alive in the postseason with more than one technical foul is teammate Kevin Durant, who has two but has also missed the past five games due to injury.

Who knows how long it will last, but Green is even talking about turning over a new leaf on officiating permanently.

"There were just times where I've looked back at the game and I would see my body language and pouting to a referee...it was disgusting to me," Green said after Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. "It was something that I wanted to be mindful of, and especially coming into these playoffs."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant said he is "doing better every day" but acknowledged that he isn't sure when he'll be able to return as he continues to recover from a strained right calf.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since he suffered the injury on May 8, Durant also addressed the idea that the team plays better without him -- "that's not facts" -- and the way some still don't see him as part of the Warriors' collective group.

"It's been that way since I got here," said Durant, who seemed engaged and optimistic about his return to the court at some point in the near future. "It's been that way since I got here -- 'It's the Warriors and KD.' I understand that, and I felt like my teammates and the organization know exactly what I've done here off and on the court to become a part of this culture, stamp my flag in this culture and this organization. ... I know what I bring to the team, but I also know a lot of people on the outside don't like to see us together, and I get it."

Notably, Durant corrected a reporter when asked how "their" play has been, in regard to how his teammates have picked up the slack in his absence, responding with "Our play?"

Durant said he has noticed the storylines about both media and fans wondering if the Warriors are better without him, despite teammates and coaches repeatedly saying how much they want him back.

"It's hard to get away from that because I watch the game, and you watch the lead-up to the games, and that's all everybody is talking about," Durant said. "My perspective is just, like, I want to focus on rehab, but I also want to be a fan of my teammates. I want to enjoy my teammates from a different view. A lot of those guys sit in a chair and cheer for the rest of the guys, the starting guys, and now I get an opportunity to do the same thing. I turn the TV, and since I can't travel with the team, all I hear is the noise.

"As a player, I think about that -- I'm just like, that's not true. That's not facts when it comes from a basketball perspective. The competitive side of me -- I also like to talk basketball as well -- so if you're going to say something like that, I'm going to engage in it. So it's all fun, it's all cool, but I know the real."

Speaking with reporters after Friday's practice, Warriors guard Stephen Curry agreed with his All-Star teammate, adding that Durant often serves as the lightning rod for Warriors criticisms.

"I feel like for the last three years, everybody has taken their shots and trying to nitpick or break us down or drive a wedge in our team chemistry or our togetherness -- whatever the case is," Curry said. "And even this year, it's even been amplified even more with [Durant's] free agency stuff. And nobody can say anything without it getting scrutinized or criticized, or nobody can be happy when people are playing well. That's the part, to me, that's the most surprising. If it's KD playing well, it's, 'Oh, they're playing a different style, and it's not as fun to watch,' or when he's out, and we're winning games, it's 'Oh, are we better, more fun?' Whatever the question is, we hear it all the time."

The Warriors said Thursday that it is "unlikely" that Durant will be ready for Game 1 of the Finals on May 30 against either the Milwaukee Bucks or the Toronto Raptors. The Warriors remain vague on a target date for his return because Durant has yet to be cleared for on-court work, and nobody is certain how he'll respond once he clears the next hurdle in the rehab process.

Even so, Durant said he feels like he is making progress on an injury that he admits is "worse" than those he has had in the past.

"I'm just taking it a second at a time," Durant said. "Every rep we do in the weight room, I just try to focus on that rep and not try to think too far down the line. 'Cause I don't really know too much about this injury. I'm leaving it the hands of the team doctors. I trust the direction they're trying to put me in."

It has been a popular parlor game among league executives all season: How good will the Golden State Warriors be if Kevin Durant leaves?

You can't draw a direct line from the 73-win Warriors -- the last pre-Durant version -- to the theoretical 2019-20 team. Harrison Barnes is gone. Andre Iguodala, dunking and stripping the ball and prancing all over these playoffs, is 35. Shaun Livingston is in the final stages of a wonderful career. Their low first-round picks haven't yielded much in the way of starter-level contributors -- the cost of greatness. The three original stars are on the wrong side of 30, or approaching it.

