Steph Curry Torches Rockets After 'Encouragement' from KPJ
Death. Taxes. Steph Curry owning the Houston Rockets.
The 2x MVP, in the middle of the worst slump of his career, finished tonight’s game against a young Rockets team with 40 points, shooting 13-for-23 from the field (including 7-for-14 from three) and hitting 7 of his 8 free throws. Steph looked… well, like Steph tonight, and it was a sight for sore eyes.
It’s hard to tell if we’re seeing Steph get things back together, as he had a similarly-efficient game against the Wolves a few games ago, resulting in a win. Things took a rocky turn against the Brooklyn Nets, however, as he shot abysmally from the floor. He managed 19 points, but of course, 14 of those came in the final frame.
Tonight was a similar story, except the numbers look a lot better. Steph found a rhythm in the 3rd, scoring a few before hanging 21 on the Rockets in the 4th alone. Fans have already, of course, attributed that to this moment right here:
Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. - who the Warriors chose Jordan Poole over in the 2019 draft - decided it was a good idea to trash-talk Steph. Because of course, really the only time people want to trash-talk Steph is when he’s down. The Rockets were playing well: Christian Wood finished with 24 points and 13 boards, but Houston just couldn’t get it done against the Dubs. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
Curry, the cold-as-ice killer that he is, didn’t bother responding to KPJ: He instead let his play do the talking. Despite his struggles with shooting, Steph has turned up in the 4th quarter. Just a season ago, he was the NBA’s best player in the 4th. This year, he’s not quite statistically in that category anymore, but he’s still excellently efficient when he’s allowed to keep things rolling.
Going in further to despite the shooting slump has been everything else Curry does on the floor. He’s upped his playmaking game to a more traditional point guard role with the injury absence of Draymond Green. Tonight, it was 9 assists to only 1 turnover. In his last 10 games, he’s averaged 7 assists to 2.5 turnovers a contest. He’s getting his teammates quality looks and still affecting winning basketball in a positive way despite him not being able to torch teams as often as he’s used to.
Tonight’s game has started to make people wonder if Steve Kerr will consider reverting Curry’s rotation. Steph’s been obviously frustrated, and it seems like Kerr has a habit of taking him out at the wrong time. The original 12-6-12-6 rotation was, while not always great for the 4th quarter in close games, when Steph was playing his best. There have been hints of Curry’s frustration with the rotation, but they’re small and may not be anything to look after.
After his 40-point effort, it’s unclear just yet whether or not Steph will rest against San Antonio tomorrow. The likelihood is that he won’t after he caught the hot hand tonight. It may be preemptive to say The System is back, but he’s certainly beginning to show flashes of being that human torch we’ve known through his whole career.
(Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports)