Computer Guy Takes a Holiday
Works hard every day
When it’s right, there’s still nothing like it. In the third quarter of Golden State’s first Western Conference Finals matchup against the Dallas Mavericks last week, as the Warriors stretched a 9-point lead to 19, Stephen Curry did his recognizable thing. Dribbling into the corner and running into a double-team, he flung a blind pass back over his head — less to Draymond Green than to a notion of where Draymond Green might be — and tracked back toward the wing. Dorian Finney-Smith let up for a quarter-second; that was all Curry needed. In one fluid motion, Curry looped around a screen, got the ball back and flicked up a 3-pointer. The lead widened and the dancing started.
The Warriors got more of the same in their wins in Games 2 and 3, as Curry connected on 11 of 20 triples on the way to 63 points. But such salvos from history’s finest shooter have been rarer, across the 2021-22 season and postseason, than they used to be, even as Golden State has extended a resurgent year into a 3-0 lead in the conference finals. During the regular season, Curry shot 38 percent from three, the first time he’s failed to crack the 40-percent mark.1 In the playoffs, he’s shooting 38.4 percent, the second-worst figure in his postseason career. Nights when his marksmanship buries the opponents are now offset by those in which his misfires help keep them in it. In Golden State’s only loss to Denver in the first round, Curry — coming off the bench as he returned from a foot injury — missed eight of 11 3-point tries. Over back-to-back games against Memphis the following series, he went 5-for-19. That shimmy on Finney-Smith? It came during a 3-for-9 outing, which was once considered an off night.