Green’s vision, passing helping power Curry’s MVP-caliber season

Late in the second quarter of the Warriors’ 129-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Chase Center on Monday night, Draymond Green dribbled into a handoff to Stephen Curry. He then surprised Curry’s defender with a screen to set up a clean 3-pointer.

Having spent the better part of this season blanketed by defenders, Curry swished the shot, grinned and high-fived Green before running back on defense. Curry has benefited from Green’s playmaking for nearly a decade, but their two-man game has never been more important than during this season. This dance has come to embody the Warriors’ identity.

“What’s fun is their innovation,” coach Steve Kerr said of Green and Curry. “It’s like sandlot football. They just draw up a play in the dirt and figure out a way to get

a guy open.”

With Klay Thompson sidelined for the second straight season with an Achilles injury and the team working in new play- ers such as Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre Jr. and James Wiseman, the Warriors are counting on MVP-caliber production from Curry. Green’s ability to make things easier for Curry is an important factor in that. Now the two are feeding off each other as they enjoy one of the best stretches of their careers.

Curry has taken a torch to his scoring numbers. He’s averaging 37.3 points in February, shooting 59.2% from the field and 50.6% from 3-point range, and making at least half of his shots in a career-best streak of 10 straight games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Curry is the first guard since Michael Jordan (1995-96) to score at least 25 points while shooting at least 50% from the field in 10 consecutive games.

Meanwhile Green, playing center while Kevon Looney (left ankle sprain) and Wiseman (left wrist sprain) are sidelined, has tallied 15, 15, 10, 11, 11, eight and 16 assists in the last six games. His 16 against the Cavaliers on Monday is tied for a career high. Green, who usually hovers around seven assists per game for his career, is leading the league with 93 assists for the month of February.

“I think this team is built for him to handle the ball,” Kerr said, adding Green is in the best shape of his season. “Playing center opens up the floor for him, too, so when he’s the center and handling the ball it completely changes the chessboard.”

Without a traditional 7-footer to clog up the lane, Green is surrounded by four shooters at all times. His patience and anticipation is unmatched as he stands at the top of the key and surveys the floor, timing an array of bounce passes, one-armed bullets and lobs to spring teammates open.

Curry has been the primary beneficiary — 76 of his makes have been assisted by Green this season. But with so much attention being paid to Curry and Green’s two-man game, it’s allowed supporting players to slip open for drives and open jumpers.

Wiggins is shooting career highs from the floor (46.6%) and beyond the arc (36.9%) as more than half his shots have come with a defender more than 4 feet away, according to NBA. com’s tracking data. Forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, starting in place of a traditional center, is establishing himself as a core part of the rotation by exploiting Curry’s gravity. When defenders overload on Curry, Toscano-Anderson is adept at diving to the rim, where Green can find him with a pinpoint pass.

“He is on a different level when it comes to IQ,” Toscano-Anderson said of Green. “Sometimes he will throw me a pass before I am even there. He sees those plays before anyone else does.”

Though Green’s own scoring numbers are down, it’s not limiting his impact on offense. Not since his rookie season has Green averaged fewer points (5.2), attempts (5.4) or shot a worse percentage (36.2), yet the Warriors’ offense is scoring 10.4 points per 100 possessions more when Green is on the court in any capacity.

Green playing center has been even more effective. The Warriors have the 20th-ranked offense in the league but, with Green at center, their offensive rating lifts to 124.3, per Cleaning The Glass. That would top the NBA by a wide margin (the Milwaukee Bucks are currently first with an offensive rating of 118.8).

Those lineups do give up quite a bit on defense and don’t rebound especially well, but it provides the toughest matchup for opponents. Green has been so effective as a point center that Kerr expects to find minutes for him even when the injured big men return.

“This is only going to go on for another couple of games whenever James and Kevon are back and we go back to playing big,” Kerr said, “but we’ll find some spots within the game to play small as well.”

Finding those spots could be as simple going small for the final few minutes of each half, as Kerr did during the Finals years. It could also come at an expense to Eric Paschall, who thrived earlier in the season as a small-ball center on the second unit but hasn’t been as impactful in recent weeks.

However the Warriors do it, ensuring that Green and Curry are in positions to succeed will be key in their playoff push.

“He’s picking teams apart and obviously playing at the five has helped as well,” Curry said of Green. “So we’ll try to maintain that.”

FRUIT

(e.g., Traditionally, it is the fruit that Eve ate. Answer: Apple.)

