For Warriors, making decision on Curry’s status becomes tricky

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Steinmetz

The Warriors are 54-5 and on a pace to win more games than any other team in NBA history. They’ve won 43 games in a row at Oracle Arena, where they’re hoping to become the first team to ever go through a season unbeaten at home.

They have the most exciting team and the most exciting player in the NBA in Stephen Curry. Because of that, Warriors tickets are the hottest in the Bay Area and the hottest in the entire league. Everybody wants to see the Warriors. And everybody wants to see Curry.

Add it all up and you realize it’s not as simple as you think to sit out Curry because of a left ankle injury or to a lesser degree Andre Iguodala because of left hamstring tightness. Curry and Iguodala are listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Thunder. But it feels more complicated than that.

In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to rest Curry and Iguodala for tonight’s game. After all, they’re holding the top seed in the Western Conference and there are going to be bigger games down the line.

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Warriors ‘Big 3’ of Myers, Kerr and Curry unique in today’s NBA

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Steinmetz

The Warriors did it again on Tuesday night, winning in exciting, entertaining and improbable fashion. They beat the Atlanta Hawks 109-105 in overtime, and on this night it was Draymond Green hitting and improbable 3-pointer to seal the deal.

The Warriors are now 54-5 and it’s getting tougher and tougher to find different ways to talk about them, different ways to compliment them, different ways to describe what exactly they’re doing.

There’s almost a sameness to the Warriors right now – they always win, whether it’s a blowout, a nail-biter or anything in between. How many times can you say the Warriors are great? How many times can you try to put this season in historic terms? How many times can you praise Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson or Draymond Green or, hell, even Ian Clark?

Innumerable things must come together for a team to have this kind of season, this kind of year-and-a-half run. It doesn’t just come down to Curry … or the Warriors’ defense … or their 3-point shooting … their competitiveness. Of course, those are all big pieces but there are countless others.

Here’s one I’ve been thinking about: The triangle of general manager Bob Myers, coach Steve Kerr and Curry, the franchise player. There is absolutely no doubt that an integral part of Golden State’s success is those three guys and the fact that none of them brings any ego or selfishness to the table.

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Oscar Robertson was absolutely right and flat-out wrong

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Steinmetz

By now you’ve probably heard that Oscar Robertson, one of the all-time great players, was critical of Stephen Curry’s game and the way basketball is played these days.

Robertson said, in essence, that one of the reasons Curry shoots so well and scores so many points is because defenses in the NBA have no idea how to guard him, that coaches don’t know what they’re doing.

It turned out to be bad timing for Robertson — though Curry certainly had something to do with that — because the Warriors guard went out and scored 46 points in a 121-118 win over the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Saturday. Curry went 12-for-16 from 3-point range.

Here’s the whole thing: “Curry has shot well because of what’s going on in basketball today. In basketball today, it’s almost like if you can dunk or make a 3-point shot, you’re the greatest things since sliced bread. … There have been some great shooters in the past, but here again, when I played … if you shot outside and hit it, the next time I’m going to be up on top of you. I’m going to pressure you with three-quarters, half-court defense. But now they don’t do that. These coaches do not understand the game of basketball as far as I’m concerned.”

When I really think about this quote, I think Robertson was far less critical of Curry than he was about the game itself right now. I thought Robertson got it half right. …

Robertson has a point when he talks about failed coaching in today’s game. I’m not sure there is a great defensive mind out there when it comes to defending the 3-point shot. In general, I think 3-point shooting and 3-point offense is light years ahead of where the game is defensively.

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