Curry not living up to MVP billing in Finals
Golden State star struggling despite team leading series
CLEVELAND — Turns out, Stephen Curry has not entered some level of basketball infallibility.
His unanimous MVP selection, the record 3-point total, the league scoring title, all those accolades while he was leading the Golden State Warriors to an NBA-record 73 regular-season wins may have made it seem like he was in some sort of permanent video-game mode. And then came the NBA Finals. The MVP is struggling, and what once looked like a Golden State stranglehold on a repeat title no longer does. Curry has been held to 16 points per game in the first three matchups in this series against Cleveland, which resumes when the Cavaliers play host to Game 4 tonight.
“We can definitely help Steph out and we will,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Thursday. “We can put him in better position . . . . The coaching staff has to figure out the best lineups and the best looks. Players have to perform. It’s on all of us to be better.”
Curry averaged 30 points per game in the regular season, but it’s been a perfect storm in the Finals for struggle: He missed shots he ordinarily makes in Game 1, got himself into foul trouble in Game 2, and endured a combination of more foul trouble and smothering, invasive Cleveland defence in Game 3.
Golden State leads the series 2-1, so it’s not exactly a dire situation the Warriors are facing. But if the Warriors are going to repeat, Curry probably needs to get somewhere closer to normal soon.
“Last night was a struggle,” Curry said. “Just, again, foul trouble and kind of dealing with that, but also not being as aggressive as I needed to be. I don’t know what the reason was for that, and it won’t be that in Game 4.”
Down 0-2, the Cavs had no choice but to be desperate. After a 30-point win, Cavaliers forward LeBron James wants to see that same desperation.
“We can’t afford to go down 3-1 and go into their building and give them confidence going back,” James said. “So it’s a do-or-die game for us still.”
“All we have to do is take stock,” Kerr said. “We’re up 2-1. We’re in pretty good shape. We haven’t played that well. Let’s play better.” Curry offered similar sentiments. “I like our chances,” Curry said, “of being able to figure it out.”
Either way, there will be a Game 5 back in Oakland, Calif., on Monday night.