When Curry can’t, Golden State can — guard’s awful night ends with win
As the final buzzer sounded on theWarriors’ 106105 win over the Raptors at Chase Center on Sunday night, Stephen Curry popped out his mouthguard, raised his right fist and smiled.
Given that he had just endured the worst shooting night of his NBA career, few could’ve blamed him for being frustrated. But Curry knows that, for theWarriors to be a threat in theWestern Conference this season, he’ll need plenty of help from a newlook supporting cast.
By that measure, Sunday marked a key milestone. As Curry struggled against Toronto’s barrage of doubleand tripleteams, his running mates hit timely shots and played stingy defense, propelling Golden State to a memorable victory
over the franchise that beat it in the 2019 NBA Finals.
“I thought Toronto did a fantastic job on Steph, and they played a great defensive game themselves,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “I thought we handled that pressure very well for three quarters.”
With 7.7 seconds left and the Warriors down one point, Kerr called a timeout and drew up a play to get Curry an open look. Guard Damion Lee inbounded the ball to Curry, who, despite his issues from the field, drew a doubleteam. After getting it back from Curry, Lee hoisted a 3point try while drawing contact.
Referees ruled that the foul came before Lee began the upward shooting motion, which afforded him only two foul shots instead of three. Two weeks after draining a buzzerbeating 3pointer to lift the Warriors to a win over Chicago, Lee took a deep breath, dribbled once and hit both freethrow tries.
After watching Toronto forward Pascal Siakam miss a 20footer from the top of the key as AndrewWiggins blanketed him, Lee locked eyes with Curry — his brotherinlaw — and shrugged. In that moment, as their teammates reveled in their fourth win in five games, Lee and Curry understood just how much an overhauled roster had improved since dropping the first two games of the season by a combined 65 points.
This is a group that had done such a poor job of complementing Curry in recent weeks that opponents felt compelled at times to ignore his lesserknown teammates. The Raptors, who received national attention for playing a defense in those 2019 Finals more commonly seen in middleschool
rec leagues than the NBA, are no exception.
After opening the game with a boxand1 that begged the Warriors to get points from anyone other than Curry, Toronto rolled out multiple other innovative schemes that spoke to its lack of respect for his running mates. The slight was not lost on Golden State’s supporting cast, which finally did what it couldn’t do — use the defensive attention Curry commands to capitalize on open looks.
“Steph’s human, so he’s going to have an off night every once in a while,” Lee said. “We have to be there to carry the load when that happens.”
Wiggins ( 17 points) led seven Warriors in double figures. One was Curry — barely. He made a jumper late in the first quarter before missing his next 13 shots. After a 17point, thirdquarter lead had evaporated with less than three minutes left, Curry finally saw the ball go in, swishing a 3pointer to cut Golden State’s deficit to 101100.
For the first time this season, theWarriors won a game in which Curry failed to score 30 points. And it wasn’t just that he
looked mortal. Vexed by the Raptors’ barrage of doubleand tripleteams, Curry finished with just 11 points on 2for16 shooting ( 1for10 from 3point range).
It was the worst shooting percentage of his career in a game in which he attempted at least five shots. According to ESPN, Curry’s 2for16 night tied Klay Thompson, David Lee and Baron Davis for the worst shooting performance by a Warriors player with 15 attempts in a game over the past 20 seasons.
Though Golden State knows it probably needs Curry to play
like an MVP to contend, it was glad to see it could win when he labors. Odds are that duds like Sunday’s won’t be a common occurrence from someone considered the greatest shooter in history.
“I expect my offense to be there every single night,” Curry said. “In terms of us just having confidence across the board, no matter who’s out on the floor, I like where we’re at right now.”