Steph Curry’s heroics in wins vs. Spurs sends message to Warriors teammates originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
As Stephen Curry’s teammates were celebrating him for being the blessing that he is and surely was this week in San Antonio, his performance over those two games stands as an unspoken message for the Warriors.
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To his teammates: Even at age 37, I can do enough to lift us to great heights. But I’m going to need more help, as it is essential for us to reach our goal of being a serious contender.
Curry realizes none of the Warriors possess his deep box of offensive skills. There is a reason he is the only unanimous MVP award winner in league history. There is a reason he is widely considered one of the 10 best players to step onto an NBA court. It is safely assumed that he is the most influential player of his era.
But Curry also knows everyone wearing a Warriors jersey can be as committed as he is to do whatever it takes to win. Is that too much to ask?
After playing 34 minutes and scoring 46 points to lead Golden State to a 125-120 win over the Spurs on Wednesday, Curry came back on Friday to play 36 minutes, his highest total this season in a regulation game. His response was to blast the Spurs with 49 points – 31 in the second half, the last two being the clinching free throws in a 109-108 victory.
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This is a man who missed three games last week with an illness.
“I think he’s fully healthy now,” Gary Payton II told reporters at Frost Bank Center. “I don’t think he’s sick anymore. It’s just good to see him out there getting his normal runs. his normal jogs, normal bounce, normal rhythm. Once he gets going, we just try to find him, try to get him open, make it easy for us.”
When Curry goes nuclear, it does make the game easier for his teammates. Their priority becomes, as Payton said, getting the ball to Steph and letting him destroy the opposing defense.
But 95 points over two games is 47.5 per, a totally unsustainable number for anybody who ever graced the NBA, aside from Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. As great as Curry is, that absurd level of production is bound to dip. And when it does, he does not want to see his teammates inspecting their fingernails.
And all he wants is for them to lend a more reliable helping hand. Because that’s what it’s going to take.
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For a while on Friday, there wasn’t much aid. Curry accounted for 10 of the 18 points the Warriors scored in the first quarter and 18 of the 47 they totaled in the first half. Jimmy Butler III and Will Richard rode shotgun, each putting in 10 points. The other seven Warriors contributed seven points.
So, coach Steve Kerr turned to Curry and extended his minutes beyond what he would have liked.
“We just couldn’t really get our offense going and it felt like we were going to have to ride him a few extra minutes,” Kerr said. “We didn’t plan on playing him the whole third. I tried to take him out with about two minutes left, but there was no stoppage in play, and he played the last eight.”
Kerr had spent part of the morning addressing the team. He talked about the components of success, using the various elements of a music band as an example.
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“He was in his bag in terms of the speech he gave in our pregame meeting this morning,” Curry said. “And you could tell like he still has that fastball if he needs it.”
Kerr explained how bands thrive best when every member of the touring party knows their role, accepts it and commits to it, from lead singer to guitarists to drummer to stagehands. If any member of the group isn’t focused and on point, the whole show suffers.
“But it speaks to how it all matters,” Curry said. “There’s value in all of that when a band is going on a tour. I think Phil Jackson instilled that in (Kerr), and he used that as a reference for how we need to play and how we need to approach our identity.
“It’s going to take a long time to get through this year in terms of doing that but it’s great to have a reference.”
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For the Warriors to become the team they think they are, Buddy Hield, averaging 5.4 points over his last 12 games, shooting 30 percent from deep this season, will have to rejoin the band. Brandin Podziemski must be quicker at moving the ball and more careful with his decisions. Jonathan Kuminga, once healthy, will need to become the player he was in the first two weeks of the season. Al Horford must knock down triples at 37-to-40 percent.
Once they were humbled by a blowout in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, the Warriors did some soul-searching. They then landed in San Antonio late Tuesday night and spent Wednesday and Friday following Curry. He gave them what they needed.
If his teammates were watching him closely, they saw someone setting an example of a total commitment to victory. Which seems worthy of following.
