The Golden State Warriors continued to steamroll the competition last night, beating the Nuggets 118-105 to tie the record for most wins in a row to start an NBA season. But Steph Curry was held to a season-low 19 points in 27 minutes of action.
While that’s not really because of Mudiay or any Mike Malone defensive scheme that future opponents will carefully study before facing the Dubs, it’s worth noting because of how badly Mudiay got Steph during the game.
And it’s also worth noting, before we proceed, that the up-and-down Nuggets rookie was 6-of-21 from the field, and 1-of-4 from deep, so his season-long issues with offensive efficiency continue to rear themselves on a team where he’s got a lot more carte blanche pull the trigger than his fellow rookies.
Except, this sequence was illustrative of the potential that earned him a spot on our Rookie of the Year watch.
First though, Steph curled around this high screen for a catch-and-shoot 3 that made it 71-62 with a little over nine minutes remaining.
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Mudiay answered with his only 3-pointer of the night, but not before bamboozling Steph with a pretty impressive crossover.
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Some are going to chalk this up to Nikola Jokic’s elbow-heavy screen on Steph, and we’re not a fan of talking ankle-breakers when it was really an inadvertent sneaker that led to a defender losing their balance. But Mudiay’s crossover sold the screen even better, and allowed him a lot of unfettered time to get set before netting the triple.
Steph knows exactly how good it feels to shake a defender so completely, even if Mudiay’s required the screen.
