Golden State Warriors: 5 Reasons To Resist Panicking
2. Steph Curry May Have Found His Stroke
Through three quarters last night, Stephen Curry was a mess for the second game in a row. Simply put, the MVP hasn’t been playing like the MVP, even if his well-rounded numbers for the series indicate otherwise. Before the fourth quarter of Game 3, Curry had shot just 19-for-54 from the field (35.2 percent) and 6-for-26 from three-point range (23.1 percent).
The good news is that Curry might have finally rediscovered his shot in that desperation fourth quarter last night.
With the Warriors all but out of the game, Curry made six of his nine shots in the final period and five of his eight triples to try and give his team a shot at a last-gasp comeback. He scored 17 of his 27 points in that final frame, making shots we haven’t seen him make all series.
On the one hand, that may be because the Cavaliers switched Iman Shumpert onto him off of screens that allowed Curry to free himself from his inexplicable Matthew Dellavedova kryptonite. But the truth is that Curry was getting quality looks (or at least, quality looks for a guy who regularly makes shots that would be ill-advised for almost anybody else) no matter who was guarding him, as has been the case all series.
When Curry has been left open in the Finals, he’s 2-of-11 (18.2%) on uncontested 3's. He shot 58.8% on uncontested 3's in the 1st 3 rounds.
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) June 10, 2015
Delly deserves credit for pestering Curry, but Curry is really just missing a lot of good looks he normally makes, both inside and outside the three-point line. And even if Delly were 100 percent responsible for Curry’s struggles, all a shooter of Steph’s caliber needs to get going again is to see that ball drop through the net a few times.
They mostly came at the end of the game that was all but decided at that point, but Curry saw the splashes he’d been waiting for all series long. If that carries over into Game 4, the Cavs could have their hands full. After all, Curry has mostly struggled in every game…and every game has been pretty darn close.
Next: No. 1