HOUSTON — The Royal Navy’s HMS Furious was the world’s first aircraft carrier, commissioned in 1917. She had been a giant, ungainly battleship cruiser, in another life, but was repurposed to assist more agile weapons of war. Though no longer at the point of attack, the HMS Furious was perhaps even more dangerous far from the fray, as the launching pad for many an air assault. She stood no chance of sneaking up on a target, so the move was to let her shield and help the fleet’s fleetest.

While Jordan Bell and Kevon Looney might not seem to have much in common with British military history, they’ve undergone their own conversion from cruisers to carriers. They’ve gone from ineffectively lumbering near the point of attack to helping out a quick bomber like Stephen Curry refuel and launch from afar. It’s a transformation that saved the Warriors against the Rockets in the late stages of the Western Conference finals — through their 101-92 Game 7 victory on Monday — and can power them to victory against the switch-heavy Cavaliers.

The unfortunate upshot of Andre Iguodala’s absence was that the Warriors could not replace his minutes with any kind of proxy off the bench. Like a penguin dropped from a cliff, the Warriors were in a scary situation and wings weren’t going to save them. So young, inexperienced bigs Looney and Bell had to get run.

Early in the series, they did as young bigs are instructed to do, skulking around the hoop, waiting for a dump-off pass so they could cash in with an easy bucket. They weren’t trusted to shoot, of course, so they needed to fit into the most logical location.

When they weren’t near the hoop, they were ignored. The Rockets wanted to chase the Warriors off the three-point line with their aggressive switching defense, then have extra help waiting. The paint was very crowded, as you can see with this Game 5 clip in which Curry drives, only to be swatted. Eric Gordon is “guarding” Bell, meaning that he’s really waiting in the paint for drivers.

Under these conditions, the Warriors offense was deprived of space to work with. While they boasted some the world’s best shooters, they didn’t have enough quality shooters to stretch the Rockets defense. Looney was a bit too slow out of pick-and-roll to make plays on the ball; Bell was too inexperienced. Offensively, these two were mostly serving as Houston’s sixth defender on the floor.

They could serve another purpose, though, a counterintuitive function that made sense considering the Rockets’ switching strategy. Looney and Bell needed to position themselves far from the hoop, like 3-point shooters, so they could operate as surprise screening stations for the actual 3-point shooters. While neither needed to be guarded far from the paint on their own, they were suddenly deadly as unencumbered dribble handoff facilitators for Curry. Since the Rockets’ strategy was to switch everything, the defense was thrown into confusion when an unguarded man suddenly set a screen for the world’s most dangerous shooter.

Bell said of the strategy shift, “We talked about it last game. In the second half, we noticed that if the bigs are really spread out, the paint’s wide open, and if they do collapse, just kick it out to whoever’s open. Me, Loon, knowing what we have to do to be successful on this team, means looking for Steph, looking for Klay, looking for KD, all the shooters. When they kicked it out to me, I just tried to hesitate like I was going to shoot just to get them to stop, knowing that in the back of my head, Steph is always going to run to the corner after he passes it. So we just tried to use that as much as possible.”

You could see the Warriors opting for this approach in Game 6.

Looney, the battle cruiser, couldn’t have done much with that possession. Looney, the aircraft carrier, just fueled Curry’s long bomb.

You could also see this effect in the third quarter of Monday’s Game 7, when the Warriors finally broke through. First, there was just a benefit to Bell lingering farther from the paint in this Steph/Draymond Green pick-and-roll.

Then, check out Bell going into aircraft carrier mode, with a side of football blocking.

The good ship Bell was not finished, though. He was about to deliver the best assist of the night to a man intent on torpedoing the Rockets’ season. Initially, he started moving towards the basket like a classic big man in search of a dunk. Suddenly, he corrects course, and spaces backwards, as though in search of a catch and shoot opportunity. Instead, it’s a catch and fancy pass.

“That got me going.” Curry said of Bell’s crafty dish. “The pass from Jordan Bell, that was amazing.”

“I was going to try this one again,” Bell said from his nearby locker, acting out his fake-jumper-drop-off-pass he did in Game 6. For reference, here’s that wacky almost assist:

“You went low,” Curry said, referencing the Game 7 between the legs pass Bell gave him. “I needed that. That got me in rhythm. The one over the top of the head, I was like, ‘Where that one come from?’ The statue of liberty pass.”

The Warriors have a name for the preferable between the legs bouncer Bell threw in Game 7: The Zaza pass. In fact, it was Zaza Pachulia who suggested the change to Bell.

Bell said, “Zaza was letting me know, ‘That no-look pass is a good decision but understand that with shooters, if the ball is up here, they got to come back down with it. But if it’s a bounce pass, it’s more in rhythm.’”

After Bell’s two deadly assists, you can see PJ Tucker adjust his defense to protect against another dribble-handoff Curry bomb. When Tucker switches onto Bell, he hugs up between Bell and the 3-point line, instead of instantly sagging below, down in the paint. This change allows Steph to get through the lane for a layup.

Suddenly, Curry had Ryan Anderson sizzling like a showpiece fajita plate at a Tex-Mex chain and the rest is history. A fourth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals secured, crisis averted.

The aircraft carrier was introduced into the archetypal war of attrition and represents how such struggles are not merely decided by struggling. Technological innovation wins wars; it’s often a deciding blow when two comparable sides are deadlocked and slugging it out. Yes, grit and desire are necessary components for victory. The Warriors were not channeling enough of those hoary clichés in the first half of both their elimination games. But this series was not simply won on merely talent or desire. Applied creativity was needed.

The Warriors won, so we redound the assessment down to, “They have four All-Stars,” or “Chris Paul got hurt.” That’s all fair, but we might be currently crucifying this team if not for a slight change that will get ignored by the televised sports debate shows. Good luck selling these hosts on how what really mattered was a change involving Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell, of all people. That’s counterintuitive, but then again, so is having your young non-shooter position himself like a shooter so he can throw a blind pass between his legs. Happy Finals, everybody.

(Top photo: Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports)