Kurtenbach: Don’t bet against Curry and Green as Warriors begin playoff push.
Never bet against Curry and Green when they are trying to get the Warriors into the postseason
If life is all about choices, then everything is a bet.
You win some; you lose some, but the one over-arching truth is that you will have to make some.
And amid all these bets, there’s one that you should avoid at all costs: Never, ever, ever bet against Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
I’ve been saying this for years, but it’s important to remind you, once again, right now. There’s nothing in the NBA quite like this duo.
Collectively, these two possess another gear that is only activated in the crunchiest of crunch times. Curry and Green used to save this level of play for the second, sometimes third round of the playoffs, but this Warriors team — hamstrung all season by injuries, an incongruent roster, and the ever-changing on-court priorities — needs it now.
This is crunch time. The Warriors need the full Curry and Green experience. And, of course, Curry and Green are providing it.
This is their moment. And there’s no show quite like it in sports.
I don’t mind tooting my own horn, but I’ll try to avoid making a ruckus. I told you that this Curry run was coming. Yet even with adequate preparation, I’ve run out of superlatives to describe his
game. What he’s doing right now is otherworldly. And while it’s easy to say that he will come back to earth in due time, the possibility remains that he has fully ascended into the realm of the basketball immortals, never to return.
Remember, without any player above 6-foot-9, the Warriors have to play small ball for the remainder of the season, and Curry has always played his best in that widely spaced and high-paced environment.
The numbers are undeniable — Curry is taking over on the offensive end. But for as spectacular and celestial as Curry is, he still needs his tag-team partner, Green.
And what Green is doing on defense is a throwback to an era that many would have justifiably thought was well over for the Warriors forward.
The final minutes of Monday’s win over the Sixers were the perfect encapsulation of how much impact the Warriors’ not-so-big man can exert on the game without scoring the basketball.
All game, Kevon Looney, the Warriors’ only playable center, was matched up one-on-one with Joel Embiid, who has at least four inches and easily 30 pounds on him. It was an unwinable matchup, and while Looney was a stalwart, Embiid still was able to get his.
Until the final few minutes of the game, that is.
That’s when Green, playing free safety in overt defiance of the league’s defensive three-seconds rule, was guarding two, sometimes three Sixers at one time, anticipating player and ball movement and ultimately dictating Philadelphia’s offensive possessions.
The Warriors got stop after stop, and Curry made basket after basket in those critical minutes Monday. Golden State ran away with the game.
How many times had we seen that before? How fun was it to see it again on Monday?
I’ve called Green the defensive Stephen Curry for years, but it had been nearly two years — since the 2019 NBA Finals — since we had seen that level of play on the court.
Curry creates havoc and discord on defenses unlike any player in NBA history when he has the ball in his hands, tilting the court and dictating everything the defense does.
Green does the same thing when the Warriors are on defense, dictating what the other team does when they have the ball. It requires a bit more attention to notice as compared to Curry’s symphony of 3s, but it resonates on a similar level.
Perhaps it was always present, like how twins have a secret language, but there’s a level of telepathy and symbiosis with the Warriors duo. The byproduct of which is winning.
Curry needs Green — there’s no play in basketball like a Curry-Green pick-androll, and when teams trap or triple-team Curry, it’s Green who is entrusted to take advantage of the odd-man rush opportunity. If Green wants to experiment with old-man game and start taking 12 footers, the Warriors’ offense could be unstoppable.
And Green needs Curry, obviously on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end.
Looney’s strong defensive play on Embiid, in conjunction with Green, was no coincidence — Looney is an experienced player who knows what to do and what not to do when he plays with that duo. Outside of him, there’s no one else on the Warriors roster who has played a single playoff minute with Green and Curry.
But while those two double-teamed the Sixers’ MVP candidate, Curry took on the responsibility of guarding two players at one time. His activity on the weakside wing denied the ball from swinging, keeping Green in position and keeping the Warriors’ rotations intact. Experience and the interpersonal understanding that comes from it are the bedrock of winning teams.
The Warriors’ front office ignored that fact this past offseason, saddling Curry and Green with young players and veterans with little to no meaningful playoff reps. You might view that as the ultimate vote of confidence, but in reality, it was a bet on the future and against Curry and Green’s ability to do anything meaningful come playoff time.
Perhaps it’ll be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Or perhaps these two will still find a way to get it done.
Curry and Green last lost a Western Conference playoff series in 2014, when Curry was 26 and a first-time All-Star and Green was 24, a spot starter, and still seeing minutes at small forward.
I can think of dozens of reasons why the Warriors will finally lose in the West bracket this year.
They’re a play-in team, for starters. But the West is wide open and so is the Warriors’ throttle.
Curry and Green have put us on the spot again.
Will you bet against them?