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One night after LeBron James dialed up 38 points and scored 20 in a single half for the 100th time in his playoff career, Stephen Curry followed up with his own “How is he still doing this?” performance in Game 3 against the Rockets on Saturday.
The only difference: Curry’s masterpiece came in a win.
Playing without Jimmy Butler, who was nursing a pelvic and deep glute contusion, Curry put on his cape to the tune of 36 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, five 3-pointers and even a pair of blocked shots as the Warriors — who trailed by as many as 13 in the first half and managed just 18 first-quarter points — pulled off a 104-93 victory to take a 2-1 lead in what continues to be a street-fight series.
“In this series, no game is gonna be pretty,” Curry said. “You just kind of have to grind it out, stick with the runs. We had 22 points, like, halfway through the first half and you’re looking up like, how are we gonna score? You just stick with it and make the right play and the shots started to fall. We made a really good defensive stand, Draymond was unbelievable, everybody who came in stepped up in place of Jimmy. Hopefully he’s back soon.”
Without Butler, Curry is basically trying to break out of prison on every possession. Every guard in the joint is tracking him. They know he’s trying to escape. And he still manages to do it. Against this kind of defense, and the exhaustion that comes with it, to remain balanced and poised enough when he does steal the slightest sliver of space to execute this level of shotmaking is crazy. No matter how many times he does it, it’s still astonishing.
“We’re not going to hold him to three points every time we play them,” Houston’s Fred VanVleet said, referencing the early April game in which the Rockets actually, literally, held Curry to three points. “We have to understand that. This is one of the all-time greats. I thought our coverages were a little slow tonight, some of the switching, some of the physicality [on Curry] was a touch down from how we had it ramped up the previous game, but this is the playoffs. It’s all about adjustments and chess match and different things.
“So [the Warriors] were prepared. I thought they executed at a higher level than we did, and sometimes that’s all it comes down to. [Curry] got some clean looks, more so than we would like, so we got to try to limit his opportunities and make his life a little bit harder out there, but obviously that’s a tough cover.”
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr initially told reporters to just “copy-paste” what he’s been saying about Curry for the last 11 years, but he eventually elaborated.
“I mean he’s Steph Curry. He’s one of the greatest players of all time,” Kerr said. “He’s 37 [years old]. He’s one of the most well-conditioned athletes I’ve ever seen in my life. To play 41 minutes against that kind of defense, to have a slow start and then find his rhythm, which we’ve seen him do countless times over the years, to hit big shots, to only turn it over twice against that kind of pressure, he was brilliant.”
Kerr referenced the slow start. Curry only had two points in the first quarter, and he missed his first two 3-point attempts. But just as he did in Game 1 when he got himself going by getting to the basket for five two-pointers before he made his first 3, Curry battled through the perimeter pressure to finish a couple of shots at the rim to break the seal, and before you knew it he rattled off 13 second-quarter points and never looked back.
This isn’t to say Curry didn’t have any help in this one. He did. He didn’t have his superstar sidekick, but four other players played the role of hero, albeit of the unsung variety.
- Buddy Hield: Kept the Warriors afloat in some lean first-half stretches and hit two monster second-half 3s, one to give Golden State the thin cushion it needed to stay attached in the few minutes of rest Curry had to steal in the fourth quarter. Hield finished with 17 points and five 3-pointers and his plus-14 point differential was second only to Curry’s plus-18. Monster minutes from Buddy Buckets.
“He seizes these type of moments,” Hield said of Curry. “I’ve watched him my whole life, [from] college to now and the previous playoff runs he’s been on. Watching against this physical team, he embraces that. He thrives off that. You look at him, he’s smaller than everybody but he’s a competitor and he’s just going to be competing and giving it his all every night.”
- Draymond Green: Stuffed the stat sheet with eight rebounds, seven points, four assists, three blocks and two steals. The Warriors were plus-12 in his 34 minutes. He largely held Alperen Sengun to 7-of-18 shooting and battled his backside off to give the Warriors a fighting chance against Houston’s size.
- Gary Payton II: Scored 11 fourth-quarter points, including nine straight over a two-minute stretch to take the Warriors from a one-point deficit to a six-point lead with under four minutes to play.
- Quentin Post: Usually on the floor for his shooting, Post missed all three of his 3-pointers and finished with just two points but more than earned his keep with 12 rebounds, including three offensive when the Warriors were desperate to win possessions. Post was superb in all the ways not typically associated with his impact. Again, the Warriors are at a major size and athletic disadvantage in this series. Along with Green, Post battled valiantly in the paint on both sides of the ball. Considering the stage and how badly the Warriors needed any semblance of interior presence, this was probably the best game of Post’s basketball life.
“This is what the playoffs are about … they’re about injuries and they’re about guys stepping up. We had both today with Jimmy being out,” Kerr said of the contributions Golden State got from Curry’s support staff. “You have to be able to withstand that and win a game here, and we’ve done that for many years. We’ve had some of our most important guys miss multiple games in a series. This is what you have to do. You’ve got to find a way, and our guys did that today.”
They sure did. Like Curry said, it wasn’t pretty at times. But this is just the latest in a long line of gritty wins for a Warriors team that has always, for all of its offensive skill even in the golden years, been rooted in an uncommon brand of collective competitiveness. This team fights. Always has. This was a game that the Warriors probably should have lost, but they didn’t. They found a way to steal one with Butler on the bench. If he’s able to go on Monday, they’ll have a chance to take full control of this series. But for now, a 2-1 lead will do.
