Warriors notebook: Why some believe Steph Curry plays better after an injury
The Warriors were never too concerned about how Stephen Curry would play
when he returned at the start of the playoffs from a month-long absence
caused by a foot injury.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry (30) sits in the bench during a timeout in the third quarter of
Game 5 of their NBA first round playoff series against the Denver
Nuggets at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April
27, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: Golden State Warriors’ Stephen
Curry (30) sits in the bench during a timeout in the third quarter of
Game 5 of their NBA first round playoff series against the Denver
Nuggets at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, April
27, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 29, 2022 at 3:19 p.m. | UPDATED: April 29, 2022 at 3:35
p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/29/warriors-notebook-why-some-believe-steph-curry-plays-better-after-an-injury/

SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors were never too concerned about how Stephen
Curry would play when he returned at the start of the playoffs from a
month-long absence caused by a foot injury.

Some players might show rust as they work their way back from an injury
that caused them to miss a significant amount of time. But not Curry,
who has a history of coming back from injuries and performing at a high
level.

Curry seamlessly bounced back from his foot injury in the first-round
series against the Denver Nuggets as he, to the surprise of none,
starred as one of the Warriors’ best players.

Curry averaged a team-high 28 points in his first five playoff games,
despite coming off the bench for four of them. He shot 50% from the
field and 40.4% from the perimeter. He also averaged 5.4 assists and 3.4
rebounds per game.

Curry’s clutch shooting down the stretch in Game 5 on Wednesday night at
Chase Center prevented Golden State from having to travel back to Denver
for Game 6. He scored 11 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter to
secure the win.

Playing a full 82-game slate is a grind. Just ask Kevon Looney, one of
only five NBA players to play in every single regular-season game this year.

Looney, who’s had injuries hinder him in the past, believes the time off
helped Curry recharge.

“When you’re injured, I guess the only thing he can do is get off shots
and a guy like that, the more reps he gets, he already doesn’t miss a
lot anyways, so getting some extra reps… he’s a little bit fresher,”
Looney said. “He’s not getting triple-teamed every night for a month so
that type of rest gets your legs back.”

Coming off an injury, Looney said players are usually “super locked in”
and perhaps a little more motivated than before.

“You want to come back and make an impact, and you can’t do that if
you’re not prepared a certain type of way,” he said. “[Curry] does the
best at it. Most guys when they come back, they have a little bit of
rust, and with him, you rarely see that.”

While Kerr echoed Looney about Curry benefitting from not playing the
last 12 games of the regular season, the coach also gave credit to Curry
for the way he keeps his body in shape despite not playing an NBA game
for four weeks.

“The way Steph handles himself during an absence, the way he keeps his
rhythm, and works on his body, seems like every time he’s out for a
little bit, he comes back incredibly strong,” Kerr said. “So in
hindsight, that could’ve been a blessing in disguise as we headed into
the playoffs.”

- First-round anomaly

Don’t get it wrong: Curry played well overall. But his production from
the charity stripe was uncharacteristically poor.

In fact, it was his worst free-throw shooting performance in a
postseason series in his career.

Curry, a career 90.8% shooter from the line, missed a whopping 10 of his
39 free throw attempts, meaning he made only 74.4% of his attempts.
Before the series against the Nuggets, Curry had never missed more than
six free throws in a series (dating back to the 2015 Western Conference
semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies.)

Jordan Poole, who narrowly edged out Curry for the best free throw
percentage in the league and went 22-of-26 from the foul line, said it
was “definitely” weird to witness Curry’s struggles, which no one,
including the superstar guard, are too concerned about. Poole suggested
the rim had been slightly off-center for Game 3 in Denver, though he
said it was fixed ahead of Game 4.

Meanwhile, Looney blamed everything but Curry for the errors.

“Whenever I miss free throws, I kind of blame everything else but me, I
try to say it’s the ball or gotta be the rim, and then when he misses,
it kind of confirms that for me,” said Looney, who went 2-for-4 from the
foul line. “So I think it was something wrong with the ball or the rim
in that series because I’ve never seen him miss that much and I don’t
miss like that either.”

- Poole’s playoff lessons

Poole has been pestering his veteran teammates about the playoffs since
his first NBA training camp. His first postseason series lived up to the
hype.

Poole said he enjoyed the high-energy atmosphere and fast-paced play of
the playoffs. He also liked the challenge of making adjustments in the
series after playing the same team multiple times.

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“It’s really fun to be part of it and experience it and then just find
ways to get around it, it was cool, kind of reminded me of the 2K series
me and my brother play.”

After stealing the show in his first three playoff games, scoring a
combined 86 points on 66.7% shooting, Poole struggled in the final two
games of the series as the Nuggets were more aggressively defending the
third-year guard.

Poole said he has no plans to change his approach for the next series.

“I’ll just continue to do the same thing that I’ve been doing all year,”
he said. “Just continuing to be locked in and focused and still trying
to make as big of an impact as I did the first series and the rest of
the playoffs and just continue to try to help our team win games.”

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter