Why Warriors' aren't worried about Rockets' physical Steph tactics originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – All the talk after the Warriors’ most recent game against the Houston Rockets is the same noise following them going into the first round of the NBA playoffs.
The Rockets’ bully-ball defense held Steph Curry to three points on 10 shots in a 106-96 Golden State loss two weeks to the date of Game 1 in Houston. Curry made just one shot on the night at his home court, hitting a deep three on the run in the final seconds of the first half. He took eight shots behind the 3-point line, and that was the only one the shooting cyborg connected on.
Houston followed the lead of its head coach Ime Udoka, someone who wants to assert himself as an alpha anywhere he goes. The Rockets threw their physicality in the face of Curry. They held, grabbed, pushed and used every tactic to slow him down.
It was a dare to the referees to blow their whistles with Curry running through their terrain. And it worked.
Curry and Udoka exchanged words walking to their respective tunnels at halftime. Udoka even called Curry out for crying to refs about foul calls after the game. Jimmy Butler intentionally stood up for his teammate in the Warriors’ locker room, saying he has never seen someone get fouled more, and that “it really angers me that he’s on my team and he gets hacked like that.”
“There’s a reason teams have to be physical against Steph,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Friday after practice before the team’s flight to Houston. “I mean, he’s the greatest shooter and mover of all time in this game. We would try to guard him the exact same way.”
Every team is going to put their best athletes on Curry. The game plan is to wear him down physically. For the Rockets, that means heavy doses of Amen Thompson (6-foot-7, 209 pounds), Dillon Brooks (6-foot-6, 225 pounds) and Fred VanVleet, who is smaller at 6-foot and 197 pounds, but has tons of experience defending Curry under the bright lights. Udoka’s strategy to slow down a great scorer isn’t new.
He took it right out of the books of coaching greats like Chuck Daley and Pat Riley. But Kerr made it a point to send the same message he’s telling his team.
“By the way, we’re a very physical team too,” Kerr said. “We’ve been very good in the playoffs by playing a physical game. I welcome all of that. The series will unfold, and teams will complain about officiating. We will, they will – it’s all a part of it.”
Rookie center Quinten Post followed his coach’s lead in responding to a question about the Rockets’ physicality.
“I think we’re a pretty physical team ourselves,” Post said. “Maybe we’ve been a little undersized throughout this year, but we have the experience and I think we play hard. I don’t think it’s anything we haven’t seen before.”
While the Warriors already have faced the Rockets five times this season, Curry only played in three of them. Curry averaged 16.3 points per game against the Rockets, which is more than eight points below his season average of 24.5. The only team he played multiple times and averaged fewer points against was the Eastern Conference’s No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. Curry averaged only 11.3 points in two games against the Cavs.
His 36.4 field goal percentage (16 of 44) and 30.0 3-point percentage (9 of 30) against the Rockets’ defense would erase confidence in most cases. Curry isn’t most cases.
He’s a four-time champion. A NBA Finals MVP. The greatest shooter of all time, as well as one of the game’s most brilliant minds.
Everything about a game can be flipped on its head the second Steph starts to get going.
“He’s been through this millions of times,” Brandin Podziemski said. “He’s always going to make the adjustment that’s right for us to win.”
The adjustment for the Warriors still revolves around their principles of spacing, cutting and getting out in transition. The Rockets are an extremely tough wall to take down after scoring and being able to set up their defense and apply pressure. The solution might be more pick-and-roll. The Warriors have been more of an isolation team since Butler’s arrival.
Anything to give Curry a sliver of space to work with.
Whatever the answer is for the Warriors, it’s never a one-man job for the opposition. Thompson, a former Curry Camp attendee, is being anointed as the next “Steph Stopper.” History isn’t on his side.
Matthew Dellavedova is still asking for oxygen somewhere in Australia. Davion Mitchell. Pat Bev. Marcus Smart. Jrue Holiday. Even rookie Jaylen Wells earlier this season.
There were spurts of success for them. Maybe even a game or two. Those little wins typically have a quick expiration date.
“There’s a fluidity and emotion and a beauty to Steph’s game that comes from understanding the movement and the spacing on the court – coordinating that space with his teammates,” Kerr said. “If he does that well in concert with his teammates, he’s going to get some openings.
“And with Steph, all it takes is one to get him going.”
The veteran-led Warriors aren’t about to puff their chests and make guarantees for the series. Post, before his first taste of the playoffs, isn’t afraid to make one on behalf of Curry.
“What I do know is that they’re not going to be able to hold Steph to three points again,” he said. “I know that for a fact. It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before, and he’ll be up for the challenge.”
