#USABMNT 2014: Team USA Coaches Discuss Stephen Curry’s Adjustments With Personal Fouls (Photo: FIBA)
PALAU SANT JORDI, BARCELONA, SPAIN — USA Basketball’s Men’s National Team pulled away (and greatly so) in the second half of their semifinal-qualifying game against Slovenia, but after two quarters, #TeamUSA was only up 49-42 and one of the main reasons why was because, after only one quarter, Stephen Curry had already collected three personal fouls. He would have to sit the entire second quarter.
The first foul wasn’t really his fault. He got switched on a screen that ended up with Curry on 6’8″ Slovenian big man Jure Balazic in the post. The play took some time to develop, as Slovenia’s guard Dormen Lorbek waited for Balazic to get down to the block, but USA’s Kenneth Faried didn’t make any extra effort to get back to Balazic and hovered near Lorbek as Balazic pounded Curry.
Curry had no choice but to foul, but it was early and he hadn’t any at the time.
The following two were touch fouls, trying to recover on a swing pass to his man, after showing on the weakside for help.
After the third personal, Curry shook his head in disbelief that the referee would whistle him up for such a non-physical foul. On the bench, he took a seat next to assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, who discussed the foul trouble with Curry.
We asked Thibodeau after the game what he told Curry.
“It’s tough,” Thibodeau said, “It’s a different game because it’s five (personal fouls before fouling out) versus six (in the NBA), so you’ve got to be careful when you pick up the second one. You don’t want the third one to be like a reaching-type foul, but it’s an adjustment.”
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski echoed the sentiment.
“With Steph, part of it is he’s trying to play really good defense,” Kryzweski said, “Sometimes he has his hands on a guy and he did that twice with their really good shooter (Klemen) Prepelic — a really a great shooter — and you’ve got to keep your hands off him, play with your body.”
“Steph’s critical to our team,” Thibodeau added, “but he’s worked very hard defensively, so we don’t want to take that away from him. Just keep working, improve.
“Sometimes calls are going to be different at different times. Sometimes you get the benefit of the doubt, sometimes you don’t, but you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you’re picking up your third in the first half on a reaching foul.”
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