Freshman level

1. The name of this fruit is used to mean a defective or unsatisfactory car purchase.

2. The name of this fruit contains “grape” but it is not a grape.

3. The Valencia is a variety of this fruit, having few seeds and a thin skin.

Graduate level

4. The name of this fruit is derived from the seaport Tangier in Morocco.

5. The first name of Bing Crosby is also a variety of this fruit.

6. The name of this fruit comes from Latin, meaning “apple with many seeds.”

Ph.D. level

7. Herbie Hancock’s “_ _ _ _ _ Man” is a jazz standard.

8. This fruit is also known as an “alligator pear.”

9. With the vowels removed, this fruit would be spelled “kmqt.” ANSWERS: 1. Lemon. 2. Grapefruit.

3. Orange. 4. Tangerine. 5. Cherry. 6. Pomegranate. 7. Watermelon. 8. Avocado. 9. Kumquat.

— North America Syndicate Inc.

SILVER SPRING, MD. >> The seemingly unstoppable rise of Bitcoin continued Tuesday with the cost of a single unit of the digital currency rising above $50,000 for the first time.

The price of Bitcoin has risen almost 200% in the last three months and its volatility was on display Tuesday. After rising above $50,600, it fell back to $48,674 at 2:15 p.m. ET. At that price, with about 18.6 million Bitcoins in circulation, Bitcoin has a market value of nearly $907 billion.

Bitcoin is rallying as more companies signal the digital currency could eventually gain widespread acceptance as a means of payment. The vast majority of those who have acquired Bitcoin have treated it as a commodity, like gold, with few places accepting it in exchange for goods or services.

Companies have been leery because of Bitcoin’s volatility and its use by parties who want to avoid the traditional banking system for a myriad of reasons.

Last week, however, the electric car company Tesla sent a tremor through the digital currency markets, saying that it was buying $1.5 billion in Bitcoin as part of a new investment strategy, and that it would soon be accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars.

BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the U.S., followed a day later, saying it would include digital currencies in the services it provides to clients. Mastercard said it would start supporting “select crypto currencies” on its network. And Blue Ridge Bank of Charlottesville, Virginia, said it would allow cardholders to purchase and redeem Bitcoin at 19 of its ATMs.

As its price keeps rising, here’s a brief look at the bitcoin frenzy:

How Bitcoins work

Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not tied to a bank or government and allows users to spend money anonymously. The coins are created by users who “mine” them by lending computing power to verify other users’ transactions. They receive bitcoins in exchange. The coins also can be bought and sold on exchanges with U.S. dollars and other currencies. Some businesses also accept bitcoin, but its popularity has stalled out in recent years.

Am i able to use Bitcoin to buy stuff?

The digital currency has become popular enough that more than 300,000

transactions typically occur in an average day, according to bitcoin wallet site blockchain.info. Still, its popularity is low compared with cash and credit cards.

Besides Tesla, few companies have said they’ll accept Bitcoin as payment. Overstock.com appears to accept Bitcoin for most listings on its website, including cameras, vacuums and clothes. PayPal allows its accountholders to buy, sell and hold four cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin — but you can’t use it to pay people, at least not yet. The payment company Square bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin in October at about $10,600 each, and allows users of its cash app to buy Bitcoin from their mobile devices.

Lee Reiners, who teaches fintech and cryptocurrency courses at Duke University School of Law, believes many companies will remain hesitant to accept Bitcoin as payment for products and services because of the volatile price.

“If you were a merchant, why would you accept payment in an asset that could be worth 20% less a day after you receive it?,” Reiners said in an email.

But Richard Lyons, a finance professor at the University of California at Berkeley, predicts Bitcoin and other digital currencies “will become transactional currencies increasingly over the next five years. It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.

Will more companies invest in Bitcoin?

Assuming Tesla bought Bitcoin at the volume weighted average price of $34,445 in January, the company is sitting on a gain of about 38% with its investment. But in the regulatory announcement unveiling its Bitcoin purchase, Tesla warned it could suffer the loss of part or all of its investment “and our financial condition and operating results may be harmed.”

“Tesla is going to have to be very careful and comprehensive in accounting for its Bitcoin investment on its books,” said Anthony Michael Sabino, a professor of law, at St. John’s University. “Like any other financial asset other than actual cash, it might fluctuate.”

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, a Tesla rival, said GM has no immediate plans to invest in Bitcoin but would continue to “monitor and evaluate” potential use of digital currency.