CURRY SHINES AT ALL-STAR GAME
It shouldn’t have been a surprise.
After all, Stephen Curry has turned regular-season NBA basketball games — events that the league seems hellbent on making more and more meaningless year after year — mustsee television.
Of course he took the AllStar Game — an inherently frivolous event (and this season, a truly ridiculous one) and made it an enjoyable celebration of basketball greatness.
While Curry didn’t win the game’s MVP award, there was no question that he was the alpha of alphas on the court. He set the tone for the game, and the tone was joy.
It was another reminder of his indelible legacy on the sport.
There were players who didn’t want to be in Atlanta on Sunday. It’s hard to blame them. There were players who plotted ways to do the least amount of work possible — I’m looking at you, LeBron James — and again, that makes sense.
But Curry, instead of plotting ways to get it over with, decided that if he was going to be there, he might as well make it fun.
And Curry’s brand of fun is infectious. It’s a shame Curry has to work so hard when he’s playing with the Warriors that we don’t see that kind of fun.
Maybe I’m overstating it — maybe the All-Star Game would have been a good time no matter what — but I can’t help but think that Curry’s presence took the contest to a new level.
The All-Star Game has always been a bunch of guys trying cool in-game dunks — or in the case of Rudy Gobert, the most uncool dunks imaginable — but these days, it’s also bombs away from beyond the arc.
Yes, in a game with no defense, everyone was chucking. The 3-pointer is in their DNA, now, for better or for worse. Sixty percent of the shots in Sunday’s game were from beyond the arc.
You can blame Curry for that.
The further away we get from the genesis, the more we forget that before Curry, there weren’t players putting up 10 3-point attempts per game.
No offense to George McCloud and Ray Allen — the prodigious 3-point shooters of yesteryear — but they weren’t shooting off the dribble or and making 45 percent, either.
It was Curry who turned the 3-point shot from a novelty into a primary goal, who taught the league the overlooked truth that three is greater than two.
Well, at least when you shoot like him it is.
But take a moment to consider that: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook didn’t bring about a league full of copycats. Michael Jordan’s dunks didn’t change the way the game was played. (That said, the number of guys trying to shoot Jordan-like turnaround jumpers in the late and post-Jordan era cannot be forgotten and must be chas
Knights, began the game on a line with Patrick Marleau and Ryan Donato.
Blichfeld reiterated Monday morning he wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt MacKinnon. As he was skating toward the Sharks bench for a change, Blichfeld clipped MacKinnon’s shoulder and head with his left shoulder. He was given a match penalty at the 8:08 mark of the third period, a call that was upheld after officials reviewed the play. MacKinnon left the game to get examined and did not return.
Blichfeld argued in his hearing with the NHL last week that there was no intent to injure. But in handing out the suspension, the NHL ruled that the main point of contact from Blichfeld’s hit was MacKinnon’s head, and that contact with the head was avoidable.
“I was just trying to make a play and wanted to hit his chest and his shoulder,” Blichfeld said Monday. “Obviously, I didn’t want to hurt him and I hope he’s OK.”
MacKinnon has not played since the hit as he missed his third straight game when the Avalanche hosted the Arizona Coyotes. Colorado coach Jared Bednar said that MacKinnon is “doing great” but was not an option to play because of the league’s medical protocols.
“It’s MacKinnon, he’s a really good player and I didn’t want to hurt him,” Blichfeld said. “So it was just unfortunate and like I said, I hope he’s OK.”
“There was no intent,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said Monday of Blichfeld’s hit. “It’s good that it was only a couple games for him, and we get him back playing.”
As Blichfeld returned to the lineup, Noah Gregor was a scratch.