Golden State Warriors vs Los Angeles Clippers: Game 2 Story Lines From National Writers – Steph Curry And Oracle (Photo: )
STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — The consensus from Game 2, won in a rout by the Los Angeles Clippers over the Golden State Warriors, by the national writers: Stephen Curry, with a dash of Oracle Arena.
On Curry and the remainder of the series
Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com Hangtime Blogs:
Welcome to Curry’s new world, the post-2013 one where he can’t afford to have bad showings for the Warriors to have a chance to win the series, especially with Andrew Bogut sidelined by a fractured rib and no update of when he could be ready to play. Avoiding bad showings is understating it, actually. Curry needs to be great, a flashback to the Denver-San Antonio days a year ago, as unguardable as any time in his career.
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The third quarter Monday was a glimpse. Now the Warriors need the full version, for Curry to surf the wave of noise at Oracle Arena for Games 3 and 4 and take over. They need that for a lot of quarters.
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“He’s going to have to be aggressive,” Golden State coach Mark Jackson said. “I like that he got a rhythm and he was in attack mode. It’s tough because you’re trying to make the right plays and trust your teammates. They’re trapping him. They’re aggressive with him. But Steph is going to be fine. I really like the way he competed. He did what leaders do. He could very easily have folded his tent and looked forward to Game 3. But he battled and he established a rhythm.”
Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com:
He’s selective about voicing his opinion. Earlier in the week, when asked about lobbying for calls in the way Paul does, Curry said, “I would get very tired talking every possession, every play.”
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Paul’s method of constantly haranguing the refs might not endear him to opposing fans, but it’s probably more effective than keeping quiet. For Curry to get the Warriors through this series, he’ll have to enter the fray in more ways than this, though.
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The Clippers are forcing the league’s best shooter to either give up the ball or drive. In the third quarter, Curry had success splitting their double-teams and taking it to the hole, tallying 20 points in that stanza. The sight of spindly Steph flinging his body into defenders is unusual, but Doc Rivers’ defense leaves few options. After the game, Curry spoke multiple times of how he needed to figure out “how to get downhill,” a diagnosis he rarely offers in the regular season.
Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:
He was so off that Clippers fans chanted “Overrated” as he shot free throws. It was only the second quarter.
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His first made three-point shot didn’t come until the 7-minute 49-second mark of the third quarter. He missed all five before that.
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He then went on a nice run — “About time, Curry,” a Clippers fan derisively yelled — but his team trailed by 32 points after three quarters. He finished with 24 points.
Curry wasn’t great in Game 1, scoring 14 points on six-for-16 shooting, but the Warriors won that one.
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“We played bad. We were awful,” Jackson said after Game 2. “We had some bad performances out there and we were out of character.”
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Jackson knows something about the art of shooting, having played with Reggie Miller in Indiana in the 1990s.
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If you gathered a handful of the best shooters ever in a gym to see who owned the best touch, Curry would win at least something, Jackson theorized before Game 2.
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“If you said, OK, there’s a variety of shots — you’re going to shoot one-legged, you’re going to push the ball in transition and stop and pop at the three, you’re going to take a run off your left foot, then Steph Curry’s going to win,” Jackson said. “He’s the best shooter when you’re talking about variety that I’ve ever seen.”
On the series returning to Oracle Arena
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports:
“We get an opportunity to go back to an arena that will really set a tone for home court,” O’Neal said. “People talk about Seattle [Seahawks] fans and how loud they are. We need to put a meter inside of Oracle to see who has the loudest arena and stadium. I guarantee that our fans will contend to be the loudest fans of all of sports.”
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Clippers guard Chris Paul said forward Matt Barnes, who played for the Warriors in the postseason in 2008, has been warning his teammates about how loud Oracle Arena will be. Meldman, the water-soaked supporter from Game 1, could even help rile up his fellow Warriors fans.
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“We don’t expect any red in the crowd,” Chris Paul said.
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