(Photo: Kelley L Cox / USA Today Sports)
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Chalk up another lesson in Stephen Curry‘s mountain climb towards the NBA’s elite circle. After witnessing Curry kick the door open on NBA superstardom…
…capped off by a buzzer-beater win against the Dallas Mavericks, along with a new nickname of #babyfacekilla emerging on Twitter, Patrick Beverley of the Houston Rockets came in and pestered Curry on both ends of the floor.
Beverley, who finished 7-for-9 from the floor with 16 points to go along with zero turnovers, helped limit Curry to 5-for-12 from the field, 1-for-5 from beyond the arc, and six turnovers.
The most telling play, with the Rockets down by a point at 84-85 after yet another Warriors late comeback, was Beverley swishing a three from the right elbow and staring down Curry momentarily. Simultaneously and not facing the brief stare-down, Curry whipped his head in disbelief as the ball hit all twine, in disbelief that his rather decent close-out attempt did not phase Beverley one bit.
And there you have it. A microcosm of the Warriors’ recent struggles: Having the “X” on your back and understanding that, in the NBA, non-household names can rise up to the challenge.
“Steph Curry, he didn’t have one of those big nights where he’s just hitting threes all over,” said Dwight Howard, “(Beverley) made him take tough shots and that’s great when you’re feisty like that. Basically (Beverley was) being a pest and Steph couldn’t get away from him.”
After a tough loss to the Portland Trailblazers the night before, the championship-built Rockets had the resolve to come into #Roaracle and make up for their poor play.
“Patrick Beverley hit some big shots in the 4th quarter. Those were huge for us,” said Chandler Parsons, “He’s confident. He’s gonna keep shooting that thing no matter what and it’s kinda his go-to shot. He came up big for us tonight. Every shooter is going to go through problems every now and then. He left a few short last game. He bounced back great and we definitely didn’t want to drop two in a row.”
Not only was that three a dagger, but so were Beverley’s tear-drops in the paint, against Curry.
“Pat always talks about his float game. Well, his float game last night stunk. Tonight, his float game was pretty good. He hit big shots,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said.
Sampson also revealed some things about bonafide superstar James Harden, that probably await Curry at the next summit point up Mt. Everest:
“I thought James trusted his teammates a little bit better, too,” Sampson said, “I don’t want James to have the ball at the 4:20 mark and feel that he has to be Superman. You know, that ball has to move. Tonight, we ran stuff to make sure that it would move, got the ball out of his hands. And if it got back to James, that would be great.”
“He would be the guy I would want to have the ball in the last ten seconds,” Sampson added, “but I don’t want him to hold the ball for the last 14 seconds to get to ten seconds. Let’s see what we can get before then. If we have something, good, take it.”
Harden echoed the approach, as far as what evolution of a superstar after he’s achieved that plateau.
“Teams’ defenses are good on the first pass or second pass, but if you make three or four passes, it’s tough to guard anybody in this league,” Harden said.
Granted, having Andre Iguodala back will certainly help give a boost to Curry in those critical situations.
And Curry’s production is not to be ignored. He still made a three to tie the game at 96-96, and missed two other attempts with the score 98-100 and 100-105 in favor of the Rockets. He makes those, he might be in the running for his second NBA Player Of The Month Award of his career (SIDENOTE: Along with Curry, Bernard King and Chris Mullin are the only Warriors to have won that award.)
Despite the bad shooting night, he still scored 20 points on 12 attempts, getting to the line and making 9-of-11 free throws, as well as dishing out 9 assists.
For an off night, that’s the kind of production you would still expect from a (rising) superstar.
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