Star power
Harden vs. Curry not just about two guys,
In the headlines, this is the NBA MVP faceoff: Stephen Curry vs. James Harden, the Golden State Warriors’ winner of the Maurice Podoloff trophy and the Houston Rockets star who saw himself as more deserving.
Or, more accurately, the Western Conference finals that start today at Oracle Arena are all about the Curry-Harden cook-off. Only one Top Chef can move on from here.
Curry earned the nickname “Chef Curry” this season when a video of he and his wife, Ayesha, doing a lip-syncing spoof of Drake’s 0 to 100 hit — “Chef Curry with the pot,” the line goes — went viral. Then Harden concocted his own culinary imagery on the court, using his fingers as the imaginary spoon inside the cup of his hot hand whenever he really got cooking.
The truth about this series, though, is they are merely a side dish.
If Curry and Harden were reminded of anything on their paths to this point, it’s that oneman bands don’t play for long in the playoffs. It’s all about depth, collective will and intangibles such as chemistry, with star power often dimmed when role players and coaches don’t come through in the clutch.
And rest assured, Curry and Harden know that as well as anyone.
After Curry struggled mightily in Games 2 and 3 of the semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies, his much-improved offense was merely one of the many reasons the Warriors turned the tide of that series and won in six games. More than anything, it was the Warriors defense playing up to its league-best standards that got the job done.
After allowing 101.1 points per 100 possessions in their two losses, the Warriors trimmed that number to 91.5 points in the final three games while holding the Grizzlies to 38.2% shooting. That’s a group effort, with Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala and others working on the wings and Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green dominating down low.
Harden, meanwhile, wasn’t on the floor when the Rockets were saving their season in Game 6 against the Clippers in their semifinals. That improbable 19point, fourth-quarter comeback — one that took place mostly with Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Trevor Ariza, Jason Terry and Corey Brewer pulling it off — led to the Game 7 win when Harden was back to his MVP-caliber ways.
It’s all-hands-on-deck time, in other words, unless you want to go fishing.
But the trouble for Houston is no team is as deep, or as healthy, as the Warriors. Save for a possible Game 1 absence from reserve big man Marreese Speights (right calf ), Golden State is good to go, as it has been almost all season. The Rockets have gotten this far despite being without two starters who suffered injuries that were deemed season-ending (point guard Patrick Beverley and forward Donatas Motiejunas).
What’s more, the next time the Rockets beat the Warriors this season will be the first.
They were 0-4 against Golden State during the regular season, losing by an average of 15.3 points and ensuring they’d be widely considered underdogs in this series.
Curry vs. Harden will be good hoops theater, to be sure, especially considering both players are back to their respective forms.
Curry leads all remaining players in playoff scoring at 28.2 points a game, with only the New Orleans Pelicans’ Anthony Davis having scored at a higher clip (31.5 points a game in a first- round sweep vs. the Warriors). The three-point threat that is such a remarkable part of his game is there as always, as Curry — 10 games in — is 12 threes away from Reggie Miller’s all-time mark (58 in 22 games in the 2000 playoffs).
Harden is right behind Curry in the postseason scoring ranks (26.7 points per game), and both continue to showcase an allaround game that has everything to do with their team’s success (6.8 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game for Curry; 8.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game for Harden). Both likely would agree they need to take better care of the ball (4.0 turnovers a game for Curry, 4.5 for Harden).