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OAKLAND, California – Everyone was wondering what would come out of Steph Curry from his slump. Maybe his finger would heal. Maybe he would have a supportive conversation with a loved one. Maybe the Rockets defense would relieve itself just enough to let it take off.
It turns out that everything Curry needed was a time machine.
The palpable buzz that entered Oracle Arena was completely evaporated. As Kevin Durant headed to the locker room after being injured by a right calf injury late in the third quarter, the fans were plunged into confusion, anxiety and despair. The Warriors were left without perhaps the best player in the league – certainly the best player of this post-match – and the guy they had counted on countless times when the offense was stagnant, as was the case in the third quarter when the Rockets went up their comeback.
After a very hot first period, Klay Thompson had become cold. Curry was suffering from another mediocre quality game, becoming too familiar in the Warriors' return match against the Rockets. Apart from injury issues, the team had to focus on where and how they would get buckets.
The cousins of DeMarcus, who are familiar with the devastating injuries, kept the team focused on the match. Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston – senior statesmen who went through all of these events during the Warrior dynasty – switched to player / coach mode. But on the field was another story. The Rockets had reduced the Warriors' 20-point lead to three and gained momentum as Durant headed for the locker room. Less than a minute later, the Warriors, shocked by the shells, had abandoned the advance.
That's when Steve Kerr noticed a change in Curry. Just before Durant left, Curry had missed a lay-up and a wide-open 3-pointer, which Curry called "the lowest point of the game for me". After the Rockets took the lead, Curry responded with a floater and lay-up to put the Warriors back on top and set the stage for a phenomenal fourth quarter.
"I think you saw Steph go into a different mode when Kevin came out," Kerr said after winning the Warriors 104 in Game 5. "He knew he had to be the offensive pivot, he knew things were going to go through him, he took charge of the fourth quarter, it was not a good night for him until he He was brilliant in the fourth when we needed this. "
If the resurgence of Curry seemed familiar, it's because you've already seen it. That goes back to the PKD years – before Kevin Durant – when, if you remember correctly, Curry was a back-to-back MVP as the undisputed pivot of the Golden State offense. The fourth quarter of Wednesday's win in the fifth match saw Curry take the reins and channel himself. It was apparently what he needed to get out of his funk.
"Steph has just adopted a different state of mind," Kerr said. "In a way, it reminded me five or five years before Kevin, we were very dependent on what Steph had generated a lot of mistakes at the time, he's not as heavy a burden on his shoulders now. He is perfectly capable of taking this burden when necessary, and tonight it was needed in the fourth quarter. "
Curry scored 12 of 25 points in the fourth quarter, scoring twice for a three-point gap and knocking out four free throws. It was a brutal reminder to the player that Curry could be, the one we only saw fragments of in this series in Houston. It also shows how much he has sacrificed since Durant joined the team.
"We have some calls to play that we just call for KD, to put him in the right places to take advantage of different mismatches and put him in his good positions," Curry said after the match. "These appeals to the game may disappear, but the main identity of our attack is that of moving the ball, moving bodies, trying to create a beautiful appearance with a lack of regular movement, etc." .
Durant will have an MRI on Thursday, but you have the impression that he will miss Friday's sixth game in Houston and possibly a possible seventh match at Oracle on Sunday. Obviously, the Warriors would never want that to happen that way, but if Durant's injury woke up old Steph Curry in hibernation, we could all be seduced. It's just a question of whether it will be enough to beat Houston.
"We trust the man, I think everyone trusts him with the ball in their hands," said Thompson about Curry after the game. "His track record has proven he will end up in the clutch … he's just the kind of competitor he is in. He will do anything to win."
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