Daily NBA Fix: Stephen Curry is Still The MVP

The first three games of the NBA season are in the books and unsurprisingly the Golden State Warriors still look like the best team in the league. One game in might be a bit too early for bold declarations but until we see the Warriors struggle there is no reason to think they won’t be back in the NBA Finals. As the 20th century philosopher and wrestler Ric Flair said, “To be the man, you got to beat the man.”

The Warriors were certainly stylin’ and profilin’ on opening night while the Cleveland Cavaliers fell on the road to the Chicago Bulls. The Detroit Pistons rebuilding plan looks to be coming together as well. Let’s take a look at what stood out on the NBA’s opening night.

Stephen Curry is Still the MVP

The Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry aren’t getting the benefit of a doubt when it comes to their chances of repeating as NBA champions, but the reigning MVP did his best on opening night to change some people’s minds.

After a 24-point first quarter, Curry ended the night with a total of 40 points on 14 of 26 shooting. It wasn’t just that he scored 40 or more points for the 10th time in his career, it was the fact that he continued to do it in a way that just makes you laugh at how absurdly good he is.

There were all of the same things we saw last year. Defenders had to respect him as soon as he crossed the half-court line and he made them pay no matter what they did. If he was given any room he dropped 3-pointers (a respectable 5 of 12) and if they came out to guard him he’d find his way into the paint where he was 7 of 11 shooting from within 8 feet of the basket.

The modern NBA is defined by getting those types of shots and Curry and the rest of the Warriors made them their bread and butter on Tuesday night. Curry still found time to dish seven assists to his teammates as they defeated the Pelicans 111-95.

The Bulls defeat the Cavaliers: Let the Overreactions Begin!

The Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers battered each other all the way into the fourth quarter, but it took a solely Kevin Love-powered 8-2 run in the final two minutes to bring Cleveland to within two. While Love had the hot hand after knocking down a pair of three-pointers it is hard to take the ball out the hands of the league’s best player on the final possession. Once LeBron James turned the corner on a Tristan Thompson screen it looked as if LBJ might get an easy lay-up to tie the game.

However, Pau Gasol didn’t like that idea.

The problem for LeBron and the rest of the Cavaliers was Pau, and the Bulls played it almost perfectly.

When Thompson comes out to screen Jimmy Butler at the 3-point line, Gasol doesn’t overly commit to Thompson due to the distance. Thompson is only a 32.3% shooter from the area just inside the arc, so if you’re Gasol or the Bulls you can live with that outcome if he drains a shot from there. Once Butler was forced over the screen, Gasol moved back into place to defend the basket but LeBron couldn’t pass it to Love or Matthew Dellavedova in either corner as they were guarded well. Gasol slid down the lane to contest the shot and ultimately got the block.

Cleveland failed to get the ball to one of their own players on the following inbounds play with 3.7 seconds left and allowed the Bulls to hold on for the win.

While rational thought says you aren’t going to win every game and sometimes you just get beat by another good team doing their job, that didn’t stop the hot takes to come out in full force.

Though more respectable personalities praised it for what it was, great defense by Gasol and the Bulls, we’re already seeing people jump the shark on Day 1. I’ll be looking for the hot takes to only get hotter as the season rolls on.

Besides, it just the opening night game, no big deal, right?

Nevermind.

The worst part of focusing on LeBron and the Cavaliers failures is it takes away from the fact the Bulls put together a three straight quarters of outscoring their opponent after Cleveland took an early lead. It also distracts from the fact Fred Hoiberg had Joakim Noah come off the bench and started Nikola Mirotic and Gasol as his two bigs. According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times Noah says he’s perfectly fine with the role going forward, but we’ll see if that holds true as the season rolls on.

"“Well, he didn’t have to sell me anything,’’ Noah said of the conversation he had with Hoiberg when the decision was reached. “I want to win, and I think this makes our team better. We have a lot of talent, a lot of talent in the front, and sacrifices must be made sometimes. I think this gives us the best chance for our team.’’"

In this game, the switch paid off as Mirotic was 6 of 11 from the field and 3 of 4 from 3-point range for a total of 19 points to go along with his nine rebounds. Noah didn’t take any shots but had nine rebounds and four assists. There are fears that Noah’s body is now past its expiration date after grinding out so many seasons with Tom Thibodeau, but coming off the bench may be the best way for the Bulls to counteract that.

We’ll know soon enough if Hoiberg’s gamble will pay off.

Detroit Pistons down Atlanta Hawks

In the only game that wasn’t nationally televised, we saw Stan Van Gundy and the Detroit Pistons take care of business against the Atlanta Hawks.

Marcus Morris contributed a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made four of the Pistons 12 3-pointers on the night. Detroit controlled the glass with a 59 to 40 rebounds margin. The Hawks couldn’t defend the perimeter either, and the Pistons outscored them 34 to 23 in the third quarter, enough to keep a late charge by the home team from changing the outcome. We saw last year how much better the Pistons offense worked without Josh Smith and that continued to be confirmed.

The bright spot for the Hawks was Dennis Schroder coming off the bench and led the Hawks with 20 points, slightly ahead of Paul Milsap’s 19 and Jeff Teague‘s 18 points.

After last season’s somewhat mixed results starting the season off with a road win is a step in the right direction for a team that still has plenty of questions to answer on both sides of the ball.

We’ve only seen one night of basketball so let’s save the hottest of hot takes and overreactions until next week at least.

On a much more important note than anything about basketball, it was great to see Craig Sager back on the sidelines reporting even if his Halloween-styled suit burned our retinas.

Welcome back, good sir.

Next: 5 Reasons The Detroit Pistons Won't Make The Playoffs

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