The tenor of that parlor game changed during the first round this postseason. The eighth-seeded Clippers swiped two games at Oracle Arena, and pushed the Durant-era Warriors to a distance only one other team had managed. Stephen Curry looked mortal. Durant went berserk and rescued them. The same pattern repeated over the first three games of the Rockets series.

It seemed like the Warriors needed Durant to go berserk. That did not portend well for next season. Maybe we shouldn't pencil them in as no-brainer favorites in the Western Conference. Maybe it's time to lump them in with Houston, Utah, Oklahoma City, Denver, Portland and whomever wins the free-agency derby.

Maybe not. Golden State is now 31-1 in its past 32 games when Curry plays and Durant does not -- and 34-4 in such games since signing Durant. The sample size is growing. It suggests the Warriors remain a different style juggernaut when their founding stars are healthy and motivated, and know they have to make do without the star who joined.

It can be hard to see that juggernaut -- to close your eyes and see it -- when Durant plays. That was almost the point of signing him. He could blend with Steve Kerr's share-the-wealth ethos, but also enable a more traditional style.

It hasn't always been easy to mesh the two in the half court. Against some teams -- particularly those, like the Rockets, who switch -- the Warriors default more to slower mismatch-hunting centered around Durant's one-on-one scoring. Golden State's other three stars can still fly around when Durant has the ball.

But by their own admission, they sometimes downshifted. They stood and watched. Cut at half speed. Slipped screens without the usual jarring ferocity.

It wasn't always easy for Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to flip the turbo switch. They didn't have to with Durant around. When he rested, the three were rarely on the floor together. The regular season is overlong and boring for a team headed to its fifth straight NBA Finals. Green was out of shape until a planned March diet.

Like anyone subsisting on pull-ups, Durant suffers the occasional cold night. Those nights -- when Durant missed more and the other three stars didn't or couldn't summon their pre-Durant verve -- are when you saw the illusion of a less than dominant post-Durant future.

These past six wins, and the synergistic dominance of Golden State's founding fathers, have been a reminder: We are still here. They may not win the No. 1 seed in the West without Durant; they have earned the right to coast and rest. But they will be in the championship picture when it matters.

Let's take a deeper look at how the Warriors tapped back into their roots, with some help (some sources on-the-record, some anonymous) from coaches and players who faced them recently.

The dread split

Curry and Thompson comprise the greatest shooting backcourt in history, and maybe (definitely?) the greatest backcourt ever, period. Kerr's most important big-picture change upon replacing Mark Jackson was leveraging the power of the Splash Brothers' shooting when they didn't have the ball. The split action -- two players coming together and bursting apart -- existed long before the Warriors, but Curry and Thompson weaponized it to a degree never seen.

In the play above, CJ McCollum and Evan Turner switch, and all appears fine. But as Curry collides chest-to-chest with McCollum, and stands McCollum almost upright, he senses a chance to back cut.

Green bounces a pinpoint pass. Maurice Harkless steps up off Kevon Looney to snuff Curry's drive. Curry bounces to Looney, who lays the ball in as Harkless flails at shadows.

What are you supposed to do here? Perhaps McCollum and Turner should stay home instead of switching; McCollum almost dips down into Curry's pick, surrendering to a switch before he needs to. As the Rockets showed last season, part of a sound switching scheme against Golden State is feeling out when not to switch.

In theory, Damian Lillard might bolt down from Alfonzo McKinnie and smother Looney. Lillard is the fifth defender Golden State yanks into the action in about two seconds. Almost no defender can snap from "out of the play" to "urgent rotation" so quickly.

It has been good sport to poke fun at the "Kumbaya Kerr" egalitarian offense, but the results have proved Kerr right. Unleashing Curry and Thompson as cutters has paid dividends beyond keeping role players involved and happy enough to try hard on defense.

It maximizes Green, one of the great playmaking big men ever. It unlocks easy looks around the basket for role players who would be useless in standstill spot-up roles. Top-heavy superteams scrounge for minimum-salaried support. Such players come with holes in their games. Many are bad shooters. The magnetism of Curry and Thompson as cutters opens crevices through which the Looneys and Iguodalas and Livingstons and McKinnies and Zaza Pachulias and JaVale McGees and Jordan Bells can slice.

The uh-oh 3

Most opposing defenses have reasonably adopted a strategy of ignoring anyone who is not Curry, Thompson or Durant to help on Golden State's historic trio of shooters. But with Curry and Thompson always moving, you never know where those shooters might pop up.

The uncertainty clouds the brains of those roving help defenders -- even with Durant out.

This is a classic Golden State action, though they prefer to do it with Durant posting up and Green in Looney's role here as screener.

"It is their single best play and the hardest one to guard," says Doc Rivers, whose Clippers took the "ignore role players" strategy to an extreme in the first round.

Enes Kanter is nominally on Looney, but he's 15 feet away from Looney so he can help on whatever more dangerous threat might appear.

But Kanter is not really helping on anyone. He's chilling near Green, even though there is no need to swarm Green on the block. Kanter doesn't bother swiping at Looney's entry pass. As Krusty the Clown once barked at another overmatched opponent, "JUST TAKE IT! TAKE THE BALL!"

From there, it's over. Curry rockets around Looney's pick, knowing Kanter has no chance to cover all that ground.

"You have to recognize the guy you are not guarding on purpose is now setting a screen, and run back up, and that is really hard," Rivers says. "You cannot get paralyzed."

It takes a rare combination of alertness, anticipation and speed to toggle in an instant from "ignore" to "pressure" -- as Harkless managed on Green here:

Harkless is a wing. Big men -- like Zach Collins below -- are more prone to paint-bound paralysis:

In convincing opponents they need to help so dramatically off every non-shooter -- that a threat could appear anywhere, that you need to be all places at once -- the Warriors mind-trick them into helping on ghosts.

"They cause a lot of confusion," Meyers Leonard says days after the Warriors swept Portland. "It's incredibly difficult to be a help defender and then be up at the screen. It feels awkward. Help defense against the Warriors is totally different when they are playing that old Warriors style. It's not normal. You never know what's coming."

Rivers was watching that game and laughing in exasperation at that Curry 3-pointer, he says. Notice how both of Looney's screens direct Curry toward the coffin corner. Most pindowns spring shooters away from the boundaries. The Clippers blocked Curry and Thompson from using those picks -- "top-locking," in hoops parlance:

The Warriors countered by redirecting their offense toward the corner. "They are so smart," Rivers says. He took particular note of the way Curry shoved his backpedaling brother into Looney's pick. Mean.

Golden State is preposterously good within tight confines. Their offense blooms in environments -- the corners -- where for most it withers.

Thompson understands the power of his shooting -- that a double-team might come. Livingston knows what pass he's going to make before he gets the ball. Should the Blazers have switched? Probably. Try making that read in real time. Should someone have rotated down to Bell? I guess. The passes just come too fast. Golden State has prized pass-and-cut IQ in role players because the way they play -- the broader identity that is an extension of Curry -- requires it.

The inherent challenge of Golden State (with or without Durant) is that there is no one catch-all answer to defending them, or even to defending any one of their players over any single possession. Sometimes, you should switch. Sometimes, you should roam. Sometimes, you should trap. Sometimes, you should do all of those things in rapid succession.

A lot of those strategies are in direct conflict. Say you are a shot-blocker defending Green on one wing while Curry dribbles on the other. You should get ready to help at the rim on Curry's drive, right? But wait! Green is setting an off-ball screen for Thompson. Your job is to switch such actions. How can you switch outside onto Thompson and help inside on Curry?

