The Warriors were once again able to count on a great Stephen Curry tonight, but this did not allow us to snatch the victory at the end of the fair. Constantly challenged physically by the Celtics, the Chief could not be as decisive as hoped at the end of the match, exhausted after 37 minutes spent battling against the great athletic qualities of Boston.
He will have done a job tonight. Keep the Warriors alive in the first half? Check. Take full fire and send pralines straight from 2016 in the third quarter to allow Golden State to briefly take the lead? Check. Unfortunately Stephen Curry remains human, even if we sometimes doubt it at the sight of the amazing performances of the boy. The bounty to stop Steph was almost as expensive as Luffy’s after his move to Wano, so you can imagine the Celtics went to great lengths to try to put him in trouble. Physically, each move was obviously contested… even if we think of Marcus Smart who will not need to pass the next casting of Dance with the stars. Ime Udoka’s strategy has moreover well anticipated by our two (h) experts directly from the poufs : provoke Steph, don’t give him anything without a fight first. Even with an army of ice cabinets on his back, Baby Face is sending 31 points (12/22 shooting, 6/11 from distance), four rebounds, two assists and two steals. A match in line with the previous ones and very honorable given the context, but not enough followed by his comrades.
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) June 9, 2022
How to gauge the level of physical toughness imposed by the Celtics on the double MVP? We were also able to analyze it in our dedicated aperitif: the referees will generally let play on the contacts of the C’s, as they did with Draymond Green in California. The idea is not to defend Curry, but we must however ask ourselves whether the contacts were not on certain occasions too rigorous not to deserve a whistle. Targeted, Steph was in attack but also in defense, in particular because of his foul problems. Because who says foul problem says lighter defense, and the stats support this observation: last night, Boston shot at 8/12 when Stéphane Béarnaise was the main defender of the shooter. Despite his good performance, Curry will therefore have suffered on both sides of the floor.
The Celtics are 8-12 FG with Stephen Curry as the primary defender tonight @ESPNStatsInfo
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) June 9, 2022
The guy logically finished the match washed, wrung, dried, folded. The entire Boston cleanup process passed on Steph, who ran out of gas in the tank in the fourth quarter. He will even give us a scare at the level of the foot after a big general scrum for the ball, but fortunately it is more fear than harm according to the latest news.
If we do not question the level of intensity of an NBA Finals game, we still have to know how far we allow contact before it becomes illegal. Especially in almost physically asymmetrical duels between two players. The interested party expressed his thoughts philosophically by press conference after the game, when a reporter asked him why he only had one pitch to shoot during the game.
“I don’t know why I only had one pitch. I think some actions could have gone my way and sent me over the line. It’s hard to realize that the game was influenced by some mistakes on my part. I committed four and then you have to defend differently if you want to stay on the pitch and not let that impact the game. But you know, you always have to find a way to be effective no matter how the game is officiated, and that’s a good lesson to take away for the next game. »
– Steph Curry
Stephen Curry did not have time to breathe last night. He gave a lot in all aspects of the game to carry his own, while having to deal with sometimes well-supported contacts and a formidable defense. All that to say that he left a lot of energy on the floor, does he have enough left to carry Golden State to victory in Game 4 scheduled for Friday?
Source texte : asapsports.com / Twitter @kirkgoldsberry