Golden State Warriors (12-9) at Charlotte Bobcats (9-11)
Tipoff: Tuesday, 12/9/2013, 4:00PM PDT
Location: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, NC
TV: CSN Bay Area | Radio: KNBR 680 AM
Livetweet: @LetsGoWarriors (by @goldenstatenz)
Stephen Curry returns to his hometown of Charlotte tonight to face the future Charlotte Hornets, who will be changing their team name back to the original next season.
This figures to be another “trap game” in which the Warriors can ill-afford to come out flat. The Hornets are suffering from a myriad of injuries. As reported by Charlotte Observer’s beatwriter, Rick Bonnell, their up-and-coming small forward, Jeff Taylor, whom we reported had a fabulous Summer League outing, is out. Taylor hails from Vanderbilt and played all four years alongside Warriors center Festus Ezeli.
Meanwhile, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is out with a broken hand, suffered last week.
Ex-Warrior small forward Anthony Tolliver will get the start:
#Warriors fan favorite @ATolliver44 will start for the #Bobcats tonight in place of injured Jeff Taylor, who played at Vandy w/ @fezzyfel.
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 9, 2013
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But stealing the show is Curry’s return and, fittingly, both the Warriors’ and Hornets’ beatwriters reported on Steph’s development. Here’s Rusty Simmons
Warriors head coach Mark Jackson started his customary slow gait toward a post-practice media huddle last week, but he quickly changed pace and path when he sensed that his best player might be distressed.
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Before Jackson’s beeline could reach Stephen Curry, assistant coach Lindsey Hunter explained to Jackson that Curry simply slammed a ball off the floor that echoed his frustration, because he had made 20 of 22 three-point attempts.
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That’s right. He missed two.
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“I would be moonwalking if I hit those numbers,” Jackson said. “It just shows that (Curry) has a different mentality.
Here’s Bonnell:
“He gives me a lot of responsibility. I feel I can still get better, that I haven’t reached my ceiling at all,” said the former Davidson star, who is averaging 22.5 points and 8.9 assists this season.
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Jackson said Curry seems more at ease this season with being in charge on a team that is a mix of veterans (Andrew Bogut, David Lee) and younger guys (Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes).
And here’s a nice look at Curry’s performance in Charlotte from Nate Parham of GSOM:
Also, Steph Curry has generally played well against the Bobcats.
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In his six games against Charlottte in his career, Curry has been outstanding: he has averaged 25.3 points per game on 50% shooting, including 61.9% from the 3-point line. That’s better than he has done against almost any other team in the league (he has been quite good in seven games against Toronto as well). In the three games he’s been available to play in Charlotte, he has averaged 25 points getting his hometown career high in that gem of a performance last season in which he had 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.
I thought it was interesting Curry’s first trip back to Charlotte as a rookie. The entire two-part diary entry that Steph did for GQ Magazine is a pretty good inside look at what the homecoming is like in Charlotte.
And here was Davidson University’s take from just two years ago. We don’t know if Steph got a chance to revisit the campus yesterday, on the Warriors’ Sunday off-day, but regardless, it gives you an inside look:
“Practicing with Steph was a really cool experience,” (former teammate) Will Reigel said. “Anytime you are able to work with someone who is one of the best in the world at their respective profession it is really special.”
“My freshman year I was on the scout team,” he said, “and was sometimes given the task of defending Steph in practice. Needless to say, it was not a whole lot of fun.”
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“People saw some amazing things that Steph did in games,” Reigel said, “but oftentimes the things he did in practice were even more impressive.”
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The contagious excitement of Curry’s return to campus is omnipresent. The excitement of having our own celebrity on campus reverberates through the student body. “It’s awesome to walk through chambers and see someone you’ve seen in videogames,” Sam Trawick, ’14 pointed out.
And finally, we leave you with this:
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