Stephen Curry heard us talking about Kevin Durant being an MVP candidate while he was away.
That’s must be the explanation for what has happened since Curry returned to the lineup just before the new year.
(Prodigious talent? Nah, I prefer the totally baseless “he’s angry” narrative…)
After melting the Grizzlies in his return to the lineup last week, Curry hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with three seconds remaining to lift the Warriors to a hard-fought 125-122 win over a precocious Dallas Mavericks team Wednesday.
Here’s what we learned in the Warriors’ victory:
It’s really good to have Stephen Curry on your team
The Warriors did well without Stephen Curry in the lineup, going 9-2 from Dec. 6 to Dec. 29 when he was out with an ankle injury, but, without a doubt, Golden State is happy to have him back.
Because even in a less-than-perfect performance like Wednesday’s, Curry’s impact on the Warriors cannot be overstated.
And that game-winning 3-pointer was pretty good too…
Since returning Dec. 30 against Memphis, Curry has played 60 minutes in two games, scoring 70 points, going 24-of-36 from the field (66 percent) and 16-of-26 from beyond the arc. He also has nine rebounds, 11 assists, and only three turnovers.
He has been, in a word: spectacular.
What’d you expect?
That much ballyhooed “gravity” — you’ve seen it on full display since his return. Sometimes, you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it, and since Curry has returned to the lineup, it’s been clear that he truly impacts the game in a way few in NBA history have.
So credit to the Mavericks — for first 20 minutes of the second half of Wednesday’s game against Dallas, he wasn’t a huge factor.
After Curry scored 15 in the opening frame and 20 points altogether in the first two quarters, the Mavericks held Curry to three shots in the third quarter and only one shot in the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter.
But Curry, pushing up the court on a “flow possession” in the final seconds of the game, made magic happen.
The Warriors can win without Curry, but — get this — it’s a lot easier to win with him. We saw Wednesday, and you can fit it in a highlight.
Steve Kerr is really good at this
It’s easy to get on Kerr for his bizarre and seemingly haphazard rotations. Fans can complain about his perceived favoritism to a bench player (see: McAdoo, James Michael) or his choice to rest a star player for a game, too. But let Wednesday’s contest serve as a reminder that Kerr is exceptionally good at coaching basketball.
Because while there’s no such thing as a perfect rotation (particularly if you ask the basketball denizens of Twitter), Kerr and his staff are incredible in-game tacticians.
Take the game-winning shot against Dallas: Kerr, recognizing that Dallas did not have a timeout and that they had Dirk Nowitzki on the floor for their final offensive passion, opted to not call a timeout following Barnes’ game-tying basket.
Custom says that Kerr calls that timeout, sets up a game-winning shot in the halfcourt.
But Kerr recognized that the Mavericks had a massive defensive liability on the court and told Curry and Draymond Green to exploit it, without saying a word.
Curry said after the game that he looked over to Kerr after the game-tying basket to see if he was going to call a timeout, and Kerr told him, via nods and gestures, to go. From there, it was all Curry and Green’s intuition and talent, but you couldn’t have drawn up a better play than the one the Warriors’ ran without having to draw up a thing — the Mavericks had no idea what was coming, and Nowitzki was nowhere to be found after he switched on a simple high pick-and-roll.
The Warriors don’t get that shot if Kerr calls a timeout. They probably get a good one, but they don’t get that one.
And while the stakes weren’t exactly high — it’s just a January game against Dallas — that decision, in the heat of a competitive game, is absolutely worth praise.
Right now, you’d rather have David West (37 years old) than Dirk Nowitzki (39)
Dirk Nowitzki is one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, but he was never a blessed athlete, and he’s so far behind the curve these days, it’s downright painful to watch him play.
Dirk will still get his, but watching two of the NBA’s elder statesmen go at it Wednesday, there’s no question in my mind I’d rather have David West on any team I was starting.
Not going to lie — I didn’t see that coming.
I’ve said time and time again that West is the Warriors’ best true center this year, and while Jordan Bell is making a furious run at that title, I stand by that point.
West’s seven points were solid on Wednesday — you can count on him for that kind of production — but his six assists (four in the fourth quarter) made him critical to the Warriors’ effort Wednesday.
Add in West’s solid defense — does anyone remember him being this nimble? — and you have a rock-solid contributor.
Dirk… sorry to say it, but he’s not that anymore.
Patrick McCaw had a big game when the Warriors’ needed it
Playing without Omri Casspi and Andre Iguodala, the Warriors had wing minutes up for grabs Wednesday.
Luckily, Patrick McCaw was pulling down everything in Dallas.
McCaw is on a nice streak of nice games, having clearly taken to heart the Warriors’ coaches message to him to be more aggressive.
McCaw had a solid enough offensive game Wednesday, but it was his rebounding that stood out. And while it helps to be guarded by the diminutive JJ Barea for stretches, McCaw deserves credit for his performance on the glass. After all, he had a better rebound percentage than Jordan Bell on Wednesday and was on the floor, playing the role of Andre Iguodala in the Hamptons Five lineup in crunch time.
It’s clear that McCaw has played his way back into Kerr’s good graces, and he’s doing it while Nick Young — his top competition for backup guard minutes — isn’t playing bad ball (Young could certainly be doing more, but he’s not a downright liability).
We’ll see if this holds — we’ve certainly been fooled into thinking that McCaw has seen the light once already this season — but Golden State truly needed the sophomore out of UNLV to make a positive contribution on Wednesday night and he did just that.
The Warriors can get bored with half-court games
Wednesday’s game was a less-than-perfect performance from Golden State and a big function of that dysfunction was Dallas’ ability to dictate the game’s pace for what seemed to be the full 48 minutes.
Credit to Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle for throwing a bunch of different smoke, particularly in the first half.
Credit to the Mavs players for playing with impressive defensive intensity.
Probably the best defensive stint I’ve seen from Smith this year. Turned up the intensity in the 2H tonight. pic.twitter.com/ZVM7Aew8Wq
— Cole Zwicker (@colezwicker) January 4, 2018
And credit (in the most literal sense of the word) to the Warriors, who, playing the first end of a back-to-back with the far more formidable Houston on the other side, allowed the Mavericks to lull them to sleep with slow, alternating half-court play, only to then be blitzed by Dallas runs.
The Warriors are a significantly better team than Dallas — no one would dispute that — and the Mavericks used their unassumingness to their advantage.
Don’t try to extrapolate that or ascribe larger meaning — this won’t be an issue in the playoffs, for instance — but it was impressive and interesting to see Golden State not dictate the terms of engagement on Wednesday.
Even without James Harden, I’m intrigued to see who is the lead in the two-team tango between Houston and Golden State Thursday.
Dwight Powell will never have a better game
Circle that one, because it was truly incredible – for Dwight Powell at least.
I could give you a whole spiel about 3-point variance and why you shouldn’t read into the Mavericks’ (who, again, are pretty good) performance at all, but instead I can simply tell you that Powell scored 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting Wednesday.
Nice job. Don’t count on that happening again, though. A Stanford grad should know that regression to the mean is coming.
