The third game of a long early-season road trip doesn’t exactly stakes of the NBA Finals. Early November definitely isn’t June. It bears stressing that the defending-champion Boston Celtics were missing two All-Stars on Wednesday—not just Jaylen Brown, but also Kristaps Porzingis. Stephen Curry didn’t even quite “go off” by his historically lofty standards.
Anyone watching the Golden State Warriors’ hard-fought 118-112 victory over the Celtics, though, surely couldn’t help but recall what Curry did at TD Garden two-and-a-half years ago in what’s broadly considered the most significant performance of his career.
Curry scored 27 points, grabbed seven rebounds, doled out nine assists and swiped four steals on Wednesday, shooting 8-of-17 overall and 4-of-9 from deep. While those gaudy numbers are especially impressive given they came across 34 minutes in just his second game back from injury, they’re a far cry from the line Curry put up in that legendary Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Finals, keeping Golden State from falling into a 3-1 hole with the Larry O’Brien Trophy in wait.
Yet the way he dominated at times on Wednesday, it was obvious Curry still poses unique problems for the Celtics.
“He was brilliant,” Steve Kerr said of Curry on the postgame podium, per Sam Gordon of the San Francisco Chronicle. “In that fourth quarter, he hit one big shot after another.”
Steph Curry can still exploit Celtics’ defense
The most indelible memories from Golden State’s last title run aren’t of the greatest shooter ever splashing three after three after three. Curry shot a ridiculous 43.7% from deep on nearly 12 attempts per game in the 2022 Finals, a long-range onslaught the underdog Dubs couldn’t have beaten the Celtics without.
But what made the ultimate difference against Boston back then was that former coach Ime Udoka and company simply had no answer for Curry. He popped pull-up threes against drop coverage; turned the corner or found the roll man while seeing two defenders in pick-and-roll; simply went to work in isolation against some of basketball’s best defenders; and, most notably, routinely roasted switches off the bounce for difficult finishes in the paint.
Joe Mazzulla’s team isn’t as airtight defensively as that bygone Celtics squad, especially when lacking Brown’s dogged individual defense and Porzingis’ impact as a rim-protector. But throwing almost the entire playbook at one player should yield positive results for a defense as gifted as Boston’s. Curry simply made sure none of those varied strategies worked, just like he did while leading the Warriors to a fourth title and winning his first Finals MVP.
Though his biggest bucket of the night came in crunch-time, Curry was clearly too much for Celtics center Neemias Queta on switches from the opening tip.
Remember the pivotal two-way role Andrew Wiggins played against Boston en route to a title? He was the only player on the roster Wednesday who made life hard on Jayson Tatum as a scorer, and also found his own groove offensively after a rough start.
The Celtics, understandably, didn’t want to soft switch Queta onto Curry every time Golden State’s superstar was involved in ball screens. Just the threat he poses to defenses is enough for Curry to create advantages in the halfcourt—even when defenders the caliber of Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are at the point of attack.
Curry’s burst isn’t what it was in 2022, but he still doesn’t necessarily need a screen to yield space off the bounce. He gets loose even more often while moving without the ball.
It’s not normal for White and Holiday to get exposed like this.
Holding onto a multi-possession lead for most of the game, the Dubs trailed by four when Curry re-entered with 8:13 remaining. His finger roll past Queta as the fourth quarter clock read 2:30 put them up 104-99, the culmination of an 18-9 run during which Curry scored 10 points of his own and found a streaking Buddy Hield down the floor for two more.
Even that late-game Curry flurry wasn’t enough to put the Celtics away for good. Golden State leading 108-104 as the clock ticked towards :50, Curry called up Draymond Green to goad a switch from Al Horford—the same approach the Warriors rode to an unlikely championship.
Unfortunately for Boston, the game-changing result of of that possession was a familiar one, too.
The Warriors and Celtics entered Wednesday’s action sporting the second and third-best net ratings in basketball. Boston is obviously a top-tier title contender, and maybe an outright favorite depending on how you feel about the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Golden State still has much to prove before earning that former distinction, but beating the reigning champs on the road to get to 7-1—coupled with Curry’s play, especially—is bound to prompt those optimistic calls from analysts and fans alike regardless.
“It was a great test, knowing we haven’t done a damn thing,” Curry said of Wednesday’s game, per the Chronicle. “But it felt good.”
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