You can't. If you're switching you can't help, and if you're helping you can't switch, and trying to figure out which to do depending on a dozen variables -- who has the ball, how much time is left on the shot clock, what other Warriors are on the floor, whether Joe Lacob is taunting you -- can plunge the smartest defenders into a haze.

"It's like you're in a boat with three holes in the bottom," Jeff Bzdelik, Houston's former defensive coordinator, told me last season, "and you only have two pegs to plug them. You just have to keep moving the pegs around."

Rivers resorted to telling his players to hack when they felt themselves falling behind. "That was the first time I had ever done that as a coach," he says.

Adding another mean layer

This is the same setup, only the Warriors add a fourth player -- the other Splash Brother -- to the strong side. They transition from the split cut into the Green screen so seamlessly it is all just one liquid action.

Thompson cuts before screening for Curry, and slices behind McCollum. That forces Leonard to sag away from Green, and from there you are in Prayer Mode.

"You're thinking, 'OK, I'm helping on this cut from Klay, but there's Steph up there, and, oh no, I'm going to be late,'" says Leonard, who was at the center of this play. "You're always worried."

One potential counter: Harkless could peel off Green, account for Thompson, and hope one of McCollum or Leonard reads that -- and jets out toward Looney/Curry. That kind of improv is a lot to ask given all of Golden State's moving parts. Scripting it ahead of time risks paralysis-by-overpreparation.

A variant of the same split-into-screen combination:

Leonard's help is required here too -- first on Curry cutting across, then on Thompson zipping backdoor. Even so, it takes Leonard out of position for the crescendo Curry-Green handoff.

This is why Rivers says he adjusted the Clippers' help rules after Game 1 of that series: ignore non-shooters unless they have the ball, in which case, please, for the love of the basketball gods, get up on them.

Going that route puts pressure on the guys guarding Thompson and Curry to navigate the Splash Brothers Ballet without exposing any holes. The two Portland defenders in question fail here.

There is a basic principle beneath all this whirring motion: The Warriors want to force the same defender to scurry into the paint to find one Splash Brother, and then back out to find the other. It can be as simple as linking a Curry pick-and-roll with a handoff for Thompson:

That is a lot of back-and-forth travel for poor Kanter.

Where it all started

And in the end, there is this, over and over until you submit to the hyper-speed dominance of perhaps the greatest pick-and-roll combination since John Stockton and Karl Malone:

Curry ran fewer pick-and-rolls this season than at any time since his ascension to stardom, per Second Spectrum data. Six of his 20 highest volume pick-and-roll games of the season have come since Durant's calf injury.

Green, as usual, is Curry's dance partner of choice -- an equal partner. Green kills defenses with the lob to Looney there. Livingston slips in to provide a second outlet. Lillard again fails to rotate, and again you can't blame him; the Warriors involve four players -- Curry, Green, Looney, Livingston -- in the on-ball action in about two seconds.

Staying out of rotations is less taxing. That is why switching is in theory the optimal strategy against the Curry-Green two-man game. But few bigs can track Curry beyond the arc. He is an underrated isolation scorer in his own right -- including against guards. Plopping a switchable wing on Green creates a trickle-down mismatch elsewhere.

When Durant plays, that mismatch is fatal. Without Durant, the Blazers felt comfortable playing three small guards together. Durant is Golden State's bailout option -- the trump card -- against switch-everything schemes. He is insurance against icy shooting nights.

We'll never really know if the Warriors needed Durant to beat the 2017 Cavs -- LeBron's best Cleveland team -- or last season's Rockets. It felt like they did, but it also felt like they needed him to outlast the Clippers three weeks ago. Maybe they needed him to become invincible -- to be something more than a normal championship-level team. (It's possible to be a championship-level team and not win the championship.)

It appeared at times this season as if they needed Durant to be merely that: a normal great team. The past two weeks have been an emphatic reminder: Maybe they don't.