It took Steph Curry a little bit of time to seem like Steph Curry once more.
In spite of everything, it took a little bit of time for him to even enter Saturday’s sport.
The Warriors’ celebrity got here off the bench for Sport 1 of Golden State’s first-round collection with the Denver Nuggets. After a month to the day he sprained his left foot and suffered a bone bruise, Curry sat for the primary six minutes of Saturday’s contest.
And early returns confirmed he was not definitely worth the wait.
After all, you may forgive the Warriors’ celebrity if after coming off the bench, he wanted a couple of quarters and a handful of pictures to regain his excellence after a month and some minutes on the sidelines.
However Curry ultimately discovered his sport in Sport 1 of the Warriors’ first-round collection with the Nuggets Saturday, and that opens up a world of prospects for Golden State transferring ahead within the collection and the playoffs.
One might make the argument that the Warriors didn’t want Curry final evening. In spite of everything, the field rating reveals that he was solely on the courtroom for 21 minutes and his finest play got here after the competition was properly in hand.
However the field rating can solely inform you a lot in a contest like Saturday’s.
No, Curry — even in his rusty state — was an important a part of the Warriors’ profitable effort.
He's Steph Curry, in any case.
His presence on the courtroom was immense, as anticipated, even when it first appeared later than anticipated.
Curry’s trademark gravity — the immense defensive consideration he calls for — stored the Nuggets trustworthy. And with him, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins spacing the ground within the crucial moments of the sport, Denver stood no likelihood of defending Draymond Inexperienced’s passes or the Pour 4’s pictures.
But it surely wasn’t simply the brand new “loss of life” lineup. (I promise somebody will give you a cooler title.)
“He’s nonetheless Stephen Curry and nonetheless made large pictures for us,” Thompson mentioned. “He’s nonetheless plus-17, and simply his gravity and the specter of him being on the market being out there's the perfect.”
There'll solely be extra space, extra time, and extra open appears to be like for Curry’s teammates in Video games 2 and past.
In spite of everything, Curry will play extra, and he supplied each purpose to doubt that he'll go 0-for-his-first-five, along with his first subject objective of the sport coming with 1:14 remaining within the second quarter.
“It was good to get again on the market,” Curry mentioned. “It was good to really feel a playoff vibe once more. Clearly, it’s completely different coming off the bench and making an attempt to benefit from the minutes which can be acceptable proper now and needed to type of management adrenaline for the primary six minutes till I acquired on the market and all the things went nice.”
“Proper now it’s actually about… taking that confidence from Sport 1: how do you double down on that subsequent sport, discover your area of interest, put in area of interest performs, your go-tos, pet performs that you simply need to kind an id round, no matter lineups are going to be probably the most potent?”
The Nuggets will make changes. They're too well-coached to not counter the Warriors’ pace-and-space lineups.
However, merely put, they're unequipped to battle the Warriors’ finest five-man unit and the incisiveness that new lineup confirmed on each ends of their first in-game minutes collectively on the courtroom this season.
Placing Nikola Jokic within the nook in opposition to Andrew Wiggins gained’t change the paradigm. Wiggins is solely one reduce away from destroying Denver’s protection, and you understand Poole, Thompson, and sure, Curry, will take full benefit
There’s an excessive amount of taking pictures when the Warriors have Curry, Thompson, Poole, and Wiggins on the ground collectively. There’s an excessive amount of management when it’s Inexperienced or Andre Iguodala working the purpose or liberating teammates with perimeter screens.
The Warriors have struggled with lineups with two non-shooters on the ground this season. It allowed opposing defenses to key in on the true offensive threats.
No such drawback existed Saturday. There shouldn't be such a difficulty on this collection in opposition to the Nuggets.
A brand new drawback did present up on Saturday, although. It’s a champagne drawback of the best order.
What do the Warriors do with the beginning lineup now?
Curry made no fuss about coming off the bench. A celebrity who's prepared to do this solely comes round as soon as in a technology — Warriors coach Steve Kerr is correct that Curry is the “tiny Tim Duncan.” By no means take that without any consideration.
However Poole appears to care about beginning. Such is the mindset of an uber-confident — bordering on brash — younger participant.
Who goes to the bench if the Dubs begin each? It’s not Inexperienced or Thompson. Would Kerr bench Andrew Wiggins? That appears harsh, particularly after an important sport. And all Kevon Looney has achieved is be a rock for the Warriors and the workforce’s most popular defender of Jokic.
Whichever method the Warriors go — the most certainly choice is Poole to the bench — it’s clear that they've discovered a brand new stage of play this postseason.
And issues are solely certain to enhance because the workforce’s celebrity rounds into kind.