Under control: Steph Curry’s clean game leads Warriors out of 2-0 hole
Curry scored 36 points in Warriors-Kings Game 3 while turning the ball
over just once
>Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) reacts after getting the
three-point basket and the foul while playing the Sacramento Kings
during the second quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference
first-round playoffs at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on
Thursday, April 20, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
By JASON MASTRODONATO | jmastrodonato@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area
News Group
PUBLISHED: April 21, 2023 at 5:35 a.m. | UPDATED: April 21, 2023 at 7:21
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/21/under-control-steph-currys-clean-game-leads-warriors-out-of-2-0-hole/

SAN FRANCISCO — It was perhaps the one part of the narrative that had
gotten lost.

For all the (very reasonable) concern over how quickly the
once-unbeatable Warriors had fallen behind 2-0 to a young Kings team led
by players who had never taken part in playoff basketball, it was a bit
too easy to overlook the obvious: Steph Curry is still here.

Even at 35 years old, even amidst a season that saw him play just 56
games while missing extended time due to a leg injury, Curry suited up
for his 149th career playoff game and did what he’s done so often before.

Shooting 6-for-12 from 3-point range while turning the ball over just
once, Curry put together a commanding 36-point performance to lead the
Warriors to a 114-97 win over the Kings in Game 3.

He piloted the turnaround of an offense that was efficient, deliberate
and much-improved from the first two games, when turnovers and poor
rebounding put the defending champions in unfamiliar territory down 2-0.

“No, there was nothing different schematically,” coach Steve Kerr said
afterwards.

It was just Steph being Steph.

It was a performance that wasn’t flashy, but elegant in its simplicity.

“He’s been doing this for so long, he figures out the game pretty
quickly and sees what’s out there and then reacts accordingly,” Kerr said.

There were few forced possessions or errant passes. The Warriors turned
the ball over a total of 12 times. To celebrate, Kerr said he’d be going
home to drink a margarita.

“But I was going to do that even if we had 25 turnovers,” he said.

With Curry leading the way, Donte DiVincenzo (eight assists), Andrew
Wiggins (20 points, seven rebounds) and Kevon Looney (20 rebounds, nine
assists) also had big games.

But Curry “did everything for us, getting us in our spots, knowing when
to push the pace and knowing when to slow us down,” Looney said. “They
threw a lot of different defenses at him and he was able to manipulate
all of them and get us in our spots and get us good shots.”

Kerr said the message was to play a game that was controlled, not rushed.

“And that was the key, and Steph is our point guard, so it starts with
him,” he said. “Our guys followed suit and we for the most part just
stacked good possessions on top of one another. And understood the value
of, even if we’re not scoring, get control of the ball, don’t give them
transition opportunities and make them score in the half-court.”

And when Curry sensed a moment to get the crowd into it, he took it.

With the Warriors up 43-35 and starting to find momentum in the second
quarter, Curry missed a 3-pointer while luring contact from Kevin
Huerter and drawing the foul. Curry strutted to the front row, flexed
his arms and roared.

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The sellout crowd did the same. The listed attendance was 18,064, but a
Warriors official said the team stuffed an extra few hundred people into
the Chase Center in standing-room-only sections, setting a new franchise
record for the most people to attend a playoff game in that stadium.

“They built this arena so that it was pretty intimate,” Kerr said. “And
our crowd, you can feel the crowd, they are right on top of you, and
it’s become a great home floor for us.”

And there was the play at the end of the first half that ought to be
recorded, timestamped and played on repeat at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

With four seconds remaining in the second quarter, Curry shot a
3-pointer that just missed. Looney grabbed the rebound with one foot in
the paint, but never even thought about putting a shot up. Instead, he
kicked it right back out to Curry, who didn’t miss his second chance and
sunk the trey with 1.4 seconds remaining to give the Warriors a 12-point
lead at the half.

There it was, an elite rebounder playing his role, then tossing the rock
to the best 3-point shooter in NBA history.

Looney said he learned early in his career that he could shoot the ball
after collecting a rebound if he had two feet in the paint. But if he
had only one?

“We have Steph Curry and Klay Thompson on our team,” he said. “Pass it
to them.”

For a Warriors team that was beaten badly on the glass in the first game
of the series, they needed this.

They needed their rebounders to rebound, their role players to play
their roles and their superstars to shine.

“I mean, pretty bluntly, if we lose this game, it’s pretty much over,”
Curry said. “You’ve got to understand the moment and we gave ourselves life.

“Biggest thing is we’ve been in the situation where momentum doesn’t
necessarily carry over from game to game unless you execute at the same
level, so it’s just one game. But it was a big game for sure.”

--
Jason Mastrodonato | Enterprise and General Assignment Sports Reporter
Jason Mastrodonato is a Bay Area News Group enterprise/general
assignment sports reporter covering the Giants, Warriors, 49ers and more
for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. A Northeastern University
graduate with a BA degree in business administration, Jason began his
career as a co-op covering high school sports at the Boston Globe in
2009. He spent 12 years on the Red Sox beat for MLB.com, MassLive.com
and the Boston Herald before he joined the Bay Area News Group in 2023.
He's a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and votes
for the National Baseball Hall of Fame starting in 2023.