Woj: Curry left wanting one more shot

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SAN ANTONIO – Everyone else on these Golden State Warriors had marched grudgingly into the huddle now, but Stephen Curry's eyes stayed with the shooter. As Manu Ginobili left the floor with 1.2 seconds left in double overtime, he leaped into the arms of Tim Duncan on the San Antonio Spurs' sideline.

All this noise tumbled down onto the AT&T Center floor, all these years washed away, and there Curry stood marveling over the magnificence of Manu's magical moment. All this noise tumbled down out of the rafters, out of those four championship banners, and Curry had begun to consider the consequences for leaving him too much time on the clock, leaving him one more shot to transform this hysteria into a stunned silence.

Stephen Curry had gone for 44 points, had gone within a whisper of Kobe Bryant's playoff record of 45 on the Spurs. Curry had gone wild on the Spurs, but he wouldn't get the final shot, nor the final word on Monday night.

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Really scary how good this guy is, in his first postseason. He's gonna be unstoppable in years to come.

I like this story, Curry is one bad Mamma Jamma.

Curry did a good job, but he wasn't THAT good. It took him 43 possessions to get 44 points. The rest Warriors team took 90 possessions to score their 83 points. That works out to 1.02 points per possession by Curry and .922 points per possession for the whole team. I doubt that's even statistically significant. By comparison, Green and Leonard scored 40 points off 30 possessions.

The fact that Curry played 58 minutes, was the focal point for the defense and also got 11 assists is certainly praise-worthy. But honestly, I'm not extremely worried about him after watching last night's game. If him "going off" just means him taking a lot of shots with just above-average efficiency, the Spurs should take it. When you look at it, it doesn't really make too big of a difference who's taking the shots, so why not Curry?

A much bigger concern to me is losing the rebound battle, as it's nearly impossible for a team to win if they're being out-shot AND out-rebounded.

Imagine if Curry had the explosiveness of a player like Rose or Westbrook :wow dude would be the best PG in the league

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Originally Posted by Chinook

Curry did a good job, but he wasn't THAT good. It took him 43 possessions to get 44 points. The rest Warriors team took 90 possessions to score their 83 points. That works out to 1.02 points per possession by Curry and .922 points per possession for the whole team. I doubt that's even statistically significant. By comparison, Green and Leonard scored 40 points off 30 possessions.

The fact that Curry played 58 minutes, was the focal point for the defense and also got 11 assists is certainly praise-worthy. But honestly, I'm not extremely worried about him after watching last night's game. If him "going off" just means him taking a lot of shots with just above-average efficiency, the Spurs should take it. When you look at it, it doesn't really make too big of a difference who's taking the shots, so why not Curry?

A much bigger concern to me is losing the rebound battle, as it's nearly impossible for a team to win if they're being out-shot AND out-rebounded.

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Average efficiency? Yeah that's only because Jackson wore him out by playing him the entire game and he started bricking when Leonard was switched onto him. He was torching TP and Joseph. He was unconscious in the third. To say you're not worried about him is ridiculous and delusional

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Originally Posted by Chinook

A much bigger concern to me is losing the rebound battle, as it's nearly impossible for a team to win if they're being out-shot AND out-rebounded.

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The Spurs have always been great at defensive rebounding, especially in the playoffs, and with a team like GS who take a lot of jump shots the Spurs should be dominating the boards. I'd put that on Duncan lacking enegry and the absense of Splitter. Even in small ball line-ups the Spurs should have enough to win this battle with a healthy Duncan and Leonard/Manu/Green. I fully expect a change for the upcoming games.

I was much more worried that GS attacked the rim more aggressively than the Spurs, especially in OT the Spurs were taking jump shots while they were getting to the rim and to the line. Again, hopefully this changes with healthy Splitter/Duncan and less of Blair, Bonner and small ball.

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Originally Posted by Leetonidas

Average efficiency? Yeah that's only because Jackson wore him out by playing him the entire game and he started bricking when Leonard was switched onto him. He was torching TP and Joseph. He was unconscious in the third. To say you're not worried about him is ridiculous and delusional

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No, to say I don't think he's going to score a lot of points would be ridiculous and delusional. If Curry has to use a possession for every point he gets, the Spurs should be in good shape. The Warriors team as a whole scored .952 points per possession. Functionally, it didn't make a difference who was taking the shots.

I love how you seem to think him playing fewer minutes is in the cards. I don't see him getting less than 43. While the rest will help him, he'll still wear down due to the Spurs' game-planning. It wasn't just the minutes that got him, and it wasn't just Leonard (despite what too many people on this board think). Curry had to go up against the entire assortment of the Spurs' perimeter defenders, and he got mixed results. That was without a healthy Duncan or Splitter to protect the rim, which made the perimeter defenders unable to force Curry to drive as much as they needed to. I imagine the Spurs' defense of Curry will only get better as time goes on.

Curry can go off in stretches, but he's also relatively cold most of the time. While everyone remembers his poor finish, they seem to forget his almost equally poor start.

Chinook nailed it. The dude took a ton of shots and played a huge amount of minutes. Of course hes going to have a lot of points.

He shot 51%. A very nice percentage, but not ridiculous in it's own right. He was only 6-14 from three. Yes he had six makes. But thats a ton of shots. All told he took 35 shots. Thats a lot of shots that other players did NOT take. But the best stat of all, is he only shot two free throws. So, as long as we were forcing him into tough shots, and obviously not fouling, I think I can live with it.

The one stat that is very nice (from the Warriors' perspective) is his 11 assists. Thats always a very positive indicator. But, it came in 58 minutes of play. Thats a LOT of time to make extra passes...especially when he touches the ball basically EVERY time they have it.

No, I'm not overly worried about Curry's performance tonight. He played well, and went nuts in the third, but we still won at the end.

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Originally Posted by BG_Spurs_Fan

The Spurs have always been great at defensive rebounding, especially in the playoffs, and with a team like GS who take a lot of jump shots the Spurs should be dominating the boards. I'd put that on Duncan lacking enegry and the absense of Splitter. Even in small ball line-ups the Spurs should have enough to win this battle with a healthy Duncan and Leonard/Manu/Green. I fully expect a change for the upcoming games.

I was much more worried that GS attacked the rim more aggressively than the Spurs, especially in OT the Spurs were taking jump shots while they were getting to the rim and to the line. Again, hopefully this changes with healthy Splitter/Duncan and less of Blair, Bonner and small ball.

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Yeah. Honestly, the Spurs should be happy with this result from their perimeter defense every game. But Duncan can't let Bogut beat him, and Splitter or Diaw must make the Warriors pay for missing Lee. That is the Spurs' most severe advantage, and they can't expect to win this series if they can't win the battle inside.

That the Spurs out-hustled the Warriors on offensive rebounds is nice, though.

People are just going to have to deal with the fact, small ball will have to be used, and won with. No avoiding it.

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Originally Posted by EricB

People are just going to have to deal with the fact, small ball will have to be used, and won with. No avoiding it.

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Do you count Diaw at the four as small-ball? If not, I think the Spurs can get away with him and Duncan against four perimeter players for Golden State.

Imagine If Had Better Ankles!!

Why don't we get this kind of respect from effing ESPN?

Curry was exhausted at the end.

It didn't matter who was guarding him, although Leonard did a better job than anyone else. The fact is that he was going to get his shots, regardless of who
was on him in the first three quarters. By the two overtimes, his arms were so tired he couldn't shoot the three at all.

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Originally Posted by Leetonidas

Imagine if Curry had the explosiveness of a player like Rose or Westbrook :wow dude would be the best PG in the league

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One could argue that the reason he honed his jumper to "GOAT shooter" levels was because unlike those two, he wasn't a freak athlete for a combo guard.

See: Nash, Steve (and Curry's more athletic even with a bad ankle).

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Originally Posted by Chinook

Curry did a good job, but he wasn't THAT good. It took him 43 possessions to get 44 points. The rest Warriors team took 90 possessions to score their 83 points. That works out to 1.02 points per possession by Curry and .922 points per possession for the whole team. I doubt that's even statistically significant. By comparison, Green and Leonard scored 40 points off 30 possessions.

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You're vastly underestimating the difference between 1.023 PPP and 0.922 PPP. The league had an average offensive efficiency of 1.0218, with a standard deviation of 0.0316. Curry's 1.023 would rank 14th in the league, 0.045 standard deviations above the mean. The rest of the team's 0.922 would be dead last by a mile (30th place Washington had 0.971), and would be 3.16 standard deviations below the mean. In relative terms, Curry really was spectacular, but mainly because the rest of the team sucked. In absolute terms, Curry was average.

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Originally Posted by Darkwaters

He shot 51%. A very nice percentage, but not ridiculous in it's own right. He was only 6-14 from three. Yes he had six makes. But thats a ton of shots. All told he took 35 shots. Thats a lot of shots that other players did NOT take. But the best stat of all, is he only shot two free throws. So, as long as we were forcing him into tough shots, and obviously not fouling, I think I can live with it.

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6-14 from three is actually really good. That's 18 points on 14 shots; ridiculously efficient. Your point about keeping Curry off the line is a very good one. You can't afford to bail Curry out when he's shooting mostly jumpers.

As said above, when the rest of the team was so putrid (0.922 PPP is awful), Curry taking shots away from other players is good for the Warriors. I'm not saying the Spurs should triple-team him, though.

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Originally Posted by Seventyniner

You're vastly underestimating the difference between 1.023 PPP and 0.922 PPP. The league had an average offensive efficiency of 1.0218, with a standard deviation of 0.0316. Curry's 1.023 would rank 14th in the league, 0.045 standard deviations above the mean. The rest of the team's 0.922 would be dead last by a mile (30th place Washington had 0.971), and would be 3.16 standard deviations below the mean. In relative terms, Curry really was spectacular, but mainly because the rest of the team sucked. In absolute terms, Curry was average.

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I agree that that's a big difference when you have a huge sample size, but in the context of one game, I don't know. I know the Spurs had about the same PPP (roughly .96), but without Green and Leonard they were awful (.86). I don't think the Spurs need to focus on reducing Curry's number as much as they need to get their own number up. That's mainly due to Duncan and Parker struggling, which lead to that disparity in points in the paint.

All in all, this game isn't really indicative of the series. Thompson probably won't foul out again, which will help raise Golden State's PPP. That may let Curry rest a little, which could help keep him from fading down the stretch if the minutes were the main cause of his fatigue. But Duncan getting well and Splitter returning would seem to give the Spurs a much greater advantage. Splitter is crazy efficient when he's on, and Duncan have used his shots much more diligently. Also, Duncan being on forces Bogut away from the rim, which should help Parker raise his PPP. That's why I'm more concerned with what the Spurs are doing than I am worrying about what Curry's doing.

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Originally Posted by Chinook

I agree that that's a big difference when you have a huge sample size, but in the context of one game, I don't know. I know the Spurs had about the same PPP (roughly .96), but without Green and Leonard they were awful (.86). I don't think the Spurs need to focus on reducing Curry's number as much as they need to get their own number up. That's mainly due to Duncan and Parker struggling, which lead to that disparity in points in the paint.

All in all, this game isn't really indicative of the series. Thompson probably won't foul out again, which will help raise Golden State's PPP. That may let Curry rest a little, which could help keep him from fading down the stretch if the minutes were the main cause of his fatigue. But Duncan getting well and Splitter returning would seem to give the Spurs a much greater advantage. Splitter is crazy efficient when he's on, and Duncan have used his shots much more diligently. Also, Duncan being on forces Bogut away from the rim, which should help Parker raise his PPP. That's why I'm more concerned with what the Spurs are doing than I am worrying about what Curry's doing.

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So you're more concerned with the Spurs' offense than with the defense? I was going to go the other way.

I agree that trying to reduce Curry's 1.023 PPP number isn't important. It isn't that good to begin with, and keeping everyone else down is better.

TP just came on his face.

ther's nothing really else to say tbh

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Originally Posted by Seventyniner

So you're more concerned with the Spurs' offense than with the defense? I was going to go the other way.

I agree that trying to reduce Curry's 1.023 PPP number isn't important. It isn't that good to begin with, and keeping everyone else down is better.

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For the Spurs, I do indeed want them to be more efficient on offense. Green going off from three shouldn't be expected every game. For the Warriors, I'm not concerned with their efficiency as much as I am with the number of opportunities they got. I think both of those issues will be addressed when the Spurs' starting front court is healthy. That would get the Spurs easy shots and limit the Warriors' opportunities and probably hurt their efficiency even more.

They hit shots and some were extremely difficult. Defensively I am pretty concerned with all the damn layups we gave up. If they hit shots they hit shots but they were getting to the rim at will.

Like stated already though with TD feeling better and Splitter back that will hopefully stop.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...ginobili-at-57

decent Manu article

Curry is a bad man. The Warriors future is bright. I think they're 2-3 years and one legitimate post player from potentially winning a title.

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Originally Posted by Chinook

Curry did a good job, but he wasn't THAT good. It took him 43 possessions to get 44 points. The rest Warriors team took 90 possessions to score their 83 points. That works out to 1.02 points per possession by Curry and .922 points per possession for the whole team. I doubt that's even statistically significant. By comparison, Green and Leonard scored 40 points off 30 possessions.

The fact that Curry played 58 minutes, was the focal point for the defense and also got 11 assists is certainly praise-worthy. But honestly, I'm not extremely worried about him after watching last night's game. If him "going off" just means him taking a lot of shots with just above-average efficiency, the Spurs should take it. When you look at it, it doesn't really make too big of a difference who's taking the shots, so why not Curry?

A much bigger concern to me is losing the rebound battle, as it's nearly impossible for a team to win if they're being out-shot AND out-rebounded.

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Yep and yep and yep. The Warriors can't win if their shot attempts are limited, period. The Spurs can't win if Barnes or Thompson or Jack goes for 25 on a given night. Let that motherfucker shoot all night and limit him to a half dozen assists and the Spurs are resting up for Memphis by the end of the weekend.

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Originally Posted by Leetonidas

Average efficiency? Yeah that's only because Jackson wore him out by playing him the entire game and he started bricking when Leonard was switched onto him. He was torching TP and Joseph. He was unconscious in the third. To say you're not worried about him is ridiculous and delusional

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He started bricking because he played the entire game. You can't separate one from the other as though they're unrelated. Jump shooters can't shoot as well with no legs. You wear him down over the series and don't let his teammates suddenly become efficient by letting them get uncontested shots.

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Originally Posted by EricB

People are just going to have to deal with the fact, small ball will have to be used, and won with. No avoiding it.

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Yeah, keep that Duncan guy on the bench. He sucks.

it's the same philosophy we used against kobe back when that rivalry was at its peak-let him get his but make him take a lot of shots to get his 30 points; the key was always not to let the other lakers beat us.

Yeah Curry was awesome, and he probably will go down as one of the best shooters ever, but his ankles have always held him back. It will be interesting to see if he can stay healthy in the years to come. Jeff McDonald of the SA Express News actually had a good point last night on Twitter. He said isnt kind of wreckless of Mark Jackson and the Warriors to play Curry basically the entire game just days after receiving pain injections for his ankle? Pretty good point there...

pretty crazy there's people who rank him lower than kyrie irving, the guy is just freaking unstoppable on O, makes his teammates a lot better and actually has a clue about D.

Such retarded basketball discussion goes on here..