Heading into Game 6 on the road, sans Kevin Durant, the Golden State Warriors had to channel some offensive creativity from the early days.

No longer could they dump the ball down into the mid-post with a seven-footer giving them a quality shot against a physical defense.

A few things had to change for the Warriors to escape Houston, the one team that has squeezed everything out of the champions since Durant signed. Kerr had to dig deep into his bench just to give his stars enough rest on the road. Only one starter played 40-plus minutes, thanks to Quinn Cook, Jonas Jerebko, Shaun Livingston, Kevon Looney, and Jordan Bell all logging at least 10 minutes off the pine.

Outside of just needing extra bodies to preserve energy down the stretch, Kerr needed something else.

He needed to put the ball in the hands of his two cornerstone players that are most responsible for the banners in Oracle Arena.

He also needed to run simpler, more organic sets to force the Rockets’ defenders to use their brains more than their strong bodies.

For the Warriors, those two needs are related. They both include Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, particularly through the high pick-and-roll.

In the fourth quarter of last night’s closeout win for Golden State, they went to the Curry-Green screen and roll offense for nine possessions in the final 10 minutes.

I’ve seen it floating around that it might have happened 10 times, but I only counted nine.

For a segment of the weekend Film Room, let’s go through each possession and detail how the Warriors manipulated Houston’s defense that was actually tied together well for most of this series.

The Curry-Green Connection

After Curry checks back into the game for Quinn Cook, the Warriors (perhaps instructed by Kerr) decide to go straight Curry-Green pick and roll for the remainder of the night — outside of obvious transition opportunities.

On the first instance (below), Green dashes toward the ball once Curry crosses halfcourt. Chris Paul thinks Green is about to make contact with the screen, and PJ Tucker has a choice to make. Either trap Curry and ignore Green, or communicate a switch. Instead, he takes neither option, and gives Curry a runway to the paint because Paul is a step slow recovering: