Maybe Stephen Curry heard the whispers. Maybe he scanned the internet and saw comments related to his performance.
Check that. No “maybe” about it. Curry heard and saw it all because his nature, dating to his teenage years, is to scan and glance. Especially in the face of criticism.
After playing 24 minutes without a field goal and scoring a mere two points Thursday in a 51-point blowout loss to the Grizzlies in Memphis, Curry bounced back with a boom Saturday night against the Timberwolves in Minnesota.
With the Warriors having lost a 21-point first-half lead and fading in the fourth quarter, Curry carried them to the finish line. The reigning NBA Clutch Player of the Year scored 13 of his game-high 31 points over the final 3:38 to lock up a 113-103 win.
“It’s great to see,” Trayce Jackson-Davis told reporters at Target Center. “Lot of people have been doubting that man, but he’s been doing this for a long time. Any given night, he can explode like that. We just need him every game. We can’t just rely on him – everyone’s got to do their part – but when he gets good looks like this, it helps our team so much.”
Curry’s burial of the revivifying Timberwolves was a resounding response to his abysmal performance in Memphis, which prompted a few card-carrying citizens of Dub Nation to go to their keyboards and take to social media wondering if the inevitable was starting to surface for the 16-year NBA veteran.
Is Steph Curry, 36, entering the phase when his superstar status begins to dim?
Not if you saw Curry’s brilliance down the stretch.
When the Timberwolves pulled within two (96-94) with 3:55 left, Curry drained a triple to push the lead to five. He followed that 22 seconds later with a pair of free throws, hiking the lead to seven, 101-94, with 3:16 remaining. His triple with 2:41 remaining put the Warriors up 104-94 with 2:41 remaining.
When a Donte DiVincenzo drive cut the margin to eight, Curry banged another triple to give the Warriors an 11-point lead (107-96) with 2:09.
“It felt good,” Curry said. “We needed a win. We needed a feel-good type of experience after the Memphis game.”
Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II made key plays down the stretch, but most everything the Warriors did well down the stretch was either courtesy of Curry or a benefit of his presence.
Coach Steve Kerr has seen it before and made it emphatically clear that he wants everyone on the team, particularly the young players, to understand the power of Curry – and that he still has what it takes to be the hub of a potent offense.
“I love the possession where Steph got off the ball and we went swing-swing,” Kerr said. “He threw it to either Trayce (Jackson-Davis) or Gary in the pocket, swing it to Wiggs, Wiggs swings it to Dennis (Schröder), and it comes back to Steph. That's the game right there.
“And that's what we're trying to impart on our young players. We have Steph Curry on our team. So, pass the ball. Move the ball. And if Steph gets off it early because he's gained an advantage, now the defense is scrambling.”
Kerr was referring to Curry’s 3-pointer that gave Golden State the 107-96 lead with a little more than two minutes remaining. Curry withheld the “night-night” celebration, but that shot punctuated his flurry that put the Timberwolves to sleep.
STEPH WITH 11 CONSECUTIVE DUBS POINTS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/71BTPdUXyV
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 22, 2024
“This is how we played for 10 years,” Kerr said of a system built around Curry. “And it's important for our young players to understand we don't need contested 17 footers with 12 (seconds) on the shot clock. That's a bad shot. And I talked to our guys about that during several timeouts. It's something we have to recognize and get better with it.
“When you have Steph Curry on the team, you pass the ball. Because (when) you pass it two or three times, the defense is scrambling. All hell breaks loose.
“It’s a choice. We can either do that and win games, or we can shoot a whole bunch of 15-foot contested shots in the middle of the shot clock can be a lousy NBA team. It’s up to us. And we are hammering that point home with our team.”
Draymond Green doesn’t need the hammer; he knows. Kevon Looney, Wiggins, Payton, Schröder surely all know.
Maybe Kerr’s message will resonate from one end of the roster to the other, as it should. When something works, as an offense featuring Curry tends to do, give it a chance to punish the opponent.
