The stat line maybe didn’t show it, but the final score sure did. What the hell is wrong with Steph Curry?
Curry played maybe the worst big game of his MVP season Wednesday night in Game 3, and it wasn’t relegated to just awful shooting — because he did end up going 6-of-13 after starting cold. No, Steph’s all-around game was one error after another.
And we’re not the only ones who think so. ESPN’s Zach Lowe said pretty much the same after the game, and it’s worth wondering if it was the collective defense of Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving, or if Steph just didn’t rise to the challenge. There are no #excuses, injury or otherwise, but it’s worth looking at Steph’s mistakes on both side of the ball to figure out if this is a one-game hiccup, or something deeper.
At one point in the second quarter, Steve Kerr actually subbed Steph out for his erratic play, and the Warriors coach could be seen, at least by the amateur detectives on Twitter, asking Steph, “Are you OK?” We’ll attempt to answer that loaded question, despite Steph’s insistence to the contrary after the game. He did say, “I need to play better,” but some of his errors in Game 3 go beyond the the normal on-court infractions that affect every fallible basketball player.
Game 3 at least felt like something more.
First, we’ll cover the turnovers, something the MVP has always struggled with. He had six of them at the Q, but it wasn’t so much the number of them as how they happened. A lot of them stemmed from laziness and a lack of preparedness for a Cavs defense that was a lot more active than what the Warriors experienced in Oakland for the first two games.
Here J.R. Smith just gets a hand in on a lazy crossover. It led to an easy bucket on the other end.
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Later, Steph dribbles into a triple team and can’t find a way out.
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This one reminded us of the Western Conference finals against Oklahoma City with LeBron’s long, active arms looking an awful lot like Kevin Durant’s on the defensive end.
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But here is where it gets downright embarrassing. This isn’t what prompted Steve Kerr to ask Steph if he was all right, but it did leave those watching in Oakland befuddled. Tristan Thompson, the big Canadian who swallows up offensive rebounds like they’re gulps of water in an unusually arid dessert, switched onto Steph and forced him to fumble the ball out of bounds.
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Yes, J.R. cheated a little bit off Klay in the far corner, but Steph was already tied up, and on a big, which just isn’t the norm, no matter how much Curry wanted to shrug it off after the game.
But the turnovers weren’t the only thing plaguing the MVP in Game 3, and it wasn’t the only time Tristan Thompson mucked him up, either. Look at this isolation against the Cavs’ bouncy center. Maybe Steph scoots by Kevin Love in this instance, but Thompson is nearly 7 feet tall, and Steph settled for a contested step-back that Tristan almost blocked.
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Contested jumpers were a theme on the night, too.
Even when coming off one of those grabby Andrew Bogut pin-downs, Cleveland’s rotations were fast and hard, but without fouling. Kyrie got tied up, so Thompson stepped up and Richard Jefferson over to squeeze a bad attempt out of Curry.
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We could spend all day nit-picking Steph’s decision-making on the offensive end, but he might’ve been even worse on the other side of the ball. Kyrie ended up with 30 points on the night, and he carried the Cavs to a 33-16 opening-quarter blowout that Curry and Klay Thompson admitted after the game was the beginning of the end for them, despite cutting that deficit to eight in the third quarter.
Irving’s first bucket came after Steph went under Tristan Thompson’s back-screen as he handed it off to Kyrie.
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The same thing happened again, but thankfully for the Warriors Bogut was out to contest on this one.
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Irving was not to be denied, though. He also busted out a playground crossover that had Steph on skates before Uncle Drew drilled the jumper.
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And look at J.R. Smith overpower Steph here while setting the ball screen for LeBron. He takes out Andre Iguodala and Steph on the play and LeBron got an easy layup.
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We’re going to end this look back at Steph’s worst big game of the year with his most glaring defensive blunder of the night. He completely falls asleep and leaves sharpshooter J.R. Smith alone in the near corner on the strong side of the action.
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Lowe evoked the name James Harden on that one, and it’s not an embellishment. Steph was bad. Golden State’s two-time MVP hasn’t ever won a Finals MVP and he doesn’t appear headed toward one now. But his team is still up 2-1 in the Finals, and if they can win on Friday to avoid a 2005 redux, none of this will matter. But Golden State will need the MVP edition of Steph Curry if they’re to have any chance against a reinvigorated Cavs squad firing on all cylinders at home.
“There’s a sense of urgency knowing how big Game 4 is and I need to be ready,” Curry said after the game.
He’s not wrong.
