Steph Curry silences critics as Steve Kerr urges Warriors to feed star – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

On By Littum

Perhaps Stephen Curry heard the whisper. Perhaps he scanned the internet and saw comments related to his performance.

Check it out. Nothing “maybe” about it. Curry heard and saw it all because his nature, stemming from his teenage years, is to scan and look. Especially in the face of criticism.

After going 24 minutes without a field goal and scoring just two points Thursday in a 51-point loss to the Grizzlies in Memphis, Curry came back with a bang Saturday night against the Timberwolves in Minnesota.

When the Warriors had lost a 21-point lead in the first half and faded in the fourth quarter, Curry led them to the finish line. The reigning NBA Clutch Player of the Year scored 13 of his game-high 31 points over the final 3:38 to secure a 113-103 victory.

“It’s great to see,” Trayce Jackson-Davis told reporters at the Target Center. “A lot of people have doubted that man, but he’s been doing this for a long time. Any given night, he can explode like that. We just need him every game. We can’t just rely on him — everybody has to do their part — but when he gets a good look like this, it helps our team so much.”

Curry’s burial by the resurgent Timberwolves was a resounding response to his abysmal performance in Memphis, which had a few card-carrying citizens of Dub Nation taking to their keyboards and taking to social media to wonder if the inevitable had begun to emerge for the 16th year NBA veteran.

Is Steph Curry, 36, entering the phase where his superstardom is beginning to wane?

Not if you saw Curry’s brilliance down the stretch.

With the Timberwolves pulling within two (96-94) with 3:55 left, Curry drained a triple to push the lead to five. He followed that up 22 seconds later with a pair of free throws to extend the lead to seven, 101-94, with 3:16 left. His triple with 2:41 left put the Warriors up 104-94 with 2:41 left.

When a Donte DiVincenzo drive cut the margin to eight, Curry hit another triple to give the Warriors an 11-point lead (107-96) with 2:09 left.

“It felt good,” Curry said. “We needed a win. We needed a feel-good experience after the Memphis game.”

Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II made key plays down the stretch, but pretty much everything the Warriors did well down the stretch was either courtesy of Curry or a benefit of his presence.

Coach Steve Kerr has seen it before and made it emphatically clear that he wants everyone on the team, especially the young players, to understand Curry’s power — and that he still has what it takes to be the center of a potent offense .

“I love the possession where Steph got rid of the ball and we went swing-swing,” Kerr said. “He threw it to either Trayce (Jackson-Davis) or Gary in the pocket, swing it to Wiggs, Wiggs swings it to Dennis (Schröder) and it comes back to Steph. That’s the play right there.

“And that’s what we try to give our young players. We’ve got Steph Curry on our team. So pass the ball. Move the ball. And if Steph lets go early because he’s gained an advantage, now the defense is scrambling.”

Kerr was referring to Curry’s 3-pointer that gave Golden State a 107-96 lead with just over two minutes left. Curry withheld the “night-night” celebration, but that shot punctuated his flurry that put the Timberwolves to sleep.

“That’s the way we played for 10 years,” Kerr said of a system built around Curry. “And it’s important for our young players to understand that we don’t need contested 17-footers with 12 (seconds) on the shot clock. That’s a bad shot. And I talked to our guys about that in several timeouts. It’s something we need to recognize and get better at.

“When you have Steph Curry on the team, you pass the ball. Because (when) you pass it two or three times, the defense is distorting. Hell breaks loose.

“It’s a choice. We can either do it and win games, or we can shoot a whole lot of 15-foot contested shots in the middle of the shot clock can be a miserable NBA team. It’s up to us. And we hammer that point home with our team.”

Draymond Green doesn’t need the hammer; he knows. Kevon Looney, Wiggins, Payton, Schröder probably all know that.

Perhaps Kerr’s message will resonate from one end of the roster to the other, as it should. When something works, as an offense with Curry tends to do, give it a chance to punish the opposition.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast