[ad_1]
The only disappointment about Saturday night’s Warriors-Mavericks showdown was that there were no fans in the arena to witness what has to be one of the great duels in recent NBA history. . Stephen Curry finished with 57 points, but that wasn’t enough as Luka Doncic responded with a career-high 42 to lead the Mavericks to a 134-132 victory over the Warriors.
Yes, your quick calculations are correct.
Curry and Doncic lost a point before combining for 100.
There will be a lot of digging on defense in this game, but it wasn’t as bad as a 266 point total typically suggests. The big Mavericks weren’t always aggressive enough to push Curry out of the pick-and-roll, and the undersized Warriors were in scramble mode all night, leaving Dallas too many eyes wide open on the basic movement of the ball.
But in the end, it was just an electric demonstration of shooting, especially from Curry, who finished 11 of 19 after notching his 16th career game with at least 10 points from 3 points. No other player in history has more than five games of this type, by ESPN Statistics and Information. It also marks the sixth time Curry has scored at least 50 points with at least 10 facts 3; no other player in history has more than two of these games.
“Sublime”, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Curry’s performance. “It was ridiculous the shots he was hitting. The degree of difficulty, the ease with which he took them. He’s never played better. We’re talking about an MVP twice. I’ve never had it. seen like that. He’s always obviously been an amazing shooter, but he feels stronger to me, just walk past people, push them on the discs all the way to the rim, finish. And of course, the shot. almost unfathomable what he’s doing there. “
Think about that statement from Kerr, a man who watched from the sidelines as Curry racked up three championships and two MVPs, who saw him make an NBA record 402 3 points at a 45 percent clip in 2015-16, who just a month ago watched Curry snag 62 points on the Blazers. Kerr has seen Curry do things that apparently defy human abilities more times than he can possibly count, and he says it’s the best he’s ever seen watching. It’s an amazing prospect.
And he might be right. The punches Curry made seem routine – as he, you know, does regularly – against Dallas were insane. Look at this nonsense:
What stands out most, aside from the actual punches, is the aggression with which Curry chases them away. He’s been in this mode for a while now, as opposed to the start of the season when he was playing in slow motion, relatively speaking, trying to get the new Warriors to find their place before hitting the turbo button.
In his last 10 games, Curry, who is 42.5% to three for the season, has reached 50% of triplets (58 for 116). In his last eight games, he has reached 52% (49 for 94). When you think of the way he’s guarded, two and three bodies surrounding him pretty much every turn, boxes and traps, the whole defense moving with his every move like a flower in the sun, with teammates that shoot badly. Stifling his spacing and encouraging an even more desperate defense on Curry, to think he’s still splashing at those rates verges on madness.
Look, I just need to get this off my chest. Five weeks ago I tweeted this:
I am the dumbest man in the world. I won’t even try to explain where I came from when I put this blasphemous garbage out into the world. Damian Lillard is an icy superstar, but Steph Curry, again, at 32, is a bona fide mutant who has never been a citizen of this planet.
As for Doncic, who is there with Lillard and James Harden in the fight for the throne of the world’s best non-Curry point guard, he needed it. The dirty secret that Doncic was never really a good 3-point shooter is being shouted from the rooftops these days as he only hit 29% of his triples coming in on Saturday, when he went 7 out of 12 of the downtown while adding 11 passes and 7 passes. rebounds to go with his 42 points.
You can see in some of these clips Golden State was giving Doncic just a touch of airspace, not necessarily inviting him to shoot 3 points, but certainly not sell himself to stop him. Clever. Again, it was less than 30% on three of them. Play the numbers.
But many of those steps back and coming to the track have been well defended. Doncic is so special, and as the Mavs start to be healthy, he’s a guy who can pull them out of the doldrums and get straight back to the heart of the playoff race in a matter of weeks. Saturday night was a good start. In the home stretch, Doncic faced the greatest shooter of all time, registering 11 points and four assists in the fourth quarter.
Doncic hit what seemed like the grueling 3-pointer to give Dallas a seven-point lead with 43 seconds left, but this alien named Curry was not finished, ending an old-fashioned, splashing 3-point game. another rainbow. back 3 to shoot the Warriors within one with 28 seconds to play – enough time to stop, request a time-out and shoot a winner.
But Doncic didn’t let the Warriors stop, commanding a double team and calmly delivering a pass to the corner, where Maxi Kleber hit the 3 that ultimately sealed him for Dallas. Footnote: I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the blatantly missed call with less than a minute to go that certainly played a part in the outcome.
Yes, this ball is out of bounds, next to Kristaps Porzingis, and no, the officials haven’t seen it. Possession continued, and seconds later, Doncic hit the aforementioned 3 pointer to put Dallas at seven. Obviously a 3-pointer that should never have been attempted is a big deal in a two-pointer game, but we let’s not spoil this epic duel by talking about a missed call. It was Luka’s night. It was Curry’s night. It was fan night, and one can only imagine how crazy they would have been had they been in the building to witness it.
[ad_2]
